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Robin Van Persie – the Manchester United man: have Arsenal learned their lesson?

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It would seem that one of the summer’s main transfer sagas has finally come to a close.  Save for a failed medical (which is a possibility giving Van Persie’s history but unlikely all the same) Robin Van Persie is set to become a Manchester United player. A few years ago the idea of Arsenal selling their star player to anyone was unthinkable but it’s symptomatic of Arsenal’s decline as a true footballing powerhouse that the hero of last season has, again, jumped ship to a different club. However this time it’s different. Players have come to Arsenal and gone to other big clubs across Europe but this is the first time that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal have sold a player to Manchester United. They used to be the great rivals of the Premier League and it’s a reminder of, not so much how far United have come, but how Arsenal have stalled.

However saying all this, it could be a lot worse for Arsenal; it was. At the beginning of last season they had lost their two best players to all conquering Barcelona and Manchester City with only deadline-day replacements. This time round Wenger has learnt from his mistakes by investing in his squad long before the start of the season. He’s got two undeniably fantastic players in Podolski and Cazorla. If the latter can replicate his form for Malaga next season then Arsenal will almost definitely achieve a top four finish and would stand a real chance of finally having something new to put in the trophy cabinet; he’s that good!

Olivier Giroud remains a bit more of an enigma than the other two big signings. You would imagine that he is seen as the man to replace the goal-vortex that’s been left by Van Persie’s departure.  He was nothing short of brilliant in Ligue 1 and played a huge part in Montpellier’s surprise title winning season. He’s known for being a strong forward with all the abilities of a target man but has so much more than that to offer as he displayed last season by scoring a variety of goals from bullet headers to the more acrobatic: volleys and overhead kicks.

A successful season as a striker in the French league doesn’t necessarily translate to a successful career. Only time will tell if Giroud turns out to be more Benzema than Gignac but if he plays half as well as he is handsome then Arsenal should have nothing to worry about next season.

From Van Persie’s perspective a move to United does make sense.  He’s moved to a side that has a better chance of genuinely challenging for trophies next season and the prospect of linking up with players with the technical ability of Rooney and Kagawa would be hard to resist. To call him ‘greedy’ is just incorrect, ‘Disloyal’ just might be a little closer to home though.

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