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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l believe no player is bigger than our team.
ReplyDeleteAnyone got any thoughts on whether they'd like to see a replacement? Llorente?
ReplyDeleteI think that Arsene should make an overture to Berbatov...he has a big axe to grind with United and would be a highly skilled addition as a short term purely offensive threat.....
DeleteTo me,this was the best possible option(to have sold him).but I don't Llorente would be a good replacement considering his age.
ReplyDelete