Thursday 9 August 2012

The Transfer Exodus Begins: Van Persie to United and Song to Barcelona?

Afternoon all,

Well the euphoria that surrounded the club following the arrivals of Podolski, Giroud and more recently Cazorla is seemingly diminishing day by day as the media, and that includes us bloggers are intent on ruining the mood. The feeling of optimism is vanishing before our eyes and is being replaced by a veil of uncertainty amid the rumours of two of our most important players heading for the exit door.

The saga of Robin Van Persie has been about as pleasant as a cheese grater to the balls and quite frankly I am growing quite wary of the whole situation. I have made my feeling quite clear on the situation in the past but in short, we cannot let him go to a direct rival, it will certainly send out the wrong signals at a time where there is some positivity around the club.

The reason the issue has reared it’s ugly head again is that the Manchester Evening News (the same paper that confirmed they were on the verge of signing Lucas Moura) yesterday announced that the Robin Van Persie saga could be over as United could closethe deal overnight.

“That leaves the Reds at the front of the queue – and M.E.N. Sport understands van Persie could jet in to sign as early as tonight.

The targetman, who turned 29 on Sunday, was photographed training with his team-mates on Monday in Germany where the Arsenal squad are currently on tour.

They take on FC Cologne on Sunday but it is unlikely van Persie will still be a Gunners player by then.”
Despite the assertions it seems that we are rightly playing hardball with United. We should under no circumstances sell one of the best strikers in the world cheaply to a rival. The same publication has today declared that the signing has stalled. Here is what Ferguson had to say:

"We have made a bid and they've been trying to negotiate with other clubs I don't have a gut feeling on it at the moment, I must admit. We're not getting any breakthrough with Arsenal. It's difficult to say why they're operating this way. I don't know what their thoughts are because they're not giving anything away."

It is not “difficult to say why they’re operating this way”, in fact I would say it is quite simple; we do not want to sell to a rival in an ideal world.

By the same token, I am not saying we are not going to sell him, if someone makes an offer that essentially offsets the transfers of Podolski and Giroud I cannot see us turning it down regardless of where the bid comes from.

It makes one wonder though, what will the legacy of Robin Van Persie be? He was heralded as one of the best Captain’s in recent years with many fans feeling we finally had a captain that understood Arsenal as a club. He was after all an Arsenal fan as a child. 

 
One of us almost. However I cannot imagine anything but negativity heading his direction and instead of becoming a club legend, which he actually could become, he will go the way of many a villain before him. Never in a million years did I picture this last season.

The other bit of news rumour which seems to be extinguishing the glimmer of hope Arsenal fans have is the apparent imminent departure of Alex Song according to The Mirror. At first I did not give this much thought or energy, dismissing it as a wild rumour. However, seeing the Barcelona team line up to wax lyrical about our player yet again, you can’t help but feel like we have seen this before. Firstwe had Sergio Busquets talking to ESPN:

"Song is a very good player - young, a hard worker, with lots of physical power... Barca lose a lot without Keita, both on and off the pitch. He was a much-loved player who gave us a lot of physical power. Another player in my position would be welcome, but either way I will keep working hard to win a place in the starting team."

And more recently Andres Iniesta has joined the party:
"He's a prodigy, I don't know how many years he's been playing but he isn't a discovery from yesterday. He's a good player and I've seen in a couple of publications that he could be joining our team. If he comes here it's because he has the ability to play here, no doubt."
The situation as I understand it seems to suggest he is lower down on a list of players they are looking to buy with the priority being Javi Martinez but are keeping their options open.

This would certainly explain our interest in Nuri Sahin of Real Madrid so there may be some truth to this but I would not expect anything to happen immediately or even this transfer window.

So as you can see, despite the intense media speculation from the likes of The Sun, The Mirror, The Mail and many blogs I cannot see anything imminent to ruin the optimism but these are situations certainly worthy of keeping your eye on.

Enjoy the rest of your day and a reminder that the GoonerVerse fantasy league is due to start once again. There are no prizes just bragging rights up for grabs so make sure you sign up to be the best.


GoonerVerse.

9 comments:

  1. What does Fergie expect Arsenal to do? Signed,sealed and delivered . Dream on. The epl is getting tougher for him to win . That is why the unhappy noises coming from him.
    Assuming he gets RVp and this is what he will say.
    We are going to be
    a} epl champions
    b) FA cup winners c) Carling Cup and d) CL
    e) Player of the year
    f) Manager of the year.
    It would really be great if he dosen't secure any of the above.It's time for him to retire.
    If he doesn't win any trophy next season,his sunrise days are going to be over and over soon.
    If he's mart,enjoy his retirement
    The sight of him munching at football games irritates me no end.

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  2. " The feeling of optimism is vanishing before our eyes " Not sure where you get this from? We all knew van Persie wanted to leave. And the Song thing is just rumour thus far. Song is replaceable anyway if he goes.

    Another publication to add to the hide list on Newsnow.

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  3. Haha, Fergie has much more to give! He's been challenging for the prem in the last few years with one of the weakest teams ive seen at united in my 27 years as a fan. He's managed to stabilise the club when there has been problems behind the scenes, Glaziers etc (Who knows what exactly!) I think RVP is over priced at £25 mill purely due to his age and injury concerns (No questioning he's class), you should be glad to get ride of him at that price!

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    1. Fergie's a great manager and certainly has more to give. Agree with you about what he has done these past few years. £25m on a player that is 29, injury prone etc is great business, just would rather us not strengthen a rival.

      I am not deluded though and know an offer of that size will surely land him.

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  4. Haha I agree completely.. Media making a mountain out of a mole hill. Regardless of what happens we are stronger. gr8 piece

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  5. whyb would it affect sahin, he is not a defensive midfielder. he is ti suppliment not replace. As for song going, please let it be so. Three very nice passes to rvp does not come anywhere near making up for his lack of thought his poor passing over three yards (three passes the exception) and the amount of times he has lost possesion leaving the back four exposed , i cant even begin to remember. This is the demise of barca, they have l;ost their manager and now they are intersested in someone like song. As for rvp, one good season and all that, i would not give a toss where he goes. we are re building with good players, we are imo a right back, a defensive midfielder and a striker short (if rvp trots up the m6) would it strengthen man ure, no one really knows, hes not going to reproduce what he did for us, i think selling him would be a good move for us as long as we get a replacement worthy of last seasons performance. I dont understand why people are down with this song rvp thing, those that think about it will be joyous and i for one dont react to newspapers, good times ahead

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  6. I have no inside information, but I think RvP and Song are both going, I also think Theo might be off too. However I don't think if all threre left it would be a problem, it would be min £50M in the bank for player who have 1 or 2 years on their contracts and haven't signed new ones. It will be hard for anyone, even RvP to replicate the season he had last year, and if anyone thinks Song or Theo are irreplaceable then they should watch a bit more football, i.e. other leagues. With the signing of Cazorla we have seen the strong position Arsenal are in compared to many other clubs. A transfer policy in the future might be to look to clubs who've over reached and take their best players in the fire sale rather than just looking for players.

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  7. AW should sale V.persie to other league club only if he still intend to go,bcuz no one knows his plan. But thinking of to sale Song?, it's sounds crazy. Though he leaves his defensive to attack few times, but i believe the new signing, Santi Cazorla and recovering of our injured creative midfielder Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby and the possible signing of Nuri Sahin will cover well. Then, Song will fully focus on his defensive duties. Buying qaulities & saling our qaulity players doesn't show any ambition, Song will make a big impact to barca team considering the creative midfielders they have. I disagree with that, Except M'vila will sign.

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  8. REALITY CHECK.... Ahem... arsenal has a better squad than Man U right now!

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