OK I've just deleted this whole post and I've started re-doing it because what I wrote first just didn't really sound right. So this is take 2. Now I've been saying all season about how we need to sign him up and how we needed to do this, I should be gutted. Quite frankly I'm really not. I don't know why. Possible because I've seen this done a million times with Arsenal, I've seen bigger players leave and more important and honestly better players leave (Cesc, Henry). But mainly because when I wrote this the first time I read it through and thought: but was robin really all that? 8 years and he had one blinding season and now his head has doubled in size.
His statement quite frankly was baffling. I don't understand why he would release it in the way it was worded. The club he spent all season saying he loved and he basically said I've outgrown you. Somewhere up in the crazy dutch mind of his, he thought he was saying the right thing and let us down lightly. That completely backfired. The hero-to-zero tag is definitely what happened in this case. Fans aren't stupid we all know that by saying what he did, he drove his transfer value down, meaning of course when he signs, his wages can be higher. I genuinely thought he was better than that.
I know last season he effectively won us 3rd place, but apart from last season did he really do much? I don't think so. Reports say we're going to be offered £22m, remembering he will be 29 before the season starts, I think that's a decent sum for a player whose reached his peak and has had one good season. But now everyone is asking should we sell or should we hold him to his contract.
Being brutally honest we HAVE to sell now. We've been in this situation before and we know the consequences of holding out and having the whole thing explode in our face. With the new season upon us in around a month and a half, we need to reinvest and we need to do it soon. But will Arsenal re-invest? This is what really gets supporters wound up, we sell these players OK, we don't have much influence over that but the money seems to disappear into some account somewhere. I can already see what the excuse will be this time "We bought 2 new strikers already, what more do you want?"
Staying is now the worst possible scenario for him, does he really think the fans will so willingly take him back? I am saying this now, IF he did stay for the last season, I will not cheer any goal he scores. I'm pretty sure there are many the same out there.
But at a club that isn't built around him I can't see him being anywhere near as prolific. Another name in a team of individuals, we saw it at the Euros, he will flop next season, mark my word!
