Tag Archive for Robin van Persie

Wenger Still Has Fire In His Belly

April 25, 2013 Arsenal, Guest Bloggers 14 comments

On NLIR today I am delighted to welcome Martijn Stolze (@hahostolze) . Martijn is a Dutch history student with a love for Britain and has been a Gooner since 1997. Martijn has written an extremely emotive piece and I’m sure you’re going to love it. Grab a beverage and strap in for an epic ride.Take it away Martijn…..

You can’t blame Arsène Wenger if over the last two or three seasons he has looked glum, burnt out and tired. You can’t blame him if he has felt despondent and absolutely lost. This is a man whose love for Arsenal FC is absolute and unequivocal.  But also a man who has seen his hard work, on one of his finest generations, fail and falter at the last hurdle too many times, and seen the lure of money and glory rip apart the teams he set about to mould in his image. A man who was on par with the greatest manager in PL history when the influx of money set the PL alight. Yet during recent weeks Arsène Wenger seems a man repossessed. The fire in his belly that drove his incessant desire for perfection, for better, for prettier, seems to be roaring at its fullest again. And just when we needed it.

Very few things are as harsh on a person as their position in history. In the last few days the glory of Sir Alex Ferguson has been sung by all those who love him, need to suck up to him or those who respect the man’s achievements. Looking through the Guardian’s review of the titles he won it makes it very obvious that the only man who consistently got close to his all conquering teams was Arsène Wenger. But Arsène Wenger is not a man en vogue today. He is not popular. His legacy isn’t being remembered the way it should. Not even with some of the fans of the club he has helped into one of the biggest and most valuable in footballing history. That has got to sting. I know it stings me. Read more

Quitting Arsenal Was A Mistake

January 3, 2013 Arsenal 93 comments

First things first, Happy New Year my dear readers, thank you for stopping by.

I had a little trouble writing today’s title. I had so many things to call it but I thought if the title mentioned the name of the person this blog is mostly about that it wouldn’t get read at all.

The various titles I had were “Why United are a one-man team”, “Robin should never have left, here’s why”, “RvP made a big mistake moving to United” etc.

Still with me? Phew… the name didn’t have you reaching for the hammer to smash whatever device you are reading this on then. Good, I’m glad we can be adults about this ‘person’ ;-) .

I believe that Robin made a mistake leaving Arsenal despite what the table says.

Robin said recently that he is playing in a team of champions, a nasty dig at Arsenal many Gooners felt.

I’d argue that Robin is the champion and he left a team of could be’s to join a team of could be’s. I know many will argue that United finished 2nd without him and Arsenal finished 3rd with him but that doesn’t take into account the signings Arsenal and United have made, the improvement in Arsenal’s defending, their weak area from last season nor does it consider the weakness of United’s defence at the back end of last season and carried on into this.

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The Coward Does It With A Kiss: Goodbye Robin, Now We Look To The Future

August 15, 2012 Arsenal 32 comments

There are most likely hundreds of RVP articles on blogs at this very moment in time and there will be many more over the next few days so I apologise for giving you yet another however I doubt this will be read by many. Some of my fellow bloggers will blame the club and profess their continued love for Robin whilst others will blame him and declare it as greed.

We’ve all known deep down inside that this was going to happen but I must admit I didn’t expect it to cut so deeply.

After Cesc I believed that I was prepared. After our strong summer signings I believed that I would brush off Van Persie leaving when it eventually came around.

I was wrong.

I foolishly allowed myself to believe that Robin loved the club and have tried to rationalise potential moves but I cannot rationalise our captain and talisman leaving for Manchester United.

I do feel betrayed and I do feel let down.

A true friend stabs you in the front.
― Oscar Wilde

I lost all respect for Robin when he released that statement in July but I held on to the words he spoke many times about always being a Gooner. Saying you will always be a Gooner and then joining United is like saying you’ll never be a racist and then donating money to the BNP. Okay maybe that’s a little melodramatic but it’s bloody close!

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man with a sword.

― Oscar Wilde

The coward does it with a kiss

However…. underneath that disappointment and feeling of betrayal there is a simmering hope and innate sense of relief.

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Wenger And Arsenal Do It Again! Time To Win

August 6, 2012 Arsenal, Transfers 98 comments

The year is 1999 and Arsenal have just finished the season without a trophy. They have been comprehensively beaten by an inspired Chelsea by 5 goals to nil in the Worthington Cup, have exited the Champions League in 3rd spot behind Lens in 2nd and group winners Dynamo Kyiv, lost the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United in extra-time and missed out on the league on the final day of the season to Manchester United by 1 point. (Incidentally United conceded 37 goals that year and still won the league, Arsenal conceded 17 and finished 2nd. These days “defensive frailties” are often quoted as a reason for not winning the league but I would suggest that United’s 80 goals scored to our 59 and Man City winning the league on goal difference shows that attack is quite often the best form of defence.)

Giggs knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup

Arsenal had started the season poorly with 4 draws and a loss before the end of September leaving them with just 10 points and though they fought extremely hard to get back into title contention they ultimately finished the season pot-less and with a bitter taste in their mouth. Things for the fans were about to get worse.

Picked up for £500,000, free scoring Nicolas Anelka looked to be the buy of the century until Real Madrid came calling and Anelka left in a £22.3m deal. Financially it was very good for the club but having come so close to retaining the title and with no prolific striker in the ranks with Ian Wright having left the summer before the fans were understandably tetchy and worried about our ability to compete.

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Will Cazorla Signing See Theo Move Into The Middle?

July 23, 2012 Arsenal, Transfers 9 comments

Santi Cazorla, the latest player Arsenal have been linked with and the latest player the ITK types have claimed we are definitely signing is my focus today although I do not claim to be an expert on him but I may have watched him more than The Boss as Wenger is reported as saying “Who is this guy?”. It would seem that Wenger is not interested in the player but Wenger not being interested usually means we are interested although I do think The Boss is being genuine when he says that M’Vila isn’t on his radar. I said for ages that I was sceptical about that deal and was sceptical if he was the player we need or not so I am not surprised that Wenger has poured water on that one and don’t expect it to be diversionary. As Wenger said, we have enough cover in midfield with Jack and Diaby coming back to fitness.

Not joining?

I have used various statistics in my blogs before and I appreciate that statistics don’t always tell the “full story” however I think that statistics, in their raw numeric form, is one of the fairest ways an average fan can judge a player. Statistics are often used to enforce a point and if the statistics say something that goes against a certain person’s view you can be sure that person will trot out the “stats aren’t everything” line. A great example of this could be Denilson or even Ramsey, both have very high pass accuracy % and the fans of these players will point to this and say “look, they are good passers” those in the opposite camp will say “yeah but how many of those were sideways and backwards passes?” to support their point. I just stick with numbers; I don’t agree with questioning statistics because we don’t agree with them or because they don’t fit our own views. I believe you have to accept statistics as they are or you have to take a hell of a lot of things into consideration that you may never have thought of before. I say this because I am going to use statistics to explore an idea or opinion if you will, that I have. What I am writing are my own thoughts and not fact – I feel the need to say that as I’ve had a few trolls on twitter jumping on everything I tweet as if I am claiming it all to be Gospel – alas I digress.

On to the main event – I believe that the time has come for Theo Walcott to move up front and I believe that the potential signing of Santiago Cazorla (if Wenger works out who he is ;) ) will enable this.

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