Manchester United Agree van Persie Fee

By Nick Lander

Arsenal have announced that the club has reached an agreement with Manchester United over the transfer of talismanic striker Robin van Persie.

The Dutchman was in prolific form last season, bagging 37 goals in 48 appearances for the Gunners. He will head to Manchester on Thursday to complete a medical and agree terms on a £24m transfer. It is believed that the Red Devils will be offering a 4 year deal worth somewhere around £200,000 per week.

United initially bid about £15m for the 29-year-old as they had doubts over the fitness of a player who will have very little resale value. However, Arsenal adopted a hard-line stance when van Persie publicly stated his intentions to shun any new deal back at the beginning of July and kept that up, forcing Sir Alex Ferguson to pay over £20m. In reality, to get the sort of money the club has for a player with only a year remaining on his current deal and a troublesome injury record is fantastic business.

The Gunners have already signed strikers Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud this summer, and will be hoping that they can adequately replace the latest captain to quit the club. Arsenal may now sign an additional striker, with Athletic Bilbao's Fernando Llorente one of the favourites to move to N5.

Van Persie burned his bridges with the club when he released his statement in July, and many fans will now be glad to see that he will be leaving the club. The saga is over, and with long enough left in the window to properly adapt, without the supermarket-sweep-like deadline day that was seen at the club in August 2011. It is, however, yet another summer, in which Arsenal fans feel betrayed and let down by one of their stars. Fabregas and Nasri last year, Adebayor before that. Robin van Persie is sure to be in for a rocky reception when he returns to the Emirates in April.

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Arsenal's Llorente Interest Grows

Is Llorente (R) a possible van Persie replacement?

By Nick Lander

With Robin van Persie now set for pastures new, attention is now turning to who, if anybody, will be brought into the club as a replacement. There has been low level speculation that Fernando Llorente would leave Athletic Bilbao for a while now, and his name has been quietly linked with a move to N5. However with van Persie's departure now more a formality than a possibility, the speculation is growing stronger.

The 27 year old Spaniard scored 28 goals for Bilbao last season, a respectable tally, and enough to earn him a call up to Spain's victorious Euro 2012 squad. At 6ft 5in Llorente has the physical presence that should make any adaptation to the more physical style of the Premier League easier. I did not manage to see too much of him last season, but from what I did, Llorente seems to be a striker from the same mould as van Persie, if slightly less likely to drop deep and link up play.

The stumbling block may be his £28m release clause, a figure that Arsenal will never agree to. He is, however, in the same situation as van Persie is in North London, as he only has a year to run on his contract. Something that means Bilbao may be open to negotiate a more reasonable fee, likely to be between £15m and £20m.

The Gunners have also been linked with moves for Fiorentina's Stevan Jovetic and Borussia Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski to replace Robin van Persie, but out of Jovetic, Lewandowski and Llorente, the Spaniard is probably the better player. I for one, would be happy to see him arrive at the Emirates.

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