RIP RVP

Well, the news is official. After months of back and forth and one media report after another turning out false, Robin Van Persie has walked out the Arsenal door for the last time. The destination for those not following the story, is hated rival Manchester United. This means in the past few years we have seen beloved Gunners leave for a host of our closest rivals including Ashley Cole and Nickolas Anelke to Chelsea, Emmanuel Adebajor to Tottenham (through the back door), Patrick Viera (in management), Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy to Man City (after a stop in Inter), Cesc Fabergas and Terry Henry to Barca and now RvP to Manchester United. It is a depressing list and shows how far the team has fallen since the glory of the late 90s and early aughts. But in this case, it was probably good business. Van Persie didn't want to stay and ensured that a transfer would eventually go through by posting the infamous note on his website openly criticizing Wenger and the board. Even as Wenger has now brought in three great new signings, it seems RvP's time was up.

I don't want to spend too long dwelling on Van Persie, who unlike Fabergas, Henry and Viera, I refuse to forgive for leaving. He is like too many athletes these days from Dwight Howard to Lebron James to Nasri who would rather transfer to a de facto all-star team and win then actually earn it like, say, Jordan or Arsenal themselves did. It seems pretty clear that money played a big part here, but one has to make the point that Van Persie played a part in many of our near misses over the past few seasons, from the sitter he missed against AC Milan to the failure to convert against Birmingham in the Carling, to the red card against Barca in the second leg the season before last, to all the finals, semis and quarters of cups he missed through injury. He had one great year and decided to cash in and leave a club that loved him, and that pretty much sums up what I think of him now. Adieu, adieu!

The problem, of course, is replacing him. Arsenal has a great mix of seasoned talent and youth now, but do they have a leader they can trust in the crunch? Without RvP, I am worried the answer might be no. We will have to see how Podolski and Giroux handle the pressure and physicality of the Premiership, how they jell with the other players and whether they can hold up for a season (though the friendly Sunday certainly gives one some hope on the first two counts). I believe Cazorla will be a revelation and that Chamberlain will have an outstanding campaign. I still worry about our defensive line-up, and our holding midfielder, if the other big rumor surrounding Arsenal comes true and Song departs for Barca. But we are still being linked with some interesting names and one hopes we use the 24 million or so pounds we get for "the traitor" (as he will henceforth be known), to do more business. Among the most promising are the creative Turkish midfielder Sahin, striker Llorente and Meirellas (sorry, to lazy to check spelling on this). In any case, more to follow, but I remain cautiously hopeful that we will finish fourth in the EPL, win no trophies and Wenger will again proclaim it a success (just kidding). Go Gunners! F-U Robin!