Do Arsenal risk losing a fee and hope the striker can help the team qualify for the Champions League?
For a consecutive summer, Arsenal are involved in an extensive transfer saga for their captain and star player. Robin Van Persie, who scored 30 league goals last season, announced on 4th July via his personal website that he would not be extending his contract at the club and with only a year left to run, the situation leaves the North London club with a decision to either cash in on their star player – Manchester United, City and Juventus are interested – whilst he holds a significant fee or risk losing him on a free transfer.
What Arsenal must assess is the value that Van Persie would bring to the club if they were to keep hold of the player. If Van Persie’s goals were taken out from last campaign’s league season, Arsenal would have finished 16th. The compelling statistic is highly hypothetical, and since then Arsenal have signed Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud to negate their reliance on Van Persie. Increasingly however, Arsenal look susceptible to missing out on Champions League qualification; last term they were a point away from dropping into the Europa League. The potential sale of Van Persie could see Arsenal lose their difference-maker in Champions League qualification.
Arsenal are reportedly holding out for a £25m fee, which roughly equates to the figure they would receive for competing in the Champions League. In the 2010/11 season, the club earned £24.5m after progressing to the round of 16 before losing to eventual winners Barcelona. The club are noticeably hedging their bets in how Van Persie’s future would affect the club’s finances. If Van Persie were to stay and repeat his performances from last season, the club could be confident of Champions League qualification and even if the 28-year-old leaves on a free transfer, the player’s contribution would be tantamount to the monetary gains from participation in Europe’s lucrative competition.
As yet it remains to be seen whether Van Persie will leave this summer. Juventus and United have had £15m bids rebuffed and Roberto Mancini is in dispute with his superiors over his insistence to sign the player at whatever cost. Ideally, for the prudent Arsenal board, Van Persie would be able to command the desired £25m fee and the club would still qualify for the Champions League. Indeed, club legend Thierry Henry insisted thus that Arsenal would move on accordingly without Van Persie as they did with him.
Arsenal fans will want to avoid another transfer saga that draws into the start of the season but the potential sale of their talisman will boil down to the club’s confidence in their new acquisitions to replace Van Persie’s goals and pursue Champions League qualification. If Giroud and Podolski can adequately replace the Dutchman, the club will surely cash in even at a lower price for the player.
Yet, if the new signings struggle to adapt to the Premier League, Van Persie may be called upon to fire Arsenal into the Champions League in a swansong season.
images: © Ronnie Macdonald, © Ronnie Macdonald
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