From Manchester United’s official site:
Manchester United is pleased to announce it has reached agreement with Arsenal Football Club for the transfer of Robin Van Persie. The deal is subject to a medical and the agreement of personal terms. A further announcement will be made in due course.
Well, it’s almost over. Going to cry in a corner for a bit.
BREAKING: Man Utd agree £24m deal to sign Robin van Persie from Arsenal. 4-yr deal, terms & medical in next 48 hours
#bbcfootball#afc#mufc— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 15, 2012
Devastating. A joke. Emotionally crippling. Devastating.
As an Arsenal supporter I’d been preparing for this day for a long time. And even so I sit here in shock. Any title ambition the club once had is dead. They’ve sold their star to arguably their biggest rival. Forgive me if I can’t champion this bit of ‘good business’ right now. When it rains it pours.
On August 15th 2011 Arsenal sold their captain, Cesc Fabregas. Exactly one year later the Gunners have done it again.
BAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFFFFF.
18 brilliant months out of 8 years.
He won a vital 3rd placed trophy. United are wasting their money when they need to strengthen in other areas of their team.
and where van persie is is an area where united needed to strengthen in.
He’s going to be more hated than Ashley Cole, Nasri and Abebayor combined now at the Emirates.
Could anyone be more hated than Ashley Cole?
Not with stuff like this http://yfrog.com/h7i4jsoj
I Hate to be the Dick Manchester United Fan here but…. ROBIN VAN PERSIE is heading to UNITED!!! I agree with Tom he will be hated more than Cole, Nasri and Abebayor.
I hope Ryan Giggs discreetly impregnates RvP’s wife.
wow…thats all i can say…i find tha difficult to stomach..we should have sold him to Juve 4 half the price..United of all places man…what was Arsene thinking…
I couldn’t be any happier. Fantastic deal for Arsenal for a few reasons, some of you may disagree but I don’t care. ( only if we invest it back into the squad ) . Here is why I think so
1. 24 million for a 29 year old with just one year to go.
2. He won’t hinder Olivier Giroud and Podoski’s progress.
3. Definitely going to get injured sooner or later.
4. We got an unhappy high earning player off the books
5. The off field disruption is gone so we can focus on football now.
He is definitely going to regret it for the rest of his life. I really hope Arsenal win the title this season to shove it up his ass. Wenger must be gutted that the ones he stood by during their hard times have no loyalty whatsoever
2: Both strikers are in their mid-twenties. There’s very little development to be done – they’re either good, or they aren’t. Lukas Podolski has, by and large, been a bust on the club level. Giroud had one good season in the French league, after playing most of his early career in the third and second division in France. Trust me, Wenger’s looking for another forward as we speak.
And what, exactly, is RVP going to regret about going to a team that is a CL favourite, EPL favourite, worldwide brand that spends money on talent? Wenger’s players stood by him, not the other way around. 0 trophies in eight years is bloody absurd.
RvP’s injury record is a major reason why our trophy drought has been so long. Has one good season in eight and leaves? dirty…
Perhaps not development but adjustment time is needed for those foreign players. RvP could have helped them through it; now there’s a lot of pressure on them.
And…Podolski has not been a bust at club level: he’s played for Koln. Scoring one goal for that team would be a minor miracle; I think he had 18 last season. Earning 100 German caps while playing for Koln is like starring for England while playing for like Wigan or something.
Utd. spend money on talent, a lot of unwisely. 30 million for Berbatov, really? Let’s not get into Bebe.. I hope and pray that this latest deal is as big an albatross as those two.
I keep hearing this “One good season in eight” and am confused as hell. Just going off his goal-scoring charts alone, he had three seasons with 20+ goals, 2 with 15+ assists. Until the past couple seasons, he was always splitting time up front (Henry, Eduardo, Adebayor). And while his injury record is certainly unfortunate, other great players have had similar – or worse – injury fates than RVP. There’s a reason Man City has 4 or 5 quality strikers. They lost Tevez for 80% of the season and won the league. It’s not an excuse for Arsenal.
Podolski has been a bust at club level. THERE is a guy who had one good season out of seven. THERE is a guy who has NEVER lived up to his potential, especially during the years he spent at Bayern so don’t blame it on his playing for Koln. . He earned 100 German caps because, for whatever reason, he has always performed far above his club level for country.
Dan I tell you why ? .
Both Podolski and Giroud are on equal footing ( though not at RVP’s level they are very very good and capable scorers in their own right ), and both of them would get equal playing time, neither of them is going to be indispensible like RVP was, thats why Chamakh suffered thats not RVP’s fault anyway. Chamakh was not good but not utterly rubbish either. How was a player supposed to score when he gets no playing time at all ?. His confidence suffered and he went down the drain
RVp is no longer gonna be revered anywhere like the way he was at Arsenal, thats what he is gonna regret.
By the way can you name a few who stood by Wenger ?,rather it was the other way around that was true.
Don’t get me wrong I also wished his stay but his statements a month ago were inflammatory and disloyal. Fortunate for him that Manu saved him at the last moment when all his calculations went tits up
The fact that no player has come out and say “the team’s going nowhere and I want out” is frankly a miracle. They don’t wanna pay market prices for players. Say what you want about Ashley Cole, but when one team offers you 55k/week and another offers 90k/week, what are you going to do? Any big club in the world would have taken Ashley Cole for the past six years at that kinda money. Fabregas and RVP gave Wenger years to put out a winning squad and he couldn’t do it. Time to move on. I suggest to Arsenal fans to not take this personal like they always do. The guy’s 29 and wants to win, Man U thought it good business and it got done. Hope your team signs another striker and be happy.
As a United fan, I think this some bad business. He’s 29, had 1 good season, and breaks like a rice cake. £24m would be better spent on a quality midfielder.
Man U will make that money back in jersey sales with RVP’s name in the first three months. If he helps you to even one Champions League, he’s one of their best signings in recent memory, maybe since CR7.
I think their mid is fine man. Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, and hopefully Fletch later this year gives you the experience. Then Cleverley, Anderson and Kagawa (loved this signing) for the younger side. Powell’s up and coming. Nani, Young and Valencia on the wings. Slot in Rooney and Welbeck on occasion…The only true poacher United had at their disposal that fits in right now is Hernandez. Welbeck is still learning his trade, and it doesn’t seem like Berb fits in anymore. Not that he ever really did. As far as true strikers, in my opinion…RVP brings United’s total to two.
Giggs, Carrick. Cleverley, Anderson. I’d argue Song, Arteta and Wilshere are better midfield options than the United ones I just listed. So no, our midfield is not fine.
Welbeck’s gotta be pissed lol. Signs a new contract yesterday and today he’s consigned to the bench for the next 4 years. Hernandez and Berbatov surely will be looking for the exit door now.
I am a United fan and unless Rooney and RVP staggers their injuries, it won’t do much for the team.
I’m sure they are both planning on being injured together.
When I saw that RvP finally got transfered to United, my heart sank and my stomach felt quesy. I don’t know why the club would sell him to United, one of their biggest rivals. But it’s all about the all mighty dollar isn’t?
Well we got 18 lovely months of good service out of 8 seasons. Agreed with Tom, he’s going to be more hated than Ashley Cole, Nasri and Abebayor combined now at the Emirates. And I totally agree with the sentiments of venky that Wenger has stood by his so called “loyal” players all all jumping ship as soon as money comes calling. Loyalty and honor has no place in football no more.
They should’ve sold him to a foreign team for pennies, rather than send one of the deadliest strikers on the planet to a team that was once your biggest rival (their rivals now are Newcastle, Everton, Fulham because that’s the class of their squad). I just can’t understand this from Arsenal’s POV.
If Conte hadn’t been banned, I’m sure Arsenal would have.
Ahhhh I knew he was going to go as a Gooner I have mixed emotions…Venky i agree with you 100% but we know arsene wont’t want to play giroud and podolski so hard at the start of the season and that could get us behind.
Man U good luck i know think he will get injured or him and rooney will not get along…or i could be wrong and a damn good duo up front but man i hate man u
I want to see arsene spend this money this season,..giving there is 2 weeks or so left not gonna happen
Rooney and RVP on the same pitch. I think this is a bit of a big, flashy distract the fans from financial stuff move, but honestly… consider me distracted.
i want to see how this Arsenal fan reacts to the news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKksMZdJdgY
Anxiously awaiting the same thing TG.
HAHAHA that is fantastic!
Apparently from Sczczesny’s facebook page: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/418765_10151128006019113_805266982_n.jpg
A soccer player lied. Shock.
Don’t think that is Wojciech’s official account.
yeah probably not, I was reading another blog, and that’s what that person said. It seems like something Wojeich would do; he’s very outspoken. Thought it’d be worth a post.
And to Dan, that earlier statement is why RvP’s statement from a few weeks ago hurts and Gooners are angry. Nasri and Clichy leave? who cares. They weren’t with us for that long and I don’t remember Clichy having a personality. The fact that RvP said that and made us believe it with his play makes it harder, if not impossible, to forgive
Player movement is part of the game and I think any reasonable fans gets it. There’s a right and a wrong way to leave, however. RvP could have been a legend. Now….
I’m an FC Porto fan and last year our coach, who grew up in Porto and was coaching the team he supported his entire life, spent the month after he led us to the Europa League win saying “I am going for the Champions League with this team. Nobody is leaving.” A month later, he was coaching Chelsea and Porto sold one of the world’s best strikers shortly after, ostensibly believing (correctly) that the new coach wouldn’t be able to achieve similar results. RVP grew up in Holland, not North London. He didn’t come through the academy. He didn’t win you guys a thing. And now he’s going somewhere he actually has a chance of getting trophies. He spoke to the Arsenal brass and it was quite clear that Arsenal was never going to be the club buying superstars for 30-40 million. He wants that, and at his age he’s entitled to it.
I just read (in the Telegraph) that the deal is 15 million pounds upfront rising to 22 million pounds with bonuses etc. Keep in mind I have only seen this in the Telegraph so it could be incorrect, but if it is true, it doesn’t seem like such a bad deal.
(Sorry for not using the British Pound symbol, but I could never figure out how to get it to work)