Robin van Persie

I can just imagine BradyMagic sitting in a corner having a crank at this thread now.

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Exact same as back then. “The club’s in the wrong hands”.

Well yeah but back then all of us were pretty butt hurt about that letter and him going to United. He was a traitor, etc.

Now that it is the common consensus among fans that Wenger surrounded himself with “yes” men who lack ambition, desire and drive to bring us success and are happy to collect their salary and keep their voice low, was that letter the right move from RvP ?

cough yes cough :see_no_evil:

Yeah, I’ve been saying since I realised Wenger was shit, that I don’t blame RvP at all and he’s the same as Sánchez or Cesc in my book, a great player who I enjoyed in an Arsenal shirt, whose decision to leave I completely respect. I guess one little thing I’d say about RvP is that I still don’t think that silly open letter was the way to handle things, maybe he thought it would give a kick up the arse of the club for the better but I think it’s 99% likely that it was just an ego thing and an ill-contrived attempt to save face with Arsenal fans ahead of his preferred move to United…

Nasri is the exception here, along with Hleb. They made bad decisions and overestimated their ability, Arsenal was the right place for them. But I think Nasri would’ve ended up being a failure here like he has been in other places, anyways (you can take the club out of the cunt but not the cunt out of the cunt…or something like that), so not really too bothered there either.

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Still a cunt.
Nothing wrong with moving clubs but show some professionalism and respect.

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Reading that in full is really different in 2018.

My beef at the time was the releasing of a statement full stop. It was simply meant to be a “hey I’m jumping ship like all the others but btw - I’m not a cunt guys so don’t hate me”.

He left for as good a reason as anyone but nobody else took that step. He could have easily left then dropped hints afterwards as to why.

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I didn’t quote the whole statement by accident which I apologize for, I have now added the last two paragraphs.

I disagree about the intents of the letter. I think he was emotional and bitter from the discussions he had had with the board which lead him to releasing the statement. The last paragraph states that further meetings were planned for after Gazidis’s holiday and to me it sounds like he wanted a reaction from them.

He directly confronted them and told them, I believe I am valuable to this club and you are going to lose me unless you show me that you have the ambition that I have. “I will update you if there are more developments” sounds like his mind wasn’t completely made up and he wanted to force their hand to act.

That’s my take on it anyway.

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I think more developments just refers to his transfer movement (coming right after “I am very proud of being part of this fantastic club for the last 8 years,” which is definitive language of a chapter in his career already taken as ended). The statement is way too definitive and way too categorical to leave room for your interpretation, IMO.

If he will move 100%, there is no if about any further developments, it’s only when.

He was my favourite player when he left and I understood why he left and I Still don’t blame him.
He was one of the best strikers in Europe, and certainly the best in the PL, and he wanted to win trophies.

Wenger and the board made it clear that their ambitions didn’t match his and were happy drifting along in fourth place, so he left us, and like so many other players that have left, won a PL title with his new club, and almost doubled his wages.

I never understood the hatred towards him or any other player that left because of our lack of ambition.
In fact, what other top player would stay in the same situation?

I can’t deny this, but I wouldn’t attach too much significance to the wording of one phrase in a long letter which entails a very strong intention in the act of simply publishing it aside from the rather categorical content, it’s too much going down the Brady route for my taste.

He must have been advised by a dozen of lawyers prior to publishing that statement and I seriously doubt it every single letter in that statement wasn’t carefully examined by him and his team.

Not necessarily, we had the option of keeping him a year. Wenger by all accounts wanted to make RVP and Nasri play out their contracts The letter burned bridges and made that less likely

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WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!

Yeah, actually, I had forgotten about this, the if is probably put in for this reason.

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He has lit the blue touch paper and retreated into the distance :grin:

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People don’t hate him for leaving.
I don’t know why people don’t get this.

Each time this question comes in, people keep stating how he was right for leaving as if the discussion is whether he was right or wrong for leaving.

I don’t hate him for leaving, but this was unnecessary. Not that I am totally against players celebrating, but this was OTT.

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