Credit to Arsenal for ending the van Persie saga early
By CanadaGooner
A better handled summer this year
Is it possible that the Arsenal management have finally turned the corner? In Thierry Henry’s final two seasons, he was clearly past his prime, but we still held on to him. The Fabregas saga dragged on from season to season and his overall performance on the pitch dwindled. We did the same with Nasri. In modern-day football, when a player says he wants out, you concentrate on the players you have and let him go.
I can understand how some fans felt about van Persie leaving. After seven years of playing just a handful of games each season and getting paid his full wages, he suddenly plays a full season and Arsenal was no longer good enough or ambitious enough for him and the fans, who stood by him when he was banged up in Holland on suspicion of rape and kept faith in him those seven-plus years, when he spent more time under the knife than on the field, are suddenly not worthy of his services
For two seasons, we had a captain (Fabregas) who was always dreaming of playing for another team (Barça). To spend another season with another captain who wants out would have been simply unbearable.
What is most unfortunate about our situation as a club is that the fans seem to be more intelligent than the manager and the management. We have spent the last eight years watching a team that simply couldn’t defend, and each transfer window we brought in more strikers, and on occasion bought a token defender. We are about to begin yet another season where we have zero defensive cover; if Sagna or Vermaelen or Kos get injured, we’re left scrambling again. Letting van Persie go is not going to impact our season that much, provided our back four stay injury-free. The team will be focused and the van Persie distraction gone. So, for once, credit to the management for grabbing the cash and pre-empting the distraction.
If anyone is in doubt as to how the 2012/13 season will go, I don’t even need a crystal ball to tell you exactly what will happen: we will score tons of goals, let in tons more. We will beat Chelsea and Man Utd and drop point after point at Swansea, Norwich, Newcastle and the promoted teams. We will get to the third round of the FA Cup and QF of the Champions League and lift our third- or fourth-place trophy at the end of the season. The only thing that could change all that is if, miraculously, our back four stay injury-free and Wilshere returns before mid-season to add his hard tackling in the midfield. I won’t hold my breath, though.
20th August 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.
Paul Adams 9:13am 20th Aug 2012
Good to see you're so positive for the season ahead, FFS. - Post No. 28026
Red Member 10:56am 20th Aug 2012
I couldn't actually face reading the article after I saw the title! a better handled summer!!!!! are you for real? we have just sold our best, last world class player to a team that we supposedly are trying to compete with in the league this season. We have just sold our best midfield player to a team we are supposedly trying to compete with in the Champions league this season. we are not even trying to win anything anymore, we are just trying to make profits. - Post No. 28033
Joe S. 11:34am 20th Aug 2012
I think the same old rubbish is still going on behind the scenes Canada Gooner. Arsenal may have spent early, but the silent one in Denver must have finally got involved, wondering what that spendthrift of a Frenchman was doing.With the deadwood bringing in minimum revenue there was some urgency to keep sustaining.Never mind strengthening the squad; who's going to pay for it.So,yes RVP had to go and it probably was a tidy piece of business. But to Manchester U.? Come on! how humliliating. Song was next and Theo is probably in line.Somewhere around all this a subtext that there is no place at Arsenal for greedy opportunist players who think they are worthy of more than 90 grand a week. Obviously Song and Theo do not deserve this kind of money as they are replaceable but there is a lot of hypocricy going on. The behavior of Wegner, Gazadiz and Kronke is typically corporate, meaning big payouts for the execs, while keeping the hired help in line. It's quite vile really. - Post No. 28035
MRMROD 12:14pm 20th Aug 2012
Why waste your index fingers typing this? I believe you are someone who has set his sights incredibly low, if you feel this is a 'better handled summer'. Its only better because nothing could EVER top last season's 8-2 defeat followed by the shambolically embarrassing bargain basement shop! Get behind the quality we have left at the club and leave the marose comments for when a real crisis happens. - Post No. 28037
What was the point in leaving Highbury/ 12:18pm 20th Aug 2012
Are you sure!!! We sold our best, who was always going to go, a day or so before the seasons began and another regular starter (whom i didnt like) whilst the game was going on! Adding to that most of starting 11 only played one friendly in order to prepare for the new season. Wee shipped 49 goals last year so we sign 0 defenders and let our supposed DM leave without a replacement. - Post No. 28038
Herbert 12:30pm 20th Aug 2012
God NOT ANOTHER ONE!!! GO AWAY YOU NEGTIVE T***ER! Is the the best you can do on this site? Im not beothering anymore, so many better blogs out there than this s**t! You say you are board of the current management? Well thats how many of us feel about this site! - Post No. 28040
GoonerRon 12:46pm 20th Aug 2012
@ CanadaGooner - you say 'we will score tons of goals, let in tons more' - is this not slightly melodramatic? I'll happily wager you now that we will score more than we concede. - Post No. 28043
johnnyhawleylovinggooner 14:31pm 20th Aug 2012
it would hard to top a how not to do it after last summer. however we have purchased players of a good standard,(indeed santi perhaps is a marguee player). I now wonder if the manager has sold/is selling a"block" of players who he sees as playing for themselves . - Post No. 28047
maguiresbridge gooner 15:39pm 20th Aug 2012
It looked like it was going to be another saga alright at least it was sorted before the season started.It was sad to see him go yes but not surprising just like all the others but as we all know canada loyalty is a thing of the past.It would be interesting to know what the RVP haters think of song who was apparently disruptive,lazy,late and even falling out with staff something i don't remember RVP doing.Yes another season where the defence needs sorting as well as the keeper position and nothing been done but i suppose there's time yet.It would be hard to argue with your prediction for the coming season especially if the defence isn't sorted. - Post No. 28050
Harold 17:45pm 20th Aug 2012
You will never single out Wenger for criticism for anything, will you? Even the blame for our defence that can't defend is shared between him and 'the management' (copyright Hale and Pace). Haven't seen Gazidis at any training sessions but maybe I've missed something, eh? - Post No. 28054
mark from aylesbury 18:20pm 20th Aug 2012
Think the team will need 5 to 6 games to bed in. Darren Dein's agented players are all leaving and I here that a group of 5 players were causing problems and are the ones being moved on May be a frustrating season but I see glimmers of hope and the death of project youth. - Post No. 28055
GoonerGoal! 19:33pm 20th Aug 2012
Let's see, last summer we sold Fabregas to Barcelona and Nasri and Clichy to Man City. Now this summer, we have sold RvP to Man United and Song to Barcelona. Can anyone see a pattern being established here? No? Of course we are not now firmly established in our new place as the No.1 feeder club to the genuine members of European football's elite, that's not FACT, surely it's just headline grabbing media garbage printed in the Red Tops and spouted on TalkSport, isn't it? - Post No. 28058
movebacktohighbury.com 22:43pm 20th Aug 2012
Henry past his best in his final 2 seasons? erm 2005/2006 he scored over 30 goals in prem? and in his final season he got injured in the February so can't really say that. No fan wanted to see him go. Your article might have had some validity if you had pointed out the reason behind all of our problems, i.e. the manager - Post No. 28062
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