Last Friday, former Gunner John Hartson beaome vocal in the ‘will he, won’t he’ debate that is currently circling Arsenal ace Robin van Persie.
Hartson is under the impression that if the 28-year-old leaves The Emirates this summer the club would recover:
‘He’ll be a massive loss but they recovered when Henry left, they recovered when Wright left.
‘Arsenal are not a one man club and if he doesn’t want to stay, they may be better off cashing in.’
I have to agree with Hartson, we have lost great players and recovered in the past.
If RVP decides he is going to leave then I’d be happier taking some money for him now than having to go through it all over again and have him leave for free next summer – it just doesn’t make any business sense to me whatsoever.
Lets say for arguments sake that Arsenal do decide to let him go, we will be offered a huge sum for his departure which would HAVE to be put back into the club straight away this summer. But if Robin leaves for free at the end of next season then WE STILL have to replace him, and that money will have to come from somewhere.
Like all Arsenal fans, I would love Robin to stay at the club as I think the partnership he would have with Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott would be extremely positive for us. However, a lot of what is coming out at the moment is pure media speculation, which is making people wonder why he isn’t signing a new deal. As well as that Arsenal have handed placed a media ban on the striker not to discuss his future.
Hartson finished off by saying:
‘People think it will be the end of their world, but it’s not. Clubs recover.’
This is true. No one player is bigger than the club. Everyone said with Cesc Fabregas we were a one-man team, with Thierry Henry we were a one-man team and now RVP they are saying the same. The British media love to hate us, they never have a good word to say about our club until we have proven them wrong, which we continue to do time after time.
So is Hartson right? Damn right he is, and deep down we all know that even if RVP decides to call it quits we will move on and continue to progress.
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The point is not whether AFC is going to recover or not? The point is vying and fighting for trophies and honours. If recovery is coming 2nd,3rd or 4th and then qualifying for champions league, are we not singing the old song. Winning trophies is it by allowing your best talents to go and then you start rebuilding again? Logically, it suffices that with this way AFC will be rebuilding till thy kingdom come.
well he is arsenals only world class player at the minute there is a few of the younger lads will get to that level but i cant help feeling he owes the club a big debt of gratitude hes only played over 20 PL games in two of the 8 seasons hes been at the club. The club made him the star he is today it could be very different if he was sold as an injury prone youngster to a mid table team and drifting off into obsecurity.
Needless to say, if the Arsenal continue to lose their best players and replace with cheaper inferior talent, then we will continue to struggle winning anything worthwhile.
Every close season since Henry we’ve lost our best players which sends out a negative message.
With respect, John Hartson has a short memory.
While I agree broadly with his view that Arsenal always recovers from the departure of a star, IMO he is wrong about Thierry Henry.
In his last term at Arsenal Henry’s powers had waned, his mind was elsewhere and he did not have that good a season. Most of us were not too unhappy when he left.
Of course he remains one of our greatest legends and this will never change.
Who forcast that this season we would get more points and achieve a better position than the season before, without Fabregas and Nasri?
We were better this year after losing players that “destroyed the club”.
Next year we will be in the hunt for trophies, with RVP or without.
We also lost Anelka at his peak to madrid.If he leaves it would be bad,we would have lost a good player but saying it will set us back years is ridicolous.I dont know how the club does it,but they always have someone stepping up.Remember from Wright to Anelka to Henry to Adebayor to Bendtner(anyone remember his last minute winners in the second half of the 09/10 season) to Van Persie,who’s next? Walcott?Podolski?maybe even Chamakh.Personaly I would love to see who will step up.Flamini stepped up from Viera,Nasri last season from Fabregas(1st part of season),Wilshere from Diaby and Denilson,Koscielny just stepped up from himself even if he was already good last season,even Walcott had his best season when we where supposed to struggle,Chamberlain and Yossi stepped up when Gervinho lost form and Rosicky stepped up when Ramsey got jaded.Arteta covered the gap that Wilshere left and Scezny came in when we needed him most.No club can replace a Player of Van Persies calibre,they just adapt to the change,Arsenal are not playing how they did when Nasri and Fabregas where around because,we move on.It will hurt but who knows,if he leaves arsenal might be better off.Have you seen how slow our counter attacks have become?the players are always looking for him alone,so it might be bad but its not like we can force him to stay.just do yourselves a favour and not stress about it.THE CLUB IS NOT A PART OF A PLAYER WE SUPPORT,THE PLAYER IS A PART OF THE CLUB WE SUPPORT!!,
WELL SAID THIAGO!!love the last sentence
Arsenal ws there b4 RVp. ‘N’ its gona b there o even if he moves. W startd surpoting arsenl b4 him. If he doenst want 2 stay he must move. 1 thimg am sure ov next season w gona add something on our shelf.
The criticism of Arsenal all season has been “without Van Persie you’re a mid-table team”. Those who say that don’t understand football and they said the same about Fabregas the season before. You don’t get to that level without everyone in the squad contributing massively and in a team with one striker in the formation fit for every game it’s inevitable that he’ll score most of the goals. I agree that we need him to stay to challenge for titles next season but I don’t agree that Arsenal will be lost without him, at all. If he was sold for a serious sum of money and that money was spent wisely the club could even recover to challenge for trophies, Podolski can match Van Persie if he settles quickly.
It’s a nice idea that he could lead us to silverware next year, but he could just as easily play 2 games and spend the rest of the season in the medical center.
I’d like him to stay (and think he should after AWs loyalty to him during the rape fiasco) but the issue is what does he want.
He’s not worth 300k per week (none of them are) and for the money we should get for him, we could buy a couple of Very good strikers.