Peter Le Beau
The transfer of Robin Van Persie caught a lot of people by surprise, I suspect including him! The fall from grace (and let's be fair a move to Fenerbache after playing for Arsenal and Manchester United is a fall from grace, irrespective of what he is likely to earn there) must be a blow to a man who appeared to have the world at his feet just over two seasons ago.
In this look at his career I thought it might be worth looking at a number of other high-profile exits from Arsenal and look at whether it was a disaster for us or for them a wrong turning in a career that promised so much. Let's look at Mr. Van Persie first.
He just missed joining the Invincible squad and apparently it was a very difficult funding operation (so skint were we) to bring him to Highbury in the summer of 2004. He was signed from Feyenoord with a reputation as a dynamic but volatile winger but Wenger envisaged a developmental plan that would see him becoming a central striker. Initially he looked very one-footed but obviously oozed class and at the end of his first season scored two sublime goals at the end of the FA Cup Semi-Final in Cardiff against Blackburn. He came on as a substitute in the Final and stuck a terrific penalty coolly past Roy Carroll in a victorious shootout win. It was his only major honour with Arsenal.
His story is well known, a litany of serious injuries punctured by disciplinary problems but a clearly emerging talent which flowered finally in 2010 and 2011 as he finally shook off his injury problems. His stellar season came in 2011/12 when a raft of brilliant goals propelled an average Arsenal side to third place in the League. For months we had the usual 'will he, won't he' saga developing in the press and those of us who have an instinct for these things sensed that the protestations of love for a team that had stood beside him during more than ten years of injury frustration were an elaborate PR facade. A financial adviser friend who works with a number of football agents warned me some months before his announcement that he had very strong indications that he was going to Manchester United. RVP's popularity with Arsenal fans crashed and burned as his statement that his ambitions were greater than those of the club that had nurtured, indulged and developed him sat uneasily with Gooners everywhere and summed up the lack of loyalty of modern footballers.
To every Arsenal fan's frustration he enjoyed an incredible season with United and it is fair to say almost single-handedly won a bang average United team the league title. Of course he was injury-free the whole season and had seemed set for continuing glory with the team that 'the little boy inside him' had apparently prevailed on him to join.
But then it started to go so very wrong. At the end of the title season Alex Ferguson announced his retirement, a decision that was clearly a huge shock to Van Persie. His successor, David Moyes, failed lamentably to fill some very big shoes and United finished to almost universal delight out of Europe, not just the Champions League. Arsenal meanwhile ended a long search for silverware with an FA Cup win and qualified as is their want for the Champions League for the umpteenth season in a row. Suddenly RVP's view of the future looked a little less clear-sighted.
Last season United spent the GDP of a small African Republic to finish fourth, back in the Champions League but needing to qualify (here's hoping!). In the meantime the old injury-prone RVP returned and endured a miserable season in which he seemed to fall out with Louis Van Gaal and watched (injured) as his new team were knocked out of the Cup by his old team as Arsenal strolled on to another Cup success at Wembley.
The news that he is surplus to requirements in a patchy and uneven United squad may see him line already very well-lined pockets but effectively sees him drop out of mainstream European football. There is of course universal Schadenfreude among Arsenal fans. The man who considered himself too big for Arsenal has fallen from grace pretty damn rapidly. Is a Premier League medal roughly comparable to two Cup Winner's medals and an extra season in the Champions League? Could he have got that medal at Arsenal if he had stayed and played as he did? (personally I doubt it)
What is more relevant to a discussion of his view that Arsenal were inferior to United was that this view was based on a continuing Ferguson tenure, an inability of Arsenal to buy or compete for world- class players and a lack of ambition from Arsenal at board and managerial level. Personally I believe Van Gaal may prove a very costly disaster if his first twelve months are anything to go by. The quality of United's football and the hugely expensive mistakes he appears to have made in the transfer market suggest to me that Ferguson is still proving an almost impossible act to follow.
Now that the drain of talent away from Arsenal has hopefully stopped can we really say that many of the 'stars' that left us have really furthered their careers away from Arsenal? Samir Nasri might have a few medals but is his standing in the game and current level of ability near what is was with us? Looking at the exodus to Barcelona over the last dozen or so years can anyone say that any of those players, among them Henry, Petit, Overmars, Hleb, Song, Van Bronckhorst , Fabregas and Vermaelen have seen their careers at Barcelona skyrocket? And Barcelona has been the most successful club in Europe in that time. Henry won a Champions League medal but was a subdued figure at the Nou Camp, Fabregas left as someone who didn't measure up to the expectations of the fans and only Van Bronckhorst probably bettered himself largely because he was a squad player with us and a regular with them.
Possibly the most successful leaver was Ashley Cole although he was a man with two league titles, three cup wins and an appearance in the Champions League final before he left us. Adebayor has brief periods of success before he reverts to type, Gallas was finished by the time he went to Spurs and the Manchester City recruits from us have won medals but individually have not shone as stellar talents or appeared as successful individually as they were with us.
This suggests a number of things. It suggests that Wenger is a canny seller obtaining top dollar for players on a downward path in their careers. Some like David Bentley and possibly Fabregas and Vermaelen have become a gift that keeps on giving through craftily structured sell-on clauses. All that would be irrelevant and quite annoying if we weren't starting to see at last a narrative that we can believe in. Arsenal has again become a haven for world class players with much to offer like Sanchez, Ozil and Petr Cech. Careful financial husbandry when we really wanted a greater commitment from Wenger and the board now looks like it had a purpose. The team might at last be genuine title contenders again with a squad that oozes quality and depth. While large numbers of recruits are unnecessary we would be greatly reassured if the 'super qualidee' recruits keep coming and perhaps the most important is a world- class striker.
Perhaps someone like Robin Van Persie, but then again isn't he subsiding into Turkish football and the lower echelons of the usual suspects in the Champions League? Whatever the rights and wrongs of his decision surely he couldn't have believed that three years on his rather unfulfilled United career would be over with most United fans happy to see their recent idol out of the door. A man whose lack of faith and disloyalty to Arsenal has blown up in his face. Enjoy Istanbul Robin and try not to think of what might have been if you'd taken an alternative course.
