General Mirth wrote:

"Whatever happens with me, I will always feel a Gunner."

van Persie at the FOTY dinner.

Everybody panic!

This I do not like. At all.
He's not going to sign a new contract is he?
I've been confident all along that he would but now I cannot shake the feeling that he's out of here.

He'll stay.

You can quote me on that.

i'll be pissed if he goes. yes, the team has been a shower of shit, but we carried him through all the injuries and supported him back in his volatile younger days. he'll be no better than the likes of flamini, nasri, hleb, and adepaymore if he buggers off after 1 good season.

that is not a cool quote. if van persie leaves, it doesn't say much for his players' belief in him to win things at arsenal, does it? and van persie is probably the most loyal player we have.

Would be devastating if he left.

If we qualify for the CL, Van Persie will have just made our financially cautious owners over £10m off his own boot.

If they're sensible investors, they should reward him appropriately—after all viewing the club as an investment means he's basically funnelling that money straight onto their bottom line.

We have to keep him. Aside from him being the best player in the PL, this season has been the first in years that we've had a real Arsenal man with a bit of fire in his belly as captain. If we're to succeed any time soon we desperately need him at the core of our squad respected and surrounded by quality players.

However, I don't think the wording in his speech is really anything to worry about. There are plenty of things to make his decision contingent at the moment—our financial offer, our qualification for Europe, further signings—and he could hardly make such a speech without referring to his future as a player, so he did so in a way that was neutral with respect to his bargaining position.

What we should worry about isn't this speech, it's CL qualification and our long track record of failing to induce our best to stay with us.

Gazza M wrote:

i'll be pissed if he goes. yes, the team has been a shower of shit, but we carried him through all the injuries and supported him back in his volatile younger days. he'll be no better than the likes of flamini, nasri, hleb, and adepaymore if he buggers off after 1 good season.

That is just not true.
He's infinitely better than any on that list.
Like Bw said - he's a real Arsenal man.

Real Arsenal man he may be but he is first and foremost a professional footballer, his responsibility is to his family and he could be earning twice as much elsewhere.
A footballers career is precarious and may end quickly, RvP is well overdue a lengthy lay off due to injury so I refuse to condemn him.
I do however condemn Wenger and the board for a lack of ambition and refusal to either properly finance the team or sell to someone who will.

I agree with Bigs. If he leaves, it'd be more an indication of our failings and general lack of ambition as a club, than his lack of loyalty as a player.

However, I do believe he'll still be here come next season.

No one's got any reason to condemn him at the moment, so no need to jump the gun either way.

If Van Persie runs out his last four or five years at the top successfully at Arsenal, he could just about be the first "real Arsenal man" since the Premier League began to be stacked with foreign players in the mid 90s. The likes of Henry come close, but he did leave us for Spain, so in the final count he's not quite a Tony Adams …

I think he'll be here.

What about a Dennis Bergkamp?

Love him to bits, and thought of him in that connection, but decided against.

To me he's a bit too mild to be remembered the same way (fear of flying doesn't help either) and also has too strong a connection with Ajax. Van Persie was 21 when he came here, Bergkamp almost 26, etc. etc. One of our greats (one of the absolute greats, in fact) but not the type of "real Arsenal man" I had in mind.

Absolutely would've been the first Arsenal man.
I personally think the first Arsenal man will be Szczesny. Something tells me he sticks around 20 years.

He can stick around so long as he's got that attitude and deals well with 98% of crosses or whatever it has been this season

Burnwinter wrote:

Love him to bits, and thought of him in that connection, but decided against.

To me he's a bit too mild to be remembered the same way (fear of flying doesn't help either) and also has too strong a connection with Ajax. Van Persie was 21 when he came here, Bergkamp almost 26, etc. etc. One of our greats (one of the absolute greats, in fact) but not the type of "real Arsenal man" I had in mind.

Well he did stay 11 years, longer than most.

shrug It's a judgement call I guess.

With Bergkamp it feels 50/50. It's a pity we couldn't find a role for him in the organization after he retired. He could've been a technical director, strikers coach, or even been given part of the academy.

Speaking of the academy and other coaching staff, can any of you ever see someone like Pat Rice or Liam Brady being offered Wenger's post in the way that Barcelona recruited its two most recent managers internally? (yes, I know that Rice is leaving)

When do the players have to report for international duty?

I reckon RVP will wait until after the Euros to decide his future. We may already have qualified for the CL then, but I think he will want to see what players other Podolski are brought in. The Euros will definitely have an impact on our transfer targets particularly those who are called up to the national squads - pushing up asking prices and ensuring no quick deals get done before the tournament.

I wish someone would be offered Wengers post.

Sell van persie and our recognition as a creche will be confirmed, and you can forget about winning anything next season. Even if he runs his contract out he has to be here next season.