Revisionist history?Robin_L wrote:Did he spend 9 years malingering on our treatment table? This is some quite startling revisionist history from some Arsenal supporters.DB10GOONER wrote:I don't think you understand my point here. What offends me is not RVJC leaving. Players leave - it happens. What offends me is the way his actions have been justified by some Gooners as the actions of a normal decent person, as if his actions shouldn't be questioned or criticised. People coming on here saying he shouldn't get abuse for what he did. THAT's what I disagree with. If he had questioned the club's ambition and walked out on his 100K a week after, I dunno say, 4 years lying on our treatment table because the club didn't match his ambition I'd say fine, no problem. But to spend 9 years malingering on our treatment table, being paid millions, and never once question the club, and then after the one banker of a season he suddenly now questions the club and cashes in for a move to the Filth? That's the actions of a cúnt.BFG4 wrote:I'm not suggesting that I'm happy for players to show fuck all loyalty, but I think its illogical to expect it in the modern game. You could argue, that academy players aside, every player shows disloyalty to move somewhere else. I still don't know what you expected RVP to do. Lets put it this way, we all support the club, and can still see the clear problems that exist from top to bottom, but we love the club, so we are forced to put up with it. However, a player who knows it's his job, is hardly going to put up with these same problems, when he is being offered a better deal somewhere else. Each to their own, but I don't believe any player in modern day football, loves the team they play for, and you can include any of our current squad within that. I support whoever puts on an Arsenal jersey on, but I don't believe for a second, that there isn't a price, that wouldn't see them go somewhere else.DB10GOONER wrote:Absolute horseshit. If any other player from that team (the ones that had earned the right by playing) had questioned the club's ambition I'd say fair fucks, but not that cúnt. You paint him (the bit in red) as if he was some kind of Honest John, and that the only issue was on the club's side, when in reality, he was a hypocrite. I ask you again; why did he not question the club's ambition during his years sitting on the treatment table?BFG4 wrote:I think expecting loyalty in modern day football is just silly. RVP sat down with Wenger, and Wenger showed he had fuck all ambition. So RVP was left with two choices. (a) stay in the never ending 4th place cycle, and win fuck all, or (b) join a team with actual title aspirations. In fairness, he achieved more in the couple of seasons he spent at united, then we have as a club, in over a decade. The idea that he should have somehow shown loyalty to a club that had zero ambition is laughable, especially when you consider, nearly everyone on here, was criticising our lack of ambition, up until he left.
"Expecting" loyalty might seem silly to you, but demanding it is not - not to me anyway. I have no idea how old you are, but in my generation, you earned the right to do something, you demonstrated loyalty, you contributed, you earned the right to have an opinion, you weren't entitled to it. But it's now right for a player that has contributed fuck all to dictate things?? Fuck that.
To excuse disloyalty like it's nothing smacks of everything that stinks about modern football - something nearly everyone on here has criticised for years...
Van Persie's appearances for Arsenal, all comps: 41, 38, 31, 23, 44, 19, 33, 48. He made a total of 277 appearances across 8 seasons, averaging over 34 a season.
Let's compare this with Jack Wilshere. I'll chalk off his first two development seasons, so let's say we've had 6 full seasons of Jack Wilshere, post-Bolton loan. He totals 142 apps in that time, or around 23 a season.
Tomas Rosicky. 247 apps in 10 seasons, less than 25 a season. Wally Walcott, a player who most wouldn't even place in the highest bracket of Arsenal's injured contingent, he's on 321 from his 10 full seasons here, 32 a season. Less than Walcott.
van Persie's had 2 seasons out of 8 that were properly injury disrupted and even in those he appeared in nearly half our league games.
So all in all, this whole thing that's sprung up about 'greedy disloyal van Persie constantly injured year after year and then fucking off his one goal-heavy season' is just bollocks, there's no other way to say it. He gave the best years of his career to this club, was surrounded for most of it by sub-standard mediocrity and an increasingly flawed manager. I don't blame him at all for jumping ship to claim a nailed on title with United. Not one bit.
Coming from you that's hilarious! Love your dishonest use of stats to back a dead argument.
"Van Persie's appearances for Arsenal, all comps: 41, 38, 31, 23, 44, 19, 33, 48."
Yeah... maximise the stats without qualifying them. Include as many cup games as you can there. Piss funny. Now, pull your head out of your arse and take an honest look at his appearances. Especially the word "appearances". That word is disingenuous. That's the number of times he got on the pitch, whether it was for 90 minutes or 10 minutes, whether as a starter or a sub. It doesn't mean he put in that number of full games.
He is specifically associated with wanting to win the PL and with Arsenal not matching that ambition. So let's look at his PL "appearances".
04/05 = 26
05/06 = 24
06/07 = 22
07/08 = 15
08/09 = 28
09/10 = 16
10/11 = 25
11/12 = 38
That's not full games either, it includes numerous subs and going off injured. And there was me thinking the PL season was 38 full games! He managed ONE full season in 8 seasons with us.
One "goal heavy" season?? Exactly. In those 8 seasons he only hit 20+ PL goals ONCE and indeed he only managed double figures at all 4 times. In the big scheme of things his contribution was nothing but the odd spectacular goal.
"He gave the best years of his career to this club"
None of the utter gash you have posted above changes the fact he could have questioned the club's ambition at any time during that period and he didn't. He just took his millions and stayed shtum. What RVJC has to do with any of those other players you list is beyond me. The discussion was about RVJC. But hey, try and justify your argument any way you can!
). The choice was stay and finish his short career a loser,as he owed the fans..or...leave and achieve/win something elsewhere, although it hurts, he made the right choice for him.
