Why Arsenal have to stop giving into their players:

After a summer of speculation, Robin van Persie finally joined Manchester United. This left Arsenal to start the new campaign without our captain for the second season in a row. Shortly after, Alex Song followed him out the door.

For me, these were simply the latest in a list of incidents showing that player and agent power are too prominent in football.

At Arsenal, the player’s reason is usually, ‘I need to be at a club that will win trophies’. It’s a vicious circle – the more Arsenal sell their stars, the less likely they are to win the trophies the remaining players (and fans) crave. So what are Arsenal to do to change things? When a player says they are unhappy, the default opinion is that you must sell. But is it really true that ensuring you get the cash is the most important thing, or that the worst thing in the world would have been for van Persie to go for free when his contract ended?

The simple answer is no. In van Persie’s case, it might sound crazy to suggest Arsenal keep an unhappy player for one more season and forgo the transfer fee. But what exactly have they got from this transfer? The £24million isn’t being spent on a replacement; the idea was for Podolski to play with van Persie, not instead of him. Meanwhile, their former best player is scoring goals for their rivals. Arsenal are doing pretty well for money, but it’s not being converted into silverware. So it begs the question: what’s the point in selling our stars for vast sums if these riches don’t result in trophies? Van Persie’s goals would surely have been of more benefit than having some extra cash in the bank.

With all this said, the issue for me isn’t really the commercial or footballing value of the decision. It’s the fact that this type of transfer sends a message to the rest of the squad (as did the Fabregas and Nasri sagas of last summer) that there is nothing wrong with committing to a contract only to dismiss it when another club comes calling offering a higher wage.

Take the case of Alex Song. Has he really been convinced that he will be a Barcelona star, with a midfield that already consists of Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Alcantara and Busquets? Despite having three years remaining on his contract, his agent allegedly tried six times to negotiate ‘improved terms’; in other words, more money. When that didn’t happen, he quickly upped sticks to Catalunya.

I’m not suggesting that there should never be transfers; but it’s the attitude and arrogance of these players that’s causing ill feeling amongst the fans. The ‘official statements’ might as well say, ‘I’m too good for Arsenal, so either pay me enough for me to deign to stay here or I’m off.’ It’s wrong that players and agents hold clubs to ransom in this way. If only a few clubs bucked the trend, some loyalty might return to the game.

It’s the fans who are affected most. They shell out increasing amounts of cash and time to undyingly support their team, only for their favourite player to saunter off to another club. They are growing tired of greedy agents enthusiastically building up the egos and expectations of their clients for no other reason than the money.

There are fans who remember a time before the big transfers, before the profit-making agents. But what about the younger fans, growing up with this fickle nature being shown to them by the players? What’s to stop them becoming fickle too? If fan loyalty disappears as player loyalty has, so will the game as we know it.

After a summer of watching and reading about Olympic athletes competing for the honour of representing their country and a love of their sport, the back pages are once again filled with the latest spoilt Premier League star turning his back on the club that made him for some other one who will pay him more.  The disillusionment amongst supporters is definitely there, and there’s a growing desire for football clubs to be just that again – clubs, not businesses.

Gone are the days of player loyalty or respect for the club and its supporters. Just once I’d like to see a club not give in to a player. Wenger has been a pioneer of footballing policies before and I’d like to have seen him lead the way again. In the short term, it may have cost the club financially; but in the long run, player and agent power will cost football a great deal more.

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