Kevin Whitcher
So Robin van Persie broke ranks and has gone public on the outcome of his meeting with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis in the middle of May. After Gazidis stated at the June Q&A event with supporters that both sides had agreed to stay silent on the matter, it was obvious that he would not extend his stay at the club. Or else there would have been no need to keep schtum. The only real subsequent debate was whether the player would decide to see out the remainder of his contract, or seek a move this summer. From the club’s side, there is really no decision to be made. Arsenal in 2012 are run on strictly business lines, no longer primarily a sporting concern. Winning trophies is a bonus for the owner, but not a priority. The balance sheets are more important. Taking that into consideration, if the club captain is going to leave for nothing in 2013, the club will sell him this summer unless he digs his heels in. He is an asset, and not one that they are going to allow to dwindle to zero value. The manager will make noises about keeping him as he did with Samir Nasri 12 months ago. But the player has indicated he wants out now.
Certainly, the statement is divisive, but ultimately, should we care? The player wants to go, surely it is better to be out in the open and straightforward. There is so much bullsh*t spouted by football players, that in fact, to this observer, I actually prefer it when players speak their minds. I have long accepted the fact that professional footballers are guns for hire and any sense of loyalty to a club is almost invariably directly linked to their bank accounts. Thierry Henry speaks of his love for the club, but that didn’t prevent him asking for a £5 million loyalty bonus paid in full up front when he signed a fresh four year contract in 2006. On his departure, I have no recollection of him offering to pay £3.75m back to his beloved Gunners.
With Van Persie, money is probably a factor, but not the major one. I do genuinely believe he wants some winner's medals on the mantelpiece by the time he hangs up his boots. He spends enough time with international colleagues that win things, as Cesc Fabregas did when on Spain duty, and understandably, he wants some of that type of glory before his career is over.
One imagines that he wanted to know who the club’s transfer market targets were, and was unhappy with what he heard. If one had believed that Van Persie ever intended to remain, then you could see the purchase of Olivier Giroud as an option in attack where Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu-Young have failed. Now, he looks like a direct replacement. We have no idea which names were given to Robin van Persie as transfer targets, but going by recent summers, you can probably see why he felt a little underwhelmed whoever was mentioned. Arsenal, playing in a 60,000 seater stadium, charging the highest admission prices in world football and taking in excess of £3 million every time they fulfill a home fixture are still shopping in the bargain basement.
And although the manager is complicit in this policy, ultimately it is being determined from upstairs. Arsene Wenger goes along with it because it suits him. Remember, this is the man who turned down the Real Madrid job. It allows him the luxury of developing players – his true love – without the pressure of needing to actually deliver anything but financial success – which he achieves through his transfer market dealings. When Stan Kroenke said he has a job for life, any sense of needing to keep on his toes for the new boss would have quickly dissipated. Kroenke loves Wenger because he is delivering what the owner wants – house full signs and healthy profits. Arsenal is a very successful and well run business.
Kroenke’s dictate is for his asset to grow in value, and the people running the club at his behest are not the board, but Ivan Gazidis and his executive team. On the non playing side, costs are being cut to the bone and there is huge disillusionment amongst the club’s staff – the ordinary joes who are being laid off or having their working conditions changed. There was a real buzz amongst the employees at the E******s yesterday when news of Alisher Usmanov’s open letter got out because the staff are unhappy at all the changes and would welcome a revolution at senior management level.
Usmanov’s statement was interesting because it attempted to appeal to those on both sides of the ‘Arsene Knows Best’/’Wenger’s lost the plot’ divide. He put the blame fairly and squarely on the way the club is being run from upstairs, or Denver if you prefer. There is no good reason that Arsenal should not have a fresh rights issue to raise necessary finance to compete except that it would mean Stan Kroenke digging into his own pockets to retain the amount of control he currently enjoys. And it should be remembered that all the shareholding board members that played a part in moving the club from Highbury before Kroenke arrived on the scene invested in shares – from which they all cashed in very nicely – but never invested a penny into the club itself. ‘Custodianship’ they called it.
Let’s not forget, Arsenal are a very well run business which habitually turns over significant profits. Those are the priorities now. Within that ethos, they will do their best to win trophies, but will not speculate to accumulate unless there is a blatant commercial reason to do so – such as the purchase of Andrey Arshavin, albeit on the cheap, back in January 2009. Arsenal then needed a marquee signing in a fallow season to persuade club level platinum members and box holders to renew. Fans have got so used to the failure to land a trophy that many now view third place as a successful season. Ambitions are lower than they were, but the prices continue to rise as the quality of the squad slowly declines. Arsenal have had five club captains in the last eight years, four of whom were sold while still in the job with time left on their contracts.
Arsene Wenger might depart if he gets serious pressure from the fans, as he certainly won’t be getting any from his boss. The board are only ever uncomfortable if the crowd turn the stadium into a cauldron of disapproval which is why attendance figures are no longer announced – having provided a trigger for dissent when announced at the Aston Villa home game in May 2011. But the only catcalls Stan Kroenke has heard were those at the last AGM, because he so rarely watches Arsenal games in the flesh. And does anyone think he catches them on TV in Denver? I wouldn’t put money on it.
Even if Robin Van Persie’s statement was divisive and will lead to many Gooners giving him the Ashley Cole/Samir Nasri treatment in the future, one thing cannot be denied. He is not the first decent player the club have lost because they do not show the ambition to compete at the very top level and it is unlikely he will be the last. So it’s the battle for a Champions League spot once again next time around then. Is anyone else out there tiring of this?
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