Van Persie Leaves Arsenal

Arsenal great Robin van Persie announced yesterday he will not be renewing his contract after next season. The soon-to-be 29 year old striker has received much backlash from fans who stuck with him throughout his time at the Emirates. Should the Gunners get what they can for them now or make him play out his contract?

[tytsports]

Thank you Conrad. Appreciate you tuning in.

-Rick

[tytsports]

He should go to Serie A in my opinion. Wants to win trophies. Competition is still good but not AS good as Premier League. Would be a good move for him.

-Rick

[tytsports]

When doing research I came across that article on Forbes.com. Thought it was great analysis, crunching the numbers in detail to a true Arsenal great. Thanks for watching.

-Rick

[tytsports]

I'm sure he'll miss you too.

-Rick

[ameracanadian]

Its very close to my heart, as a loyal gooner.Van Persie has been 'loyal' for 8 years He's stuck around, You have to give him credit for that But it's a bit odd that he has stated that he won't be signing with Arsenal even though his contract doesn't end till next season. It's definitely hard cuz the gooners out there are SO LOYAL, it just hurts everyone I do have to say if he leaves like Nasri, i will have a grudge But if he leaves like Cesc I'll still love him No matter what i'll miss him.

[MadMako]

I only started following Arsenal just last August, so I missed out on "the glory years". For that reason, I particularly appreciated your analysis of Van Persie's appearances, scoring averages, and lack of "consistent greatness" in contrast to Henry.

[alxdnld]

no one owes anything to anyone in football, RvP was a fantastic player for arsenal and true fans are grateful for the time he spent with us and the things we achieved through him. We do not have the type of club that will pay £250 000 per week, so there was never any question that he would stay. As I said with Cole, Clichy, and Nasri, pro sports players have an extremely short career length, so expecting them to turn down a 2 or 3 fold wage increase is crazy. Best of luck robin.

[colmo]

Really good video. I'm not an Arsenal fan, but RVP can hardly be blamed for wanting to make his mark somewhere else and take on new challenges. Nearly every player does this at some stage in their career, and at least RVP has been respectful about it.

[ThePrinceOrtmayer]

fair point Wigan should be a pushover but the Shield is still the only silverware Moyes will deliver in his first season. He's a decent manager but not THE best.

[gnarls]

Plus I'm an arsenal fan and we have good forwards now even without him. The thing we need is defenders far more than anything else

[conrad]

Excellent video Rick, really interesting.

[mutatedlavalamp]

WTF is 7AMKickoff on about? They seem to believe that the only club in the world that could provide RVP with what every other footballer in the world needs is Arsenal. Are they honestly suggesting that United or Barca fans can't provide RVP with rehab, can't pay him to train, can't provide him with world-class facilities? Bullshit. He has no legal obligation to show loyalty to a club. This is his profession, and it makes absolute sense to move clubs if he wants to. Welcome to the real world.

[joqqeman]

I am an Arsenal fan for quite a while, and maybe the sense of betrayal influences my opinion, but I think he should be sold if the club can get good money from the trade. In hindsight, maybe selling Henry was a bad idea, but in this case the injury history and obvious willingness to move away should count more than short term ambition for next season. Problem is of course what the effect will be on other players, one big acquisition would of course soothe some nerves of players and fans alike.

[joqqeman]

Yeah as long as he's ready to play the reminder of his contract and risk injury limiting his options next summer.

[jamesahmed]

its important to recognize that during the talks money was never mentioned, he loves arsenal, he loves the fans, however the club is moving further away from trophies, you can develop players but once they are ready made you have to keep them on, example Giggs Scholes & Neville. Man city, they have a range of ages, Arsenal have one age category and thats young

[ErskineSam]

Is this Breaking News coming in, because I haven't heard it yet

[JamesAColemanFan]

They will keep him until his contract runs out, out of principle. Because thats the kind've brains Arsenal have.

[Poirier]

I think they should sell him before the season starts. If he was to play out his contract, he wouldn't play at his full capability, because he'd be thinking about joining different clubs, which would have an effect on his performance. The fans booing wouldn't help, either.

[bluemoonrising]

I'm going to be honest and say that I think Van Persie would have a lot more grace about him than to join another Premier League club, though I would of course be delighted if Samir Nasri, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gael Clichy put a word in and he followed them to us (Manchester City).
I think if he does leave, which probably won't be until next year anyway (when his contract officially finishes), he'll go to Spain or Italy.

[SonofRa]

as an arsenal fan i hope he goes anywhere but Man City
the fans would truly hate him for that. i know i would be really ticked off