RVP Booing: by SV
Yesterday Arsenal gave an absolute twatting to what was, in fairness, a decidedly average Cologne side. Our skipper – and he is still our skipper – got about twenty minutes of game time. He got, in fact, just enough game time to leave his situation in a state of complete ambiguity. He didn’t get enough game time to really make an impact and play to his fullest level (which might have indicated he was staying), but neither did he not play at all (which would have certainly indicated his departure).
He got, as Sky Sports put it, a ‘lukewarm’ reaction from the crowd. The Sun have been reporting that he was booed but, though there were boos, the commentator said they were coming from the Cologne end, and were due to the Dutch/German rivalry. He wasn’t given his usual rapturous backing, that’s for sure, but I definitely heard a chorus of ‘(Robin Van Persie), he scores when he wants’ during the second half.
The reason for this indifferent reaction to Van Persie must be his statement. It can’t be because of anything else, because he hasn’t actually left the club yet. Fans claim that RVP, in his statement, disrespected our great club. I do see where they’re coming from, as the statement openly questioned our policy, a subject which he – as a mere player – has no right to talk about. Nevertheless, he did, several times, talk about how much he respected Wenger, or players and our fans.
If you want to know what a really disrespectful statement looks like, here’s a statement that was brought to my attention on Twitter, made by our ‘legend’ Patrick Vieira:
“I need to leave because I want to win more trophies and I just cannot see that happening at Arsenal. Certainly not over the next few years, anyway. Comparing Arsenal to the big clubs in Europe this season is going to be quite ridiculous. I do not honestly see Arsenal finishing in the top five in the league – and you can forget the Champions League.”
“When I told Arsene Wenger I was leaving, he said to me, ‘I have £25million to spend on a few players’. My answer was, ‘Obviously, Mr Wenger, you are not shopping in Harrods. That will only buy you one good player.’ Now I have been proved right. Arsene Wenger has signed two hopeful players who haven’t proved themselves in the Premiership yet. One of them is a boy of 20.
“You can’t compete with the best clubs in Europe by making these kind of signings. Arsene Wenger is an ambitious manager and he knows deep in his heart that he needs five world-class players to compete among the best in Europe. With £25million in the kitty, Arsenal is not a great European club. With that budget they won’t even be among the top 20 clubs in Europe.”
I can’t find a date for the statement, but it was made before 2004 – which means that he played at least two full seasons with us after making this statement.
The statement shows two things in my opinion. Firstly, if proves that AFC are willing to hold on to players even if they want to leave. Secondly, it shows that people can’t call Vieira a ‘legend’, not after he said these things about our club. Make no mistake, I greatly appreciate the man, as he captained us with distinction for a number of years, and led us through that great 03/04 season. However, it must be realised that he clearly doesn’t love the club; else he would never have made a statement like this. And, in my opinion, if you don’t love the club, you can’t be a legend. You can be a great servant, but never a legend.
I just wonder which one our current captain will turn out to be…
If you liked this article, you can follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SVGunner.
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