The main focus of this article is not to go into too much detail about Robin van Persie’s statement (I plan on doing that later this evening), but to find the views of other Arsenal fans so that I will be better equipped to analyse the situation in detail.
Robin has come out and said that he and Wenger “disagree on the way Arsenal should move forward” and as a result he will not be signing a new contract with Arsenal. Financial terms are apparently not his priority (although I am sure they played at least some part in his decision), but Robin simply cannot see Arsenal winning any silverware; he will apparently keep us up to date when there are more developments.
The statement does not make it sound like our captain particularly wants to see out the final year of his contract, but that is not really his decision. This is where you come in. If you were Wenger/Gazidis and you had to decide whether to let RvP leave or to keep him for next season what would you do? The problem we have is this. If we were to sell him then he is unlikely to be replaced with a player of the same calibre. However, if we tried to force him to stay for the final year then 1) we don’t make any money when he leaves and 2) he won’t be as prolific because he doesn’t want to be there.
Photo by RonMac on Flickr
I end with just a quick reminder that Walcott hasn’t signed a new contract yet either. All the focus is (rightly or wrongly) on van Persie; nobody seems to care that we could lose Theo too.
