On football Friday it might be time to come to a harsh reality for Arsenal supporters. Robin Van Persie is on his way out of town. As an Arsenal supporter myself I hope I am wrong. However, as I have been following the Arsenal transfer news I've noticed a startling trend.
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| Robin Van Persie was one of the few things Gunners fans could consistently cheer about last season |
Arsenal had several glaring issues last season. The chiefest among these was a sieve-backline consisting of chronic underachievers Thomas Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker (in their defense they were both injured last season). That solid core is complemented by Laurent Koscielny who is perhaps the most impressive player in Europe on the basis that he's somehow been able to hold down a steady job playing football despite of the collection of poor form he calls a "career" (of course in a interview with Arsenal brass Koscielny could just say, "Hey, I'm not Sébastien Squillaci!"). The point is, the most obvious problem to anyone who watched Arsenal's bipolar campaign of 2011-2012 was its serious need of an improved defense.
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| Currently, Arsenal lead the chase for sought-after striker Olivier Giroud |
As Arsenal has went into this off-season with strengthening the defense as a top priority they have made one signing, Lukas Podolski and are being heavily linked with France and Montpellier striker Olivier Giroud. The simple question needs to be, why are Arsenal's two main targets strikers? Before you relegate to being a crazy conspiracy theorist, let me say I do understand Arsenal need another goalscorer. Van Persie scored 37 goals across all competitions for Arsenal last season but the closest scorer after him Theo Walcott with 11. That gap is far too large for consistent form, Arsenal need to invest in another steady source of goals. However, Arsenal is yet to even be linked with solid defender or even a more consistent midfielder. Why should this be? Perhaps someone in charge at Arsenal knows that keeping van Persie around is leaning toward not happening. Two recent news stories have added to my suspicions. Peter Hill-Wood recently said that if someone comes to break the bank for Robin Arsenal won't be able to stay in the bidding. Moreover, van Persie's father Bob van Persie, recently said it would be "impossible" for Robin to move to Manchester City because he would never play for another Premier League club besides Arsenal. He did however say that Real Madrid, "would be a good option" while also admitting, "they are not so much a team as a collection of star names, so he wouldn't really fit in there either."
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| Peter Hill-Wood can't make any promises about Robin Van Persie |
The strange new proposal I've come to is that, perhaps it would be best to let van Persie leave....now that you've recovered from passing out, let's think about these stats. van Persie did indeed lead Arsenal with 37 goals last season but lest we forget, it wasn't that long ago that Robin was an underachiever with knees made of glass. The only reason van Persie had such a great season is that he stayed healthy. At twenty-eight, there is no guarantee that he will stay healthy for long at all. The number one rule in business is to sell high and van Persie's stock will never get higher than it is right now. What if Arsenal were able to move van Persie to Real Madrid for a massive transfer fee? One that could produce the consistency across the pitch the desperately need. Or, even more intriguing, what if Arsenal could turn van Persie into a player-for-player move for someone like Karim Benzema? I know it sounds outlandish, but what is Madrid going to do with Christiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Robin Van Persie. You realistically think there's not going to be an odd-man out in that rotation? (Mostly because European teams are apparently incapable of playing with more than two forwards at a time)
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| Could selling van Persie net Arsenal someone like Karim Benzema? |
It's clear Arsenal can't keep up with the spending of the Manchester clubs and perhaps not even Chelsea, the thing to do at this crossroads is to figure out how to get the most value out of the current roster and part of that might be moving the superstar. Don't get me wrong, I love Robin Van Persie and I love his commitment to Arsenal but if the Gunners want to actually contend for silver wear anytime soon, this might be the move they need to make.
More to come,
XoXo
-Joshua
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