[h=1]The man to trust at Arsenal is not RVP, Usmanov or Kroenke... it's Wenger[/h] By
Des Kelly
Arsene Wenger is not the problem at Arsenal. He never has been. He never will be. The Arsenal manager is one of the few men at the top of the game in this country who still appears to have a grasp on reality.
He is loyal to his club, even when billionaire oafs banging on the boardroom door clearly do not deserve his discretion. Wenger is loyal to his players, too, although many have let him down.
Above all he is loyal to his principles and his beliefs, ignoring the fickle whining from ungrateful fans and the tubby, executive-box clowns spluttering their chin-wobbling indignation over Robin van Persies departure into a glass of Chablis.
Cheerio: Robin van Persie has told Arsenal he wants out of the club
No! No! How can we lose him? they cry like giddy, teenage Justin Bieber fans. They demand Wenger must answer for this or go!, summoning up all their ignorance and parading it on Twitter. These people are cretins. They should be ignored.
The problem at Arsenal lies all around Wenger. He is beseiged by squabbles in the boardroom, ungrateful whelps in the dressing room and idiotic comment in the chatrooms.
[h=3]
[/h]Right now, Van Persie is trying to pull off a very obvious con trick. The Dutchman, crowned Footballer of the Year after delivering for one season out of an injury-plagued eight, has announced Arsenal do not match my ambition.
Strange that. They certainly seemed to be sufficient for his desires when he was lying on the treatment table collecting the cash. But not any more, it seems.
Ambition makes you look pretty ugly, kicking squealing Gucci little piggy, declared Radiohead. And that is where Van Persie is now. For all his attempts to dress his exit up as some noble search for the Holy Grail he has so far been denied, its still pretty ugly.
He has no right to tell Wenger how to run the club. The Arsenal manager gave him his chance when Feyenoord dumped a young Van Persie on the transfer list for being a cocky pain in the backside.
The Dutchman has now repaid that debt by effectively trashing the quality of Wengers summer signings, Germany striker Lukas Podolski, a 27-year-old striker with more than 100 caps, and the France international and Ligue 1 top scorer, Olivier Giroud, for a combined total of £24million.
By any measure, thats great business. And it is also worth reminding everyone at this point that these excellent acquisitions have been added to a squad that finished third in the table last season.
Thats right, poor Arsenal. They finished only third in the most lucrative and competitive league in the world, behind a Manchester City that spent more money than Croesus to claim the title.
Clowns to the left, jokers to the right: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
Van Persie can do whatever he likes with his own career. He can refuse to sign new contracts, play for whoever he chooses, earn as much as he can and good luck to him in all that.
But to pose and posture as if he is being forced out of the club by their lack of ambition is insulting hogwash at this time. Wenger has undoubtedly bought well this summer and there may be more to come but it sounds as if Van Persie made his decision to let his contract expire long before Podolski and Giroud arrived.
Financial terms arent my priority, claimed the Arsenal captain, however he seems to be chasing the money we all know that because its sure to offer him a better chance of winning a medal.
Just because City have more money than any club in the world, that does not make Wenger less ambitious. Maybe he is just realistic. If Wenger decided Van Persie was worth less than City (or Real Madrid, or whoever) were prepared to offer, then whos to say he is wrong?
For arguments sake, what if Van Persie indicated he could get £240,000 a week elsewhere a substantial hike from his current £100,000 and Wenger took one look at that sum and decided he could not bring himself to hand over an annual rise of £7.3m a year? Would you say he was crazy or quite sane? Personally, Id applaud him.
But, shamefully, the clubs second-largest shareholder Alisher Usmanov jumped on the RVP bandwagon in an attempt to profit from the unrest. He seized the opportunity to stir the pot at Arsenal by hitting out at the principal owner Stan Kroenke. But, since Usmanov has not been given a place on the board despite his 30 per cent stake, we can guess what his motives might be.
The conflict behind the scenes suggests the manager may be fighting with one hand behind his back. But, in all of this, there is one man I would trust to have the best interests of the club at heart.
It is not Van Persie. It is not Kroenke. It is not Usmanov. It is Wenger.