Arsenal: Robin Van Persie Return Could Be Useful Sacrilege
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal once lived and died by the powerful left foot of Robin van Persie. The Flying Dutchman is being urged back to Arsenal. Do we want him?
Foreword: I have written this article in my head and it makes me feel queasy, squeamish, nauseated, and a slew of other things, but underneath all of the vomit-inducing adjectives, there is a very brilliant opportunity. That is, if you can put the nausea aside. Which isn’t easy. I’m still working on it.
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There is no doubt in my head that Robin van Persie did not want to leave Arsenal for Manchester United. He said countless times that he was a Gunner at heart. Arsenal gave him his first chance, they made him a world class striker and they were built around him. Granted, he did screw that pretty hard when he went to Arsenal’s direct competitor and won the EPL title, but, and forgive me for doing this, but I’m going to do my best to see things from his point of view.
He had been with the club since he was 21. He learned to be a start at Arsenal. But through it all, he witnessed so many of his top-tier team mates leave for other teams and win as Arsenal continued to struggle with paying off the Emirates and not bring in talent to replace the exits.
It put him between a rock and a hard place. He could stay at Arsenal and lose out on the best years of his life, or he could go somewhere else in England, the ultimate sacrilege, burn his bridges at Arsenal, and win.
As history tells us, he chose the latter. And yet, through it all he still maintained that he was a Gunner at heart.
I believe that the Flying Dutchman would have stayed with Arsenal for his entire career if he would have seen eye to eye with Wenger’s visions. But for him to leave, he had to hear something from Wenger along the lines of ‘we won’t buy until the Emirates is paid off’. Which proved to be a deal breaker.
Fast forward to the present day. Robin van Persie is up for sale by Fenerbahce. Do Arsenal submit an offer for a 32 year old Dutchman who made us fall in love with his goal scoring prowess before he broke our hearts?
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Here’s the part where I make myself sick. Yes, I think they should. Wenger isn’t exactly a forgive and forget guy, but if he wants an easy way out of his current predicament, this is it. I’m sure that the Emirates may be cold to RVP at first, but I feel he would be warmed up to and welcomed.
Plus, Arsenal is at the state now that van Persie wanted when he left. He would have world class athletes around him in Alexis, Ozil, Cech and more. He wanted to win with Arsenal, but they were not building a team around him that could win. Now, they have a team that can win and maybe, just maybe, a clinical finisher like the Dutchman is all we need.
He won the Golden Boot twice in a row for Arsenal. I don’t expect him to win any shiny boots at the age of 32, but why not? My logic is predicated on these facts: he’s going to be cheap, he’s going to be swelling with passion to be playing with Arsenal again, and he will have so much to prove to win supporters over again. It will cure the attitude problem we saw in Turkey and we could see a beautiful mixture of Arsenal’s past and present coming together.
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Time for me to dry heave… Do it, Arsene Wenger. Enact the ultimate sacrilege and bring Robin van Persie home.