The real reasons as to why Arsenal fans are so angry about Van Persie's departure, ahead of his "return" to the Home of Football this weekend.

I'm back! I am sure you are all absolutely delighted about that. No? Rude! Joking aside, I haven't posted anything since February I believe, a long time indeed. I have just been so busy with University preparing coursework, studying, and more recently revising, attending games and keeping up to date with all things Arsenal of course. I don't expect to write as frequently as I did before again, because I simply don't have the time, however I aim to write articles every now and again, about particular issues that I feel are of interest involving our beloved club.

Hope you enjoy my blog.

Best wishes and UP THE ARSENAL!!

Ollie.

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Throughout the whole of last season two things were going on simultaneously. Our captain and talismanic hero figure, Robin Van Persie, was putting in a string of world class performances week after week, getting us all of our seats, at The Home of Football and all over the world where Arsenal fans were tuning in game after game, to see what our captain and idol would pull off next! Alongisde this, constant speculation was running through all media outlets, surronding his future, the "will he won't he" debates surronding his contract discussions were in full swing, and of course all our fans were hoping and praying for the day when they could turn on their TVs, check twitter and Arsenal.com to see the news that RVP had signed a new deal! Alas, this never happened!! In truth we all know what happened, and it is not an exageration either to say, that we still in some way feel the pain and "betrayl" of what happened.

It is clear now that whilst in public Robin was saying till the end of last season, and all the way to his speech upon winning the PFA Player of the year award, that his future would be decided in the following weeks, in private he had already made up his mind, and had already been is discussions for a matter of months with the two Manchester clubs in particular. He did not renew his contract, he realeased that RIDICULOUS statement where he questioned the clubs ambition, questioned the manager, the board, and quite frankly made an absolute mug of the club, his team mates and perhaps most importantly, considering we paid his wages, the fans!

Now, I want to clear up a few myths about this. I have heard many people looking "in" as it were, from outside the "Arsenal community" saying "oh, you are just bitter because he left" e.t.c. Now for me this is not true, I personally have no problem with him leaving the club per se, because quite frankly it is a fact of life, at some stage in all walks of life, including football, people (players, staff, managers, coaches e.t.c.) all move on to pastures green, in the pursuit of a new lifestyle, a new culture new challenges e.t.c. This is life. Most peopole in normal walks of life however, move on in a respetful and dignified manner, and do not alienate their friends, colleagues and employers at their current office e.t.c. To illustrate this, I still hold the likes of Cesc and Song in high regard, because they left (especially in the case of Cesc) in a dignified manner, and still show respect towards Arsenal. And perhaps MOST importantly, they went abroad where they could not affect Arsenal in a domestic sense. However this was the not the case with Mr Van Persie.

Had he been up front with the fans throughout the season and said something along the lines of "look, I really feel that at the end of the season I need a new challenge, I think it will be good for my family and for myself if we head of for pastures new" blah blah blah, whatever, and then moved somewhere abroad. That would have been absolutely fine, everyone would be reasonably okay with that. As I said, everybody moves on in life at some point. However instead, he continously lied, continously decieved the fans and the club by expressing his love for Arsenal, and telling tales which illustrated the "Class" that he felt Arsenal posses e.t.c whilst hiding the fact that privately he had already practically sealed a move away from the club. Not only was this tapping up on the part of the Manchester clubs, which I still to this day cannot understand how they managed to get away with it, but it was just pure lies and darn right deceitfulness. This is what REALLY bugs with me.

It seems that it was not only the fans he was decieving but also the manager, and his biggest supporter over the years, Arsene Wenger. The boss set out at the beginining of the summer transfer window last year, to really strenghten and to expand the quality of the club's squad, firstly in order to challenge more at the top end of the table, but also in the hope of persuading RVP to stay with the club beyond the end of the exisiting contract he had, clearly beleiving that this was possible! However after the likes of Podolski, Giroud and the quite frankly GOD like Santi Cazorla had been bought in, Van Persie acted to completely tear Arsene's plans apart and force through a move to Arsenal's bitter rivals United (a club who for me are level with Spurs in terms of dislike and rivalry), a move that as I said was pracitcally already sealed, apart from the transfer fee with Arsenal.

In short following these decietful and disrepectful actions, towards a club that quite frankly RVP would be absolutely no where without, the club itself had absolutely no option but to sell. As John Cross said in the mirror this week, his position at the club, not alone as captain, was untenable! However he should have been sold abroad, this is something that all Arsenal fans have been discussing all season. If he had been sold to the likes of Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan e.t.c I honestly don't think the fans would have any real contempt towards him, but to lie to them throughout the season, to decieve them by pretending to love the club e.t.c. and then on top of all of that to force the club into selling to a bitter domestic rival, who he had clearly been talking to throughout all of this, really was the ULTIMATE act of betrayl. That is why, to the non-Arsenal fans that don't understand this contempt, I feel so bitter towards him. After all we (as a club) did for him, after all the support and love that us fans gave him through period of such frustrating injury troubles and so on, to behave like that and to force a move to a domestic rival, who I still believe we would be competing with had we held on to RVP, given the signings we made last summer to complement him, really was as I said the ultimate betrayl!

Therefore this weekend, when I travel to the Home of football once again for what should be a fascinating game, I will be fully expecting an extremely hostile, and angry reception for the man that drove himself from a hero to a villain in a very short space of time and because of the blatant lack of respect and because of the blatant lies that he told. Quite frankly that is what he deserves.

However I must stress that I will not be joining in any chants about his previous rape trial and so on, as I do feel that oversteps the mark! Let's boo, jeer, hiss, whistle e.t.c. whenever he gets the ball, but lets maintain that "class" that he so readily spoke about before, or was that just lies too????

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog