I'm not that bothered by this news. I thought the scenario of RVP not extending his contract, but not submitting a transfer request as the most probable outcome this summer. I agree with those who said his statement is tantamount to forcing the club to try and sell him this summer (rather than him putting in a transfer request).
Klaus wrote:
That's the vibe I'm getting from the statement on his website too.
In any case, fuck it. Get a few midfielders and defenders into the side to help out Podolski and Giroud and we might come out of this looking less predictable than last season. The way we geared the whole team to support the centreforward was a massive disappointment on the whole. It was largely forgotten because Robin racked up the numbers but we played our least fluid football in many years.
I think we will miss him, but not to such a great extent. I agree with Klaus that the performance of team has suffered with RVP as its focal point. I reckon partly it's due to the way RVP plays, but also because of this 4-3-3 system. I think Klaus brought up in another thread how Messi has virtually dictated that Barca play without a CF to ensure he has the free role. We may not have Messi, but by having the CF as the focus of the system, the whole team has been geared to play for RVP and adapt to his strengths/weaknesses. Without having top quality consistently in midfield and the WF positions, I think we have become far too reliant on RVP and the variation in his form.
I think Giroud could be a fantastic signing, but I'm less certain about Podolski. The latter was immensely poor on the flank in the Euros and from what I've heard, his best form at club level has been at CF and even then that has only been for 1-2 seasons in his whole career. With Gervinho and Walcott making up the remainder of our forwards options, this will be the most uncertain I have ever been over the potency of our strike force going into a season. With RVP having played his hand early, I think it is essential we splash out on either a quality WF or an AM who has the ability to link midfield and attack consistently.
I have no animosity towards RVP over his statement. It may be tad disrespectful, but again, without any knowledge of what has really gone on, it is possible that he has felt disrespected by Arsenal in negotiations and their plans for the immediate future. Money probably was a big issue, but I think the high likelihood that he would fail to add to his solitary FA Cup medal was just as big if not the bigger issue for him.
