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 Reject van Persie Bids

By Nick Lander

Arsenal are believed to have received and rejected three bids for Robin van Persie this morning. Understood to be from Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus, none of the bids topped £15m, way below the Gunners' £20m asking price.

Van Persie announced that he would not sign an Arsenal contract extension at the beginning of July, and there has been a flurry of speculation since. The striker joined Arsenal for just £2.75m back in 2004 from Feyenoord. With 48 goals in his last 55 Premier League games, van Persie is on form - it took him 139 games to score his first 48 Premiership goals - and the Gunners are unwilling to even enter formal talks with any bidding party until they receive an offer of at least £20m.

Having scored a goal every 111 minutes he was on the pitch in 2011/12 with a league high 58% of his shots on target, it is unsurprising the amount of interest there is in Arsenal's captain. In addition to the three clubs who have already bid, AC Milan are expected to get involved at some stage, and both Real Madrid and Barcelona are understood to have an interest in signing the Dutchman.

Following these bids, van Persie is now set to be left behind from Arsenal's forthcoming Asia tour, in order to work on his fitness (finalise a move elsewhere). If their valuation of their player is not met, Arsenal are believed to be prepared to hold him to the final year of his contract and lose him for nothing next summer.

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Arsenal Confirm Olivier Giroud Capture

Arsenal have confirmed the signature of French striker Olivier Giroud. The 25 year old finished last season as joint top scorer in Ligue 1 (21 goals from 36 appearances) with champions Montpellier. He has joined in a €12m deal, around £9.5m, and his contract will commence on the 1st July.

Giroud said that he is "proud of becoming a Gunner." The move will see him reunited with former Tours teammate Laurent Koscielny, whom he played alongside on the way to winning the Ligue 2 Player of the Year award in 2009/10. He says that he spoke "a lot" to Koscielny about life at Arsenal, whilst the two were on international duty with France at Euro 2012.

The Frenchman says that it "was frustrating" to get so little playing time at Euro 2012, and that he "wasn't used to being on the bench" - something that he may well need to get used to at Arsenal. He understands that he will not be an automatic starter when he joins, saying that there is "a lot of competition for places, but it is up to me to win my place" and that "[he is] not impatient and by working hard and perseverance, [he] will mature and increase [his] game time as well." Giroud's new manager, Arsene Wenger, said that Arsenal's new man has "a great work ethic," a sentiment which those quotes would seem to support.

Attracted to "mythical club" Arsenal by the "philosophy of how they play," Giroud is hoping that Wenger will be able to develop him as a player. Described as a "very good physical presence" by the Arsenal manager, Giroud insists that he is "a player who likes to play." Something that should stand him in good stead in N5.

It could be considered that Giroud is a late developer, having worked his way through the divisions in France, Giroud says that "at youth level I didn't really get my chance." But he managed to prove himself, first on loan at Istres in Division 3, then at Tours in Division 2 before sealing a move to Ligue 1 Montpellier where he got the chance to play European football, make his international debut for Les Bleus and eventually win the French title, playing well enough to earn himself a place in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year.

It remains to be seen if the striker will be able to make the step up again, but he believes that he has "the weapons to do well" with Arsenal. He is also hopeful of success with the Gunners, where he believes he is joining "a good generation of players." French sports newspaper, L'Equipe are reporting that Giroud turned down a move to Chelsea in favour of Arsenal; "I adore Arsenal, Wenger really wanted me & I wasn't sure Di Matteo knows who I am."

Whilst being a welcome addition to the Arsenal squad, his arrival has unnerved sections of the Arsenal faithful, who believe that his arrival signals talismanic captain Robin van Persie's departure. With only a year left on his contract, it is hoped that the Gunners' activity in the transfer market will demonstrate the club's intent to van Persie and persuade him to commit to a new deal, but with the scars from Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri's departures last summer still fresh, Gooners are bound to be nervous.

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