Arsene Wenger insists that he still wants to keep Robin van Persie at the club and says that new signings were designed to complement the Dutch man, not replace him.
The captain played in yesterday’s 4-0 win over FC Koln, despite the fact many anonymous, half-witted Twitter accounts insisted he was on his way to Manchester United for a medical, and Wenger says his desire to keep hold of him has not changed.
Speaking after the game, Wenger said, “There’s no news on van Persie. Our fans want him to stay so you can understand they are excited. Anything I could say about van Persie would be a lie because he’s our player and that’s it.
“Robin scored 30 goals last season and you want to keep your best players. He was player of the year in England. We want to keep him. I cannot tell you more at the moment because I don’t know more.
“We have not bought the players to replace van Persie, but to strengthen our squad with the thinking van Persie will stay. That’s still my mind at the moment.”
Van Persie seemed to be on the receiving end of some muted boos from travelling Arsenal fans but after the summer we’ve had it’s hardly a surprise. What is interesting is that with the players now going off on international duty there doesn’t seem to be much chance of anything happening, one way or the other, before the season begins.
Arseblog News wouldn’t have put much money on van Persie being an Arsenal player at the start of the new campaign, but here we are. Although agent Kees Voss is working hard behind the scenes to make a move happen Arsenal’s reaction has been to keep quiet and bring in quality players like Podolski and Santi Cazorla, who stood out during yesterday’s game.
It’s always a difficult game, trying to keep players who don’t necessarily want to stay, but so far, and whatever happens in the end, it looks as if Arsenal have played their hand perfectly.
Santi,Poldi and Giroud amazing…and the club showing strong resolve with the RVP issue..loving this!!
I hope Arsenal win this mind game with Man Utd. Keeping Robin and letting him go on a free to wherever he wants would be a statement of intention. A bigger statement than any signing Wenger can make.
I hate to be so pessimistic, but I would guess the only reason we spent as much money as we did on Podolski, Giroud, and Cazorla was that the sale of RVP would partially finance those deals. Personally, I would be shocked to see Arsenal hold onto him.
As long as he plays in an Arsenal shirt, he’s got my support.
My sources inform me that RVP has just boarded a flight to Argentina, where he’ll be signing off on a transfer to Arsenal de Sarandi.
Fingers crossed their ambition match his and that bouchra likes shopping in buenos aires
Women!.
Goonerrss
Never bring family into this unless its JT’s
Well my sources have just informed me he’s cycling to Ukraine to sign a contract with Arsenal Kyiv.
ANYONE who plays in an Arsenal shirt has my support.
Thank you I’m pulling one on right now and look forward to buying your shares.
ANYONE who’s fully comitted to playing for arsenal has my support.
What if it was JT?
last post to @eleanor.
I dunno. His public statement was very damaging because he was/is our star player and team captain.
If he stays, supporting for him depends completely on his climb down. He must release a suitably contrite public statement that goes some way to undoing the damage he has done to the club and fan base.
To support him just because he wears the shirt is just lemming-like. No offence intended.
For some precedent check out some of the things Mr Vieira said in 2001. RVP’s statement is mìld in comparison.
No, no, no. As team captain, RVP’s words are far, far more damaging – they simply carry much more weight. To use the Internet to careful construct and deliver his statement allows no room for a climbdown. To have said nothing to defuse the tension since the statement makes the situation worse. His statement was followed by a similarly damaging statement from Jabba the Hut. The captaincy is not a random section, it is given to a person that the teammates respect and trust. A person that the fans admire and trust. A person that Arsenal PLC trusts. RVP used… Read more »
Well if what you’re saying is true, then as team captain he’s justified in bollocking his team mates over whatever. Though saying that, I personally couldn’t give a toss what he wrote – since it has no effect on what happens to the club anyway: Arsenal would have still tried to make those signings, he would have still be out of contract end of this season and now we’ve seen that Arsenal don’t consider “I will not be signing a contract” to be any reason why they can’t get a player to sign a contract. And if he steps back… Read more »
@THEREISBEARCUM. Before coming to the Arsenal, Poldi spoke to Mert, and Santi to Cesc.
What do you think RVP’s advice to any potential signings would be?
I literally have no idea what your point could be with that question.
@MAllen: Henry wasn’t our captain then, Tony Adams was. I don’t get this revisionism re: Vieira. The reason people don’t hate him is because he maintained his focus on the pitch and won loads of trophies. If VP can do that, then fine. The captaincy has very little to do with it in my opinion. Glorified piece of elastic.
Our summer business this pre-season is in total contrast to last year, and the performances of Giroud,Podolski and Santi leave me filled with optimism for our future challenges. Bring on Sunderland!
Our trasfer business has certainly been amazing this summer and with Van P what I love is the image were sending out, the clubs in control, not the players. Something that was hugely disrespected last season. I know we might loose him for nothing next season, or for less in January, but still, it sends a message to any future situations alike. I don’t think robin would have sent that letter if what happened with nasri last time hadn’t have happened. Also if we do well this season, maybe grab a cup or something, being aged 30 next season, and… Read more »
As stupid as it would be to strengthen our rivals, I don’t really like the idea of keeping players who don’t want to be around. reality is he has conducted himself so badly I can’t imagine him staying in this window now. I’d rather see Giroud and Podolski getting more time on the pitch personally, both showed a huge amount of promise yesterday. know its to early, but with Carzola adding to the new additions I truly believe they can carry the weight of Robins departure. Let’s hope another foreign club come in with a reasonable bid and we can… Read more »
Surprised there are no Qatari’s after him in Asia. He would do well playing in Qatar.
i’m surprised AC Milan aren’t after him yet. After they sold the annyoing Ibra surely they need some firepower not to mention they ‘need’ a big name in their squad
Valid points. But what message does it send to the squad and players if we ship the most prolific scorer in the league last season to a team surely to be in our way for a trophy? AW is right to nip the “selling” image just as much as ge’s ended the “leave it late” summer business. And, considering that RVP has a lot to lose with a subpar season, I say we force him to see out his deal unles a truly crazy offer comes in, and one we’re prepared to turn around and spend on an ample reinforcement.
All he has done is written a letter, a bit of a stinging letter, but that is all. He hasn’t disrespected us in any other way, he has been the perfect player all summer. He obviously respects Arsenal unlike a certain lesbian who used to play for us. Some of you gooners are blowing this out of proportions. I would take RVP any day, yet I hear people trashing him all the time saying they never wanted him anyway.
He is captain, his statement was ridiculously arrogant and self-serving and very disrespectful towards the club and the manager. He should have kept his mouth shut.
He’s also a fucking brilliant player who would make us a stronger team if he stayed.
Let’s not get revisionist by playing down what he did but let’s also look at the practicalities of the situation and maybe keeping him is the best thing all round.
We don’t have to sing his name.
Compared to other Captains Van Persie has possibly been the best.
Adams – Pisshead.
Vieiria – Whore
Cesc – Strike?
Gallas – Cunt
Anyway lets not overblow his crime. Lets not our hate for Usmanov affect our love for RVP.
I will chant his name again, and those who boo him – go for it. Lets see what happens when he bangs in another 30.
Thankyou blogs. It’s true people keep warming up to him as days go by. He.disrespected the arsenal and there’s no coming back from that. That boat sailed. It’s clear wenger still values van persie and to keep him the captain should tell him of what a guy wenger really is. I don’t know why but I have this feeling that rvp will stay and if he does there’s a couple of things that need to be set straight. -Does he still believe in the arses cause -Will he give it 100%?. We don’t want some half hearted player more so… Read more »
‘We don’t have to sing his name’. Nor are we obliged to boo him. He came back from the Euros miffed, grumpy, slated by his native press, and badgered by his adopted press over his contract. The statement he put out was a colossal error of judgement. And it may have painted him into a corner. If he stays, and I still hope he does, then he’s got a fair amount of penance to pay before he deserves to win the fans back. That’ll be up to him. Right now he has an opportunity for redemption that he’ll never have… Read more »
I think yesterday showed how having your sights set on a move can really affect your play. Song didn’t look himself, y’all surely must agree.
So keeping rvp at the club must first go down to his willingness and commitment to continue playing for arsenal and that hasn’t happened yet so um…….meh.
And b.t.w, I ate bacon this morning, a sumptuous meal that one.
As Blogger suggests, our responses ont have to be binary. We can simply cold shoulder the player. We don’t have to pretend he hasn’t done anything wrong and so doing give him and other players support for shafting us. At the same time, we don’t have to boo him. While he is playing for us that would simply be seld defeating. Cathartic, admittedly, but self defeating. We need to do what s best for AFC, and that is treating him in a disinterested fashion.
I’m with Blogs on this. If he stays, I would celebrate his goals (Arsenals goals) loudly but I would NEVER sing his name.
Hmmm…. Never is a very strong word in this context. So, to be immediately revisionist, how about “probably never”. RVP would need to release a suitably grovelling statement on his website to apologise to the club and fans. I would have to feel that he was being 100% sincere – signing a new contract would help. Only then, could I consider a singing his name.
@arseblog: It’s not as if he revealed a dressing room secret. The context in the letter was something we already knew. – Club NOT replacing Cesc. – Lack of depth. – The fact that finishing FOURTH is not really a trophy. – Poor tactics (i.e. the lack of decipline of certain players, replacing (Ox while he was causing all sorts of troubles to Mancuntster United defenses) with out of form Arshavin). – Losing Mancuntster United to 8-2 because if we signed Arteta, BFG and Benayoun before the season started we wouldn’t lose to cunts like Manure or at least the… Read more »
@Dreamiest. Wake up man. Wake up. 1) Players like Cesc are very rare. His replacement was Juan Mata but we were gazzumped. Replacing Cesc with anyone of his calibre is not as easy as it is on the PlayStation. 2) Look at the EPL spending this year, notice anything? Even ManC have tightened the purse strings. Spending 90% of you income on players wages is try now a thing of the past. RVP feels he can earn £200K a week for the next 4 years but it looks as if he missed that boat. Adebayor is also discovering that the… Read more »
Where did it all go wrong robin ?
When the sun came up on that fateful day.
He mistakenly thought the name on the back of the jersey meant more than the badge on the front.
well this’ll be interesting
Rooney came back from the brink at ManU, I’d rather have RVP than not hae him…
No matter what happens come saturday, the boo boys need to tone that shit down. Support the Arsenal Shirt no matter the player wearing it, and lets not all kid ourselves, an Arsenal with RVP is much more dangerous than Arsenal without. Give RVP a reminder of exactly what he is willing to throw all away, and a reminder of exactly what he would miss when it all sinks in that he’s done an Alexandr Hleb.
ARSENAL FC- BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM, THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN
I have been an arsenal fan from a far all my life. I have seen them play twice before, which took 48 hours in transit just to get anywhere near london.
I did not travel half way around the world to see any individual take to the pitch, i travelled all those kilometres to watch the red and white jersey. Consider all you local londoners privellaged to be able to do that week in and week out. thats where i belong………… 🙁
But Song said that Barca are the best the world has ever seen :O
So far everytime Wenger has publicly said he wants to keep a player, we’ve sold them without fail. Am I supposed to be worried?
So then… what would you say in his situation?
“Yes, the game was good. I think we are ready for the season. We just need to complete some things this week like fitness on a few players, figuring the right formation and selling our best player to our title rivals”.
Would love that.
Fame n form got to his head like hleb…………..poldi n santi will light up the league. Plus santi seems like a more complete version of cesc fabregas..
Hi, please use proper English as per the comment policy, thanks – http://news.arseblog.com/index.php/comment-policy/
The Queens English man!!
Rvp: Why don’t you just sell me?
Wenger: Your punishment must be more…severe.
When all of Manchester is ashes… then you have my permission to transfer.
[…] the manager said: There’s no news on van Persie. Anything I could say about van Persie would be a lie because […]
I agree Goontang, If RVP lines out for us against Sunderland we should shout his name from the rafters let him see what he will be missing.
Theres no need for fans to act like total an utter cunts as if they have never done anything wrong in life and been forgiven themselves.
On a football purely point of view if Rvp stays from what I saw yesterday we will kick the shit out of the rest of them this season from and thats what matters most.
Lol BANE……….
Robin: what would happen…if i left..??
Wenger: it would be extremely painful……for you….
frimpong emerges with a sinister grin…
onlookers look baffled as to what is going on.
but The Boss knows…. he knows what’s about to come down..
Let’s refrain from booing. If he stays and does play, i don’t think he would dare jeopardise his own reputation by not playing to his ability. We got nothing to lose. Unlike last season we know we’ve good alternatives now so I’m actually not too bother about the outcome of the RVP saga. When i look at the 2 manchester clubs, i’m still pinching myself and wonder how on We’re in such a good position on the transfer front this season. Any arrivals now would be an added bonus and any departures i dare say we’re already prepared for.
…don u feel theres conspiracy written ALL OVER this van persie saga?? I mean, i had a gut feeling (n it is showing here) tht rvp tried to get the best out of club and in order to get players, threatened to leave (although he had no intentions of leaving)… n it happened so… although it left him being the bad guy… I don support what rvp did (if what he said was true and wanted to leave for oil money—but tht theory too, proves void as apparently man-shitty r not interested) if in fact, HE did it for the… Read more »
Even Arsene *doesn’t* Know… Can we just sell to a Qatar club and focus on an exciting season ahead?
Just apologize and admit that you made a mistake Rvp. The door is still open for you. Don’t always think about money. Look at the mercenaries who left Arsenal. where are they now and what is even left of them. i don’t even to name them. Stay with us, admit you were wrong, start all over, forget about your cunt of an agent and score more goals. Wear that shirt with pride and swallow your dam pride. Remember when Arsene said that he has supported you your whole career. It is up to you now Rvp. Be a professional and… Read more »
International friendly just before the season kicks off? WTF is wrong with FIFA? oh well lets hope those going on duty come back in one piece……Roll on Saturday! Any news on Arteta blogs? I noticed he didn’t feature yesterday…..
For me the star yesterday was Santi Cazorla. But more than that, it seems all three of the new boys seem to be far more ‘up to speed’ than I expected. Cazorla could even start against Sunderland – especially if Arteta has a knock. As for the ‘Poldolski and Giroud not replacing RvP’ statement … we’ll only know that to be true if Robin actually leaves. With (Vela), Bendtner, Chamakh, Park, and Arshavin all ‘up for grabs’ our forward line could look depleted without van Persie. Which makes me wonder just what Wenger intends to do (who he’ll get in)… Read more »
I think if RvP leaves then Chamakh stays. That’s 3 players for 1 position in the team. As for Cazorla, he’s clearly been brought in as Cesc’s replacement. It’s been widely reported this summer that Arsenal was trying to sign him last season but he went to oil-monied Malaga instead. Yet people ignore that when talking of last summer’s transfer saga. Instead, you hear only that we missed out on Mata to Chelsea and signed Arteta at the last moment. It now seems that the reality was we lost out on not one but at least two targets Wenger lined… Read more »
I can’t remember the last time Chamakh looked anything but: (a) Lacking confidence, (b) Dejected, (c) Out of sorts, (d) Possibly even inept. Yesterday he momentarily reminded me of Eboue before he was taken off against Wigan (2008). It wasn’t a thought that lingered, but it did make me think that he’s never going to get his confidence back at Arsenal. It’s such a pity. But whatever’s happened to him since his productive first few months, it’s not going to change anytime soon. He’s 29 in January, he has 2 full years left on his contract, and now he finds… Read more »
The statement was wrong on so many levels, and he has lost most of my respect. Even though, maybe we should keep him (but strip him of the armband, for goodness sake!), for the following reasons: i) He is a brilliant player that must play his best next season, if not for professional ethics, but surely to earn that last ‘big’ contract – he’ll be 30 then and his value diminishes quickly (because £ 110K or whatever a week at Arsenal is obviously meagre). Good for us. ii) We won’t be strenghtening a rival. Bad for them. I think those… Read more »
This was always going to drag on until the 31st of august, thinking otherwise, no matter what Wenger said about deadlines, is just unrealistsic. I still think its far more likely that he will go, and if so, it will happen just prior to deadline day. One of the problem’s here is the transfer window, which should be slammed firmly shut before the season starts. Windows dates can be locally moved by the FA (although one can sell abroad if their window is still open), so theres nothing to stop them doing this. Keeping it open just creates massive unrest… Read more »
I got my heart set on Ice with rvp for now. Watching him yesterday reminded me of how much i’m over him. Last season if he got the ball I would be looking up to him to score and nobody else but yesterday……….. I kept thinking
“um giroud was pretty awesome and um why did they sub podolski?”.
just goes to show how we can all overcome this whole selling rvp thing but if he does decide to stay, well and good. He’s a quality player who will certainly add to our already strong squad.
Three important points: RVP never mentioned money, he pushed the board (those profiteers) to sign more checks swiftly so Arsene can do his magic and buy cheap (not oil money) and strengthen his squad mentally and skillfully. 2. Sir F… Up and Manure realize AfC is getting stronger and want to buy RVP to demoralize our fans, players and most importantly Manager. 3. What is the fuzz about? When do we (fans) All become economist, why do we bother about how much a player wants to get paid. The board doesn’t listen when we ask to invest with sales (Toure,… Read more »
Your name is apt
Well what will be interesting for sure is the captains notes in the match day program this Saturday, will he keep the arm band with all this going on? If so I can only imagine a statement would have to be issued along with that decision whatever way it goes.
Player’s come and go. Arsenal lives forever. It’s all about Arsenal not Robin Vambition.
Who the fuck is this ‘Carzola’ geezer that people (you know who you are, Stephen Hughes) keep banging on about? It’s CAZORLA!
pronounced cathorla if you want to get pedantic
Blogs, over a month ago I expressed my wishes and prediction that RVP would stay and extend his contract. We all want our captain to stay take the team to the Premiership Title. I am more convinced he will stay and there is a good chance his agent might be heading for the dole line. RVP should stay and I am sure Ferguson has no intention of buying Robin as they don’t have the money,but he does recognise that The Arsenal have a seriously strong team and he is scared. So Ferguson is continuing his mind games. RVP stay and… Read more »
Alws thort Arseblog was paid some kind of PR fee to help keep things under wrap
Free traffic from Arsenal.com?
Happy to note your spelling is as stupid as your ‘thorts’
I don’t think United were ever seriously in the bidding for him.
Their bid was merely designed to throw a spanner into the works and make sure City didn’t get him for cheap. Getting City to overspend is what SAF was really going for. If they were serious, they would have put up more money to begin with.
was really weird seeing him come on and play with his new grey hair – like an old girlfriend who just dumped me saying “i always liked that guy from the corner shop and i’m going to go out with him instead” – but then she’s still hanging around my house making herself a cup of tea!
and then seeing him with the captains armband on is even weirder – like coming home she’s just used my shower and is sitting there watching tv, wearing one of my old t-shirts
after last year losing cesc/nasri/(wilshere) it would be another big upheaval to be losing rvp/song/walcott too, but i guess thats the way its going even for a massive club that pays massive wages like us
on the plus side we need to change things and if our hand is forced then so be it, the new guys look fucking awesome and i’m really excited about the new season
If he stays without extending his contract we will always see and hear commentators talking regarding his future even we will be trashing barca or manu’s that day.
Anyways theres always a mute button.
All this “if hes in an arsenal shirt il support him” rubbish. He’s leaving as simple as that. The club is just playing games with any porential buyers.
As for arsene saying the players we have bought were to compliment rvp, I’m sorry that’s an insult to our intelligence.
Im All for arsenal getting the best price for rvp and understand why they say some things like this but please don’t treat the fans as if they are stupid. We had it last year with rediculas statements that nasri and cesc were staying when the whole world knew different.
I don’t think the boos directed at RVP yesterday is necessary. Fine, he has bushitted us by the statement he released but this guy is still our player. He still plays for the club we all love. He still puts on the jersey we all love to be associated with. If we don’t like his person again let’s show respect for the jersey on him. Stop the boos people!
I hope the few idiotic people that are actively and openly against RVP do not do any additional damage. Yes his statement was poor and it hurt alot of supporters – but it was not his words, it was clearly an agents ploy, which hasn’t gone to plan. Whatever that plan was. We all know little to nothing of the true details but the fact that Wenger is backing him to stay and wants him to stay should be all the example we need of how to conduct ourselves in the meantime. The words in the statement would have hurt… Read more »
i dont know whether it is me or anyone, cos i have notice a new trend in this Arsenal squad, there seem to be some strong pairing between most of the players eg.
Giroud and Kolsieny- SET PIECE HEADERS
Poldoski and Mertesacker,-MATCH WINNING GOALS
Arteta and Carzola- SET PIECES
Van Persie and Vermalen,- LEADERSHIP
to some extent even
Walcott and The Ox.- SPEEDSTERS
I think for the first time in so many years, all gunners can be very confident ahead of a season.
To be sincere, I loved him and have a lot of respect for him before, but after the stupid ill-timed statement of his, he went down so low in my book. And he has made it clear to us that he wants out, and hungry for the “$€£s”, so why still hold on to him as if he is the only solution? Arsene is the manager he knows all his players better than us and I will respect that and go with him on p€r$i£ situation but am not gonna give him any support unless he apologise publicly to everyone… Read more »
Wenger: “We still want to keep van Persie.” Gazidis: “But we are a commercial business which has to run to a self-financing model…and we have spent a great deal on transfers this season…and we have to somehow recoup some of our outlay…and we can’t allow Mr Van Persie to go on a free transfer at the end of this coming season, especially as United have offered fifteen million quid…as we will save ninety grand a week in wages with him Van Persie off the wage bill…so unfortunetely we have decided to allow Robin to leave the club for “pastures new”‘… Read more »
Your name should just be “Fat”
Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla together with Theo, the Ox, Gervinho etc. played the first half with obvious enjoyment, great elan and enthusiasm and I felt I was watching the future of a great Arsenal team. After the break first touches were poor, passes went astray, RVP looked embarrassed and isolated and it was all ‘fannying about’ like we have seen so often in the past. Time to move on and forget Robin. What a terrible shame our ‘love affair’ with Robin went horribly wrong, but it wasn’t our fault, and often in life the jilted party is the first to… Read more »
[…] After the game, Wenger said that there was ‘nothing to say’ on the van Persie situation because he didn’t know anything (just like he didn’t know Cazorla, the sly fox), and confirmed that the new signings were made to supplement the Dutchman rather than replace him. Basically, trying to interpret Arsene’s comments on transfer dealings is tantamount to blindfolding yourself, pointing at one of ten different things he might mean and saying ‘That one!’ […]
One of the biggest things that stood out for me in the game was how accurate Santi’s corner kicks were. They were all very well placed and with practice I can surely see us converting more than we have in a long time. I think RVP could be forgiven is he mans up an signs a new contract. There’s so much going on right now that I really seems highly likely he stays. I was reading earlier that Juve have put a bid on Llorente, United have offered 30 for Lewandowski and Citeh can’t get rid of anyone so Mancini… Read more »
I’ve said this on some other sites: the dean of American sports talk radio has often said about athletes in many professional sports, “Whenever they say “It’s not about the money!”, it’s about the money.” Evidence: 1.)RVP made his statement after Arsenal acquired Podolski, while the club was showing interest in acquiring other players; 2.) RVP (or his agent) said he wasn’t interested in going to ManU unless he was paid as much as Rooney and ManU has only become a factor since saying they would pay him that much. Promises were made to RVP and/or his agent, probably by… Read more »
[…] even play yesterday, much less captain the team, after this summer. Yet there he was and there was the Boss after the match claiming that Arsenal want to keep him and that if they do keep him, he will probably remain captain. Wenger further explained that the […]
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