RIP RVP
By The Hampshire Gooner
And some advice for M. Wenger
Robin van Persie has been at Arsenal for eight seasons and has averaged 16.5 goals per season over that period of time. Is that a statistic to get overly concerned about when the player decides to call time on his career at the club? I would doubt it.
16.5 goals a season
At the end of the day, a lot of people will agree with the sentiment of what RvP said in his statement, but it doesn’t hide the fact that its timing makes his staying at the club for a final season almost an impossibility. In releasing this statement, make no mistake that RvP has thought of himself first and foremost. It might play to the ears of some disgruntled members of the gooner fan-base but it has the tune of selfishness written all over it to me.
Get rid, maximise your return on the man and move on. We have already bought in two possible replacements in Podolski and Giroud, so no-one should be in anyway surprised to see RvP moving on.
I personally feel we would benefit by stripping more players off the wage-bill and not just the obvious ones that have all been mentioned on this very website millions of times before. I personally would like to see us move on Walcott and Vermaelen within the next twelve months as I firmly believe that we will not win any trophies with either man regularly playing in the starting eleven.
A lot of Arsenal fans seem to love Vermaelen, but, for me, he can only be judged as a central defender, and when you take away the odd goal here and there, I don’t feel the overall quality of his defending is anywhere near good enough at the very top level. When you compare him with the likes of Vidic and Kompany, he falls woefully short in my opinion and that is where we need to start judging ourselves if we are to compete against the best.
People say that Theo is inconsistent, which for me is a complete falsehood. He is not inconsistent at all, in my opinion; in fact, he is the complete opposite. Put him up against a poor left-back with little or no positional sense, and he looks very dangerous because of his ability to get in behind the defence. Put him up against any decent left-back, and a well-organised defensive unit, and he is completely nullified every single time. When does Theo ever look good against a decent team? Sell him for as much as possible and give more game time to Oxlade-Chamberlain as soon as possible.
I feel that we could net as much as £55-60m from the sales of the above-named players and will take off around £200,000 a week from the wage bill in the process as well. Combine this with the sales of the ‘deadwood’, and we could have as much as £80m to spend in the transfer market without even spending any net money at all. We have already spent around £25m on the arrivals of Podolski and Giroud, so this could leave us with as much as £55m to spend over the next twelve months or so without breaking the bank whatsoever.
I would very much recommend us using these funds to bring in a creative midfielder of genuine quality, a genuine ball-winning midfielder to replace the error-prone Song, and a solid left-back who is more interested in winning the ball and making challenges than whipping in crosses to invisible forwards and attempting to get on the score sheet.
Who knows? If we do these things well within the next twelve months or so, we might even surprise a few people and start to compete genuinely against the top clubs again on the field of play.
9th July 2012
User Comment and Reaction
User comments on this article are now closed. If you want to continue the debate, why not do so on the Gooner Forum.
Frankie 16:12pm 9th Jul 2012
RVP and Walcott will go.RVP had a great season last season no one can deny that but it was one great season out of 8.As for Walcott half a dozen decent games does not a good season make.And for the previous seasons he has been average.His performance in the first half in Milan was one the worst i have seen from an Arsenal player.Sell both for a combined fee of £40m and buy a keeper,a LB (looks like we will miss out on Baines.Doh!!)Buy M'Villa, Dempsey and Ba(£7m buy out clause).But what cannot be denied is everything RVP said about the club lacking ambition was true - Post No. 26564
Marv 16:24pm 9th Jul 2012
Pretty bad article... Vermaelen will be the captain after RVP is sold, and Walcott saves his best games for Chelsea. Then again, you probably consider Cole to be terrible if you think Vermaelen is bad. Not sure what you're thinking, to be honest. - Post No. 26568
Ali 16:25pm 9th Jul 2012
Are you sane?? "I feel that we could net as much as £55-60m from the sales of the above-named players"!!I assume by that you mean Vermaelen, Theo and RVP..they would not fetch more than 20-25 combined...at best..wake up! - Post No. 26569
jay 16:25pm 9th Jul 2012
van persie is a great player and he deserves to be paid accordingly,Arsenal cannot have it bot ways.Yes arsenal were by van persies side through thick and thin.Football wages are becoming rediculously sill and it is not van persies fault.Than again you cannot blame arsenal because tomorrow should the club collapse no one will be there to say anything good or bail out our club.I just feel the days of a player really loving a club are gone.Van persie may have played the whole of last season to market himself and not for the love of Arsenal football club.I think he is a lazy guy in a way. - Post No. 26570
Lala 16:26pm 9th Jul 2012
You most be a joker to write something like this....if you sell all this player then who is going to play. - Post No. 26571
Peter Griffin 16:28pm 9th Jul 2012
If we sell RVP and Feo for £35-40m and get another £10-15m for Bendtner,Vela,Squillaci and Chamakh that will give us over £50m to spend.And thats the big problem we all know it wont be spent.Maybe £20m will but like the Toure/Greedy and Nasri/Cesc money we know the rest will go into the bank.We have Szczesny and nothing else in the keeper department.We our weak in the full back positions only Sagna is good enough but he will miss the start of the season.We have two decent CB's but after that its scary.Song is a major problem and most be replaced.McGregor as keeper,Jagielka CB and Dempsey would be on my list.Remember last season Gooners were saying they were glad we didnt sign Cahill and remind me what did he end up winning?I just hope we sign better quality than last seasons panic buys - Post No. 26573
Canterbury Gooner 16:30pm 9th Jul 2012
Sorry but you deserve to get some stick for this. It's annoying when people say 'oh you've played too much football manager' but it is relevant here because you just haven't demonstrated a great understanding of football. Saying Vermaelen isn't class: the guy is good enough to play in any major European team- he's the most intelligent player we have in terms of movement, you should watch him at games. I don't generally go on newspaper reports but Barca could feasibly be interested in him, he's that good. If he's not that great how could he and Walcott (who is mostly terrible and on the final year of his contract)'net as much as £55-60m'? And saying we should just sell the deadwood; easier to say than to do!! Did you see the article on here the other day looking at the wages of those players? It will be difficult to shift more than 2-3 before the majority of contracts run down in 2014. So you didn't even demonstrate a basic practical understanding of just some of the issues that might be involved in transfer activity. - Post No. 26575
SirAbbott 16:39pm 9th Jul 2012
SO with all these funds of yours you wouldn't replace TV5. Great management. - Post No. 26576
Andi-P 16:43pm 9th Jul 2012
I have to disagree with one minor point and that is Vermaelen – personally I like him and think he was perhaps flagging a bit this season but overall he has been good for us.. As to RVP and Theo, anyone who gives us a good price is welcome to them… Because you had one blinding season don’t make you a £200,000 a week player… People who think loosing RVP marks the end of Arsenal obviously don’t watch that many games… - Post No. 26579
Cowtowngooner 16:48pm 9th Jul 2012
You are wrong - Vermaelen and Song are quality and must be kept - Post No. 26580
Rickthegooner 17:09pm 9th Jul 2012
you really are a "sad little gooner" Is there anything about Arsenal that you really enjoy ? Good luck with " fantasy football manager " this season, you obviously think your good at it !! - Post No. 26586
James McKean 17:14pm 9th Jul 2012
Although you say plenty I agree with, I have to disagree very strongly re: Theo Walcott. Off the top of my head he has scored goals against Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham in the past couple of years and scared the living daylights out of Barcelona. He is consistently inconsistent (and I think he always will be), but he's just as likely to positively impact upon games against big opponents as he is against the smaller teams (and weaker full backs). - Post No. 26588
Ron 17:17pm 9th Jul 2012
Great poat HG! Ive never seen the rationale for the fans love affair with Vermaelen either. Looks like a sort of carthorse midfield man to me if anything, Hes never a dominant defender. Walcott? Agree entirely. The only reason hes never had major stick is due to his nationality. They now say hes RVP s mate and hes great with assists. RVP is as good as gone and the assists never justify his inclusion in the team. He bigs himself up as a central striker! What a joke. The Club should find a mug Club like Chelsea who are simple enough to pay big bucks for the useless little bottler. Sooner the better. - Post No. 26589
wrag 17:18pm 9th Jul 2012
i gotta agree vermaelen is overrated ,if you look back at last season the amount of times he lost his man was scandalous !looking at the rumours today...i know we need divine intervention ..but mosses ? do me a favour ! another cheap option ! - Post No. 26590
David the Price is right 17:20pm 9th Jul 2012
You started off well explaining RVP's motives and his 'faux pas'. But excuse me Vermaelen is no worse than Kocsielny, and as for the rest-Mertersacker and Djourou(shockingly bad), they should go. Walcott...unsure. As for income from player sales being redirected to acquisitions-DREAM ON. - Post No. 26591
Gooner24 17:28pm 9th Jul 2012
This is not football manager, I must say of all the Arsenal related blogs on line this is by far the poorest by way of "insight" and cohesive points. Its just the same old articles recycled over and over again - Post No. 26594
G 17:31pm 9th Jul 2012
Finally someone who speaks the truth about Vermaelen. He is really poor a lot of the time and great some of the time. That isn't good enough. You're wrong about Theo though, as much as I hate to admit it since he looks like he hasn't got a clue a lot of the time, his stats speak for themselves. Last season as an example they are almost identical to Gareth Bale and apparently he's world class. - Post No. 26595
South Yorkshire Gunner 18:22pm 9th Jul 2012
The error prone Song. I'm gladly somebody else said it. - Post No. 26599
Canterbury Gooner 18:23pm 9th Jul 2012
Oh just for the record it would be about 15-17m for RVP at best, 12-14m for Walcott and 18-19m for Vermaelen. I forgot to write that RVP would be included but I did mean that. Way off your estimates and like I said before, how will you shift the deadwood players? You have to be prepared to give an answer to that I'm afraid... - Post No. 26600
fozzy's mate 18:25pm 9th Jul 2012
Hampshire - I don't disagree with the points you make. Re vermaelen he drove me crazy last year. How many times did he charge forward leaving a chasm at the back and how many times did he slip over or fowl up leading to ridiculously easy oppo goals? The only thing that makes me detest the sale of any decent player is that historical dictates that OGL will replace them if at all by cheaper or worse players. Until the buy em cheap sell em dear mentality goes things will continue to stagnate at best. - Post No. 26601
Reg 18:35pm 9th Jul 2012
To those praising TV and Kos take a look at our goals against column.I think Kos was our best CB last season and he carried TV who looks great bombing forward but his job is to defend.As for Song he is the DM in front of a defence which let in 49 league goals.He has the positional sense of a fish.We need a DM who protects the back 4.Any bid of £12m or more for Walnutt a player in his last year bite their hands off - Post No. 26605
ppp 19:01pm 9th Jul 2012
Both Vermaelen and Walcott are great players - selling them would be stupid. You and your kind should get off Walcotts back - he's a young Englishman who always tries his hardest and has talent to burn. Those who slag him off know nothing. - Post No. 26606
JM - LONDON 19:14pm 9th Jul 2012
Walcott out for sure but Vermaelen the next captain, surely?. - Post No. 26607
mikeieguns 19:20pm 9th Jul 2012
agree with most bye bye rvp 1 realy good season,walcott still ah what?he is just walcott...please buy a goalkeeper only be saying it for 5 seasons - Post No. 26608
Ando 20:15pm 9th Jul 2012
lets see if anyone else manages more than 16.5 goals next season, i think that's as likely as us winning a pot or two. - Post No. 26610
LJB 20:36pm 9th Jul 2012
So who do you propose to replace TV5 with? Don't tell me the diabolical Mertesacker,who couldn't get in the German team ahead of the awful Badstuber.What a joke;its WENGERS LACK OF DEFENSIVE ORGANISATION that results in him being caught out of position.The best solution would be to change our overrated,overpaid past it dictator of a manager;sadly that won't happen any time soon. - Post No. 26611
maguiresbridge gooner 22:05pm 9th Jul 2012
Your right his position at the club has become untenable not for telling the truth but the fact he's not going to sign a new contract whether we get the maximum or hold out for it is another matter.I agree with stripping more players of the wage bill and we all know who but would it benefit us ? it would if it was going to be ploughed back into the team but there is no guarantee of that and even if it was would it be for the quality thats really needed the quality that would have kept RVP. - Post No. 26619
James 22:13pm 9th Jul 2012
Move on with Vermaelen? Are you insane?! He's the heartbeat of our defence! He's a brilliant defender. Why on earth would we get rid of him? I'd love to see either M'Vila/Capoue signed to help out the midfield, with possibly Dempsey taking Walcott's place (if he wishes to go) and either Lewandowski/Jovetic to support Giroud up front, with The Pod on the left. However, the question is "will we actually spend the return money in favour of selling Squillaci, Vela, Bendtner and Chamakh?". Who knows. Wenger knows what he's doing though. RVP's season could have just been a one off and if he really wants to go elsewhere, let him. Let's see how we copes with another club. Wenger saved his ass and now he think's he can get into any team in the world. "The club is bigger than the player". Walcott only performs well in a few games. Sell RVP and Theo, but not TV5 - just no. - Post No. 26620
John Gooner 23:00pm 9th Jul 2012
We need to keep the squad we have. It is the retention of players rather than the lack of purchase which is our downfall. Year in year out we get to the stage where 1 or 2 squad player additions, would make all the difference between success and failure. IF IF IF IF we were able to retain our stars Fabregas, Nasri, RVP and supplement them with the small name players that we DO buy every season, we would certainly have a title winning side. It is no coincidence that our title challenges always fall away after our characteristically injury ravaged Christmas periods. Footballers are not as stupid as they appear; they know that the club would not be far away from winning trophies if they stayed put and helped the team to grow - it is however a convenient excuse for them to leave the club and double their salary. "I want to win trophies" this statement irks me the most... it is as if the players themselves accept no responsibility for the lack of trophies they win with Arsenal. The wage structure at Arsenal must change, players these days will always be guns for hire, we must take that as a given and act in a manner befitting the environment we are trying to compete in. Kroenke OUT! Gazidis for Lib dem leadership! - Post No. 26622
Ciaran S 23:01pm 9th Jul 2012
I totally agree with everything you have said! 50 odd goals conceded last season in the league does not lie. Vermaelen is one of the most overrated centre backs around, his positioning and defending was so poor last season. He has went from my favourite player to a player i wish we could replace with quality. We also need a solid left back as you say without these 2 in we will struggle again. - Post No. 26623
Greg71 23:27pm 9th Jul 2012
Some points about player performance noted but along with many others and with respect you have missed the point,the biggest problem is we don,t or will not (over how many years ? ) buy proven quality with premier league experience.How many players have we missed out on due to the club not paying the transfer fee and paying the price on it ! - Post No. 26624
steveArsenal 7:47am 10th Jul 2012
Absolutely spot on, Mr Hampshire Gooner. I thought I was alone in thinking Vermalen is overrated as a defender. Very often Gibbs is blamed when it has been Vermalen who has given the ball away in the first place. Your views, Mr Hampshire, about him, Van Persie and the rest of team will be promptly ignored by the powers that be. Pity! - Post No. 26627
Tony Evans 8:22am 10th Jul 2012
I agree with your assessment of both Vermaelen and Walcott but don't trust Wenger one jot to bring in anyone better. As long as he remains in charge I simply do not see the point of debating possible transfers in because they either will not happen, or, all we will see is more cheap dross with 'potential'. To cap it all if the potential comes to something they will no doubt be sold off for a massive profit, or if they turn out to be crap Wenger will keep them in a vain effort to prove he was right all along. - Post No. 26628
The Hampshire Gooner 10:56am 10th Jul 2012
I would estimate £20m RVP, £20m Theo and £15m TV5. Add to these figures say around £5m for Arshavin, £5m for NB52, £3M Vela and a max of around £5m for all the other deadwood combined and that gives you £70m+ in player sales. This should easily give you a budget of around £50m after the purchases of Giroud and Podolski without spending any net money. In my own opinion anyone watching TV5 closely last season would see his failings defensively on numerous occassions. Compare him to Vidic and Kompany and he falls well short, this is a simple fact in my eyes. Koscielny was our main man at the back last season by a country mile and only him and a fully fit Sagna would feature out of our current defensive unit if we were to mount a serious challenge. The rest are not good enough. That doesn't mean they are poor players, just not good enough at the very top level in my opinion. - Post No. 26631
Gare Kekeke 14:12pm 10th Jul 2012
I see I’m not the only one who thinks Vermaelen is a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I do think he is good in his own right but I don’t think he’s the world beater a lot of Gooners make him out to be. Maybe it’s because of some of the dross we have had playing at centre back for us for a few years before Vermaelen, some Gooners would hold up TV5 to be if not one of the best but the best defender in the Premier League. Take away his goals, and then you have a defender who at times is caught out of position and struggles to deal with big powerful strikers. Grant Holt made TV5 to look like a mug during the 3-3 draw with Norwich at the back end of last season and even Zamora had Vermaelen in his back pocket when QPR beat us at Loftus Road and I’m talking about strikers who weren’t even considered for England’s Euro 2012 squad. I’m of the view that it’s Koscielny who’s the better defender. I’m with you all the way HG that Kompany & Vidic are far superior. Very rarely they would have bad games & the Manchester clubs tend to miss those guys more when they are not in the team which was proved last season more than we don’t have TV5 available. The general consensus of 2010/11 is that one reason why we fell short that season was because Vermaelen missed most of that season with injury. Yet as a CB at times last season, TV5 lacked the dominant presence of Kompany & Vidic who lest we forget cost their current clubs £6m & £7.5m respectively. And TV5 cost us £10m. So much for the unproven theory that very good/great players cost a fortune. Maybe for just a few times Wenger should buy players that he needs rather than players he likes because they fit into his philosophy and principles. But then with Wenger I suppose that’s too much to ask for then eh? I can’t see many changes with Wenger because of his stubborn attitude but we shall see. I’m not holding my breath though. Up The Arsenal! - Post No. 26641
Canterbury Gooner 15:08pm 10th Jul 2012
Sorry but some you have a shocking understanding of football: if Vermaelen is so poor why have so many pundits cited him as one of the best centre backs in the premier league? you point to the goals conceded tally- do you think defending is only done by the back four? the midfield were equally as culpable this season- we were too open. £20m for RVP? 29, terrible track record for injuries and one year left on his contract. Not to mention that City's interest rules out several other clubs because of their wage capacity. Walcott £20m!? one year left on his contract, not effective at all when he's been played in his favoured position of striker, and only useful 20% of the time. So we can just shift the remainder of the deadwood can we? Well that's great I didn't realise it was so simple! - Post No. 26644
TK 16:54pm 10th Jul 2012
lets not forget theo has scored in semi and cup finals for us, not to mention against united, barcelona, chelsea, so to say he isnt a big game player is a falsehood. agree about vermaelen though - Post No. 26647
Highbury Boy 17:35pm 10th Jul 2012
I think most of us would go along with your ideas but in the real world it aint gonna happen. Last season the best Gazidis could do was loan out 19 of the players to recoup some of the wage bill. This season Denilson has again been loaned out and added to last year's deadwood to be loaned are some more such as Squillaci,Park,Chamakh and Djourou who on their wages will be almost impossible to shift permanently unless Arsenal take a hit. It seems today for example that Hull have signed a gk which means Mannone has no home to go to. Another loan is on the cards for him. The original idea of loaning out young players has gone for a burton and we are not unlike Man City though they are forced to loan out more of their big money signings. - Post No. 26650
Peter Wain 9:38am 11th Jul 2012
I think that your are deluding yourself with the aount of money which could be raised by selling these players. I doubt whether we will get more than £20 million for RVP and as for Walcott I would be surprised if we could get more than £8 million. As for the rest of the rubbish I am not sure that Park or Chamack have a resale value Arshavin may be worth £6 million and Bendtner £4 million if you would get people to pay the wages they are on. This gives a total of £38 million at best and adding in sale £6 million for Dhorou and Squllaci this means we would only have £45 million less the £25 million spent gives a war chest of £20 million which is only one player. So I do not think that the three or four players we need are going to be purchased. - Post No. 26658
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