Posted on Monday, 28th May 2012 by Iain Culverhouse
Much has been said about Robin van Persie this season – will he stay or will he go?
There is no doubting that this season the 28-year-old has been in the form of his life.
Just recently, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had this to say about his captain and team-mate:
‘It’s clear how important he’s been for us with the goals he’s scored, he’s one of the best strikers in the world. He’s a massive part of the dressing room. I don’t know [if he will stay] but I hope he does.’
This season there has been nobody in the Premier League better than Van Persie, this is evident after he walked away with the Premier League Golden Boot, PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the Football Writers’ Player of the Year awards. In addition, He was also named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year.
Having taken this into account, is he irreplaceable to Arsenal? The media believe so, the opposing fans believe so, and even some Arsenal players believe so, but for me he isn’t irreplaceable, and here’s why.
There is no doubting his talent. This season the Dutchman has been his best since joining the club and this has been largely down to him being able to miraculously avoid injury, which brings me onto the reason I think he is replaceable.
On average, over the eight years at the club, RVP has played 35.5 games a year (the lowest being 20 in 2009/10 season) and the most being 47 (this season). Now 35.5 games a season seems, on paper, to be pretty good, but when you take into account Thierry Henry, who in his eight seasons at Arsenal, averaged a total of 48 games, or Dennis Bergkamp, who, despite not travelling abroad, still managed an average of 38 games a season (in his last eight seasons at Arsenal).
If we look at goals compared to Thierry Henry it looks even worse, with the Frenchman averaging 31 goals a season, while Van Persie averaging just 12.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Robin is a fantastic player, I really do. However, to say he is irreplaceable is an overstatement, especially considering who it has been said about in the past. Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Vieria, Tony Adams, David Seaman and Patrick Vieira are just some names of players who the tag of ‘irreplaceable’ has been given over the years, yet here we are with Robin and once again the opposing fans are saying ‘if it wasn’t for him you’d be relegated’.
The fact is our great club survived with the departures of all the abovementioned great names. We have stayed in the Champions League every year without these players at the club and we will do so regardless of if Van Persie leaves or stays.
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Tags: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Champions League, David Seaman, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Patrick Vieira, Robin Van Persie, Thierry Henry, Tony Adams
Posted in View From The Sphere | Comments (29)
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May 28th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
No one is irreplaceable.
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May 28th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
May it just did not occur to you to find out that it took more than a couple of years to get someone who could replace Henri.
That’s why we say Robin is irreplaceable. If he leaves we would take again a couple of years to find someone who can lead us to a title challenge.
And it is also true that he can be replaced easily if as always Wenger does show any ambition.
i bet you do not have any ambition also and may be you are one of those mercenaries paid by the AFC to write blogs that mould fans opinions.
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Pete Reply:
May 28th, 2012 at 8:24 pm
So it took 2 years to find some to replace Henry did it? I think you will find that Adebyour socred 30 goals the season after Henry (not henri) left.
Twat!
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Pete Reply:
May 28th, 2012 at 8:27 pm
And NOBODY gets paid by AFC to mould the minds of ANY Arsenal supporters you muppet! What do you think this is? The Prisoner!!!!!!
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Ken Reply:
May 29th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Go to Hell
u bl**dy a**hole, you are paving the way for Arsene to sell Robin.
Adebayor was already playing for AFC when Henry left and the latter was past his best also.
That is not the case for Robin. Playing another striker next season will mean another trophyless season as the said striker(Podolski) needs to adapt himself to arsenal’s style of play and also to the EPL. So use your small brain and do what is necessary for the club to fill the emirates empty cabinet instead of your shit and nonsense.
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May 28th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
no one is irreplacable…we had got better than van persie in the past.let him go if he wants.arsenal just need to buy a good deffensive midfielder,a goalkeeperand two good forwards ….can win the tittle…for me my best player is arteta and kochielny
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May 28th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
He’s not irreplaceable if we sign Falcao, Cavani or Benzema as a replacement, but I couldn’t see us signing anyone better than Giroud to replace him. While i’ve been impressed with him whenever i’ve seen Montpellier, there’s no doubt it’d be a step dowm from RvP. The other 3 could make a similar goalscoring impact to Van Persie, I feel.
Podolski-Giroud-Walcott is not bad, but Podolski-Van Persie-Walcott could be outstanding when all are in form.
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May 28th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
No one is indipensable,not even RVP or Wenger.When Ronaldo left,it was thought MU would struggle.But they continued to win games and trophies.
If RVP is gone,the others including anyone bought, has to start scoring and winning games.
Whene Arsenal are on a winning run and have finally won a trophy,RVP will be forgotten.
The thing is the gunners have to start winning games. Trophies will then come.
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May 28th, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Replacing him with Podolski and Cavani would be awesome. And if we just throw M’villa into the mix, then we could challenge on all fronts.
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Mvila and giroud
or
song and rvp. its a tough call. but what isnt a tough call is this
kalou hoilett dempsey nzonzi gordon
or
vela park bendtner denilson gordon
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Gordon = fabianski
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
well this a better blog than usual so well done you have stayed away from slating the board and wenger which is unusual you must be ill, lol. Anyway RVP is not irreplacable the problem is attracting players who want to win trophies quality players who will make that possible we have lost that pull a bit recently. so could we get a top striker in to replace him thats the difficult thing there are plenty out there its just getting them to come. I would like to see wenger go for Dempsey not because he has extra quality but aside from the goals he gets he is a grafter and a workhorse a battler who gets stuck in. with arteta wilshere and to a lesser extent rosicky who do the dirty work then against teams who fight and make life difficult aka stokes wigans then we would have better chances of getting results against them. We need other options up front and though not a favourite of mine he does bring something to the table and that is drogba he is a handful can score and has a couple of years top flight in him and he would get on the end of crosses. Downside he is arrogant sullen and an ex chelsea player but you can’t have everything lol.
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:14 pm
When people say he is irreplaceable , what they really mean is that you can’t replace him Wenger style. Arsen Wenger’s way of replacing a player is to bring in a new player at a fraction of what he got for a player sold. Is RVP the best striker in the warld? , not by a long shot. He just had a break out season and most likely he won’t repeat it. If he wants to go, Wenger should let him but not for 20 mill. The problem isn’t RVP but Wenger, for no matter how much money RVP transfer brings in (if it happens), you can be sure Wenger will try to find his replacement at a bargain price. Case in point, Fabregas and Nasri debacle.
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Pete Reply:
May 28th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
And how much did he cost when we bought him. I beleive it was something like £2.1m. So do you now think we should automaticaly spend £40m one players? The cost does not guarantee sucess.
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Tom Reply:
May 29th, 2012 at 6:01 am
Wenger paid 2.75 mill for RVP, who was a promising prospect with a questionable temperament, and some eight years later he menaged to become a prolific striker. If your idea of replacing RVP is buying a young prospect for 2.7 mill , well by all means, but don’t you think there’s some middle ground between 2.7 mill and 40 mill. Besides, judging by Wenger’s sidelines antics I don’t think he has another eight years in him to develop another talent.
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
I don’t want RVP any longer. Force him to see out his contract and then take the opportunity to spend and bring in top talent on a new contract. F*ck RVP.
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John-Legend Reply:
May 28th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
You are a moroon. You must be a Man shitty fan.
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May 28th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
I thought great men live and die honourably. The management of AFC both on and off the field have failed the club for at least four years. Time during which wrong decisions after another have stagnated the club. Pep showed what true men are made of. If the management of arsenal are not in it for gain alone they are the one we would be discussing of their departure.
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May 28th, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Fine!!! Well said!!!
Let them go ahead and sell him then, probably, YOU, WENGER or GAZIDIS will replace him.
Which of these players you mentioned was ever replaced. Are we where we were when they were here???
You are messing up!!! Big time!!! #angry#
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May 28th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
if he wants to go let him just remember weve won fuck all with him so whats the problem
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May 28th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
dont think u realise what a great signing poldolski is u wait
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May 28th, 2012 at 11:04 pm
If RVP played for a team like Real, Barca, ManU, City or Chelsea then YES he would be replaceable but because he plays for us then NO he’s not replaceable. Why? Because we wouldn’t use the money we got from his sale to buy a top class replacement. We’d probably sell RVP and just promote/keep Chamakh.
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May 28th, 2012 at 11:50 pm
People dont realise dat no 2 players are d same. If rvp leaves surely sm1 will come in and stil make impact n score goals just adebayor did after king henry left. It was said dat afc would struggle without cesc n nasri bt we stil finished 3rd even after a turbulent start. I can tell u dat d rvp team is better and even have a winning mentality dan dat of cesc. If rvp leaves,maybe we might win d title cos we seem 2 do better each time we loose a star player.
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May 29th, 2012 at 12:33 am
The problem is, he is not irreplaceable but in are current set up he is. The ammount of goals he has scored this season by controlling a floating long ball is outstanding and the only person to have been able to control the ball like that for us was Bergkamp. If we get a new striker in his place then it will only be succesful if that playmaker role is also sured up, now whether it be wilshere, Arteta moved forward or somebody else bought into the club that will be the most important job of sorting out this summer. Wright and Henry had Bergkamp. Adebayor and eduardo had Fabregas so it’s not all about getting the best striker. You watch how many goals torres will score because of Hazard next season, how many Aguero scored because of Silva. Get that position sorted and we’ll be fighting for trophies.
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May 29th, 2012 at 4:07 am
agreed that a player maker will be utmost important for the team. kagawa can be the one. But, MU having lost out on Hazard will sign him,unless Arsene’s command of the Japanese language prove to be the changer.
Loosing RVP will be bad, but more important getting the right replacement will be the key.
I know its cruel thinking, but if RVP gets injured during the first match or before the EUROS, then no club will sign him.He can then spend the summer recupperating. Ha Ha
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May 29th, 2012 at 5:05 am
I believe he should act as a man and leave or sign the deal because even if arsenal was to hold onto him he will grow old and eventually leave.NO ONE IS BIGGER THAN THE GREAT ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB.The club has players who can step in.Play Walcot in the center and get the results.
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May 29th, 2012 at 8:09 am
The guy is will be 30 very soon so we will have to find a replacement anyway. He still have one maybe two good seasons, but that can not make him the boss
who is he to try and run the club f……….k
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May 29th, 2012 at 8:12 am
RVP has had a fantastic season but he can only be as good as the service from the rest of the team. I can’t see that we have a ready made replacement for him yet or who could ideally step in to replace him but I also believe even if we don’t sell him, we will lose him next season due to injury. People seem to forget, this is the first full season he has ever played for us and remained injury free.
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May 29th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Even though seeing him leave if he does will hurt. He can be replaced..
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