No one connected with the club has said that Podolski and Giroud are Van Persie's "replacement".
They are are two players capable of contributing in the same general area of the pitch, and capable of contributing goals. It's easy to come up with formations including either and Van Persie, and it's possible to imagine either starting on the bench for a while without rage-quitting the club.
Grimandi said that we didn't want to be cornered with respect to Van Persie's possible exit, which was presumably a reference to last summer when we were lucky to latch onto Arteta as a makeshift midfield recruit at the death of the window.
The idea that we would pursue a "like for like" replacement for Van Persie with his situation still unresolved is perplexing, bordering on stupid. Firstly, who? Secondly, how would they play together? Thirdly, wouldn't that precisely be allowing ourselves to be cornered?
