Somebody That I Used To Know

Figured I would do an article about what's transpired of late, all the other cool kids are and god dammit I'm cool too no matter what the other members of my model train club say!

First up I wasn't surprised at the news that Van Persie is going to pack his bags and head off to United. I'm far too old and cynical to allow football to catch me unaware these days. I love the game, it's still has me as gripped in its vice-like tendrils now as it did back in the day when I was a naive little kid who would spend hours happily booting a ball against a wall.

I don't love everything else that revolves around the game though. Football has become some mutated soap opera where gleeful little turds on Sky Sports News turn every rumour into a saga and Garth Crooks actually gets paid licence payers money to orally fart out nonsense. Then there's the players.......by now we should all know what to expect from them.

They kiss the badge, whisper sweet nothing into our ears and tell us that they'll be gentle. This of course isn't the case and the moment that a younger more exciting señorita strolls by and gives them the eye they'll be off quicker than Usain Bolt chasing down the Swedish ladies handball team.

Wait, what's my point?

We've been down this road many, many, many times already. Our captain and best player has flown the nest and we're all feeling pretty disgruntled. But we're Arsenal, not Robin Van Persie Football Club.......despite his ideas to the contrary. The moment he released that statement he was gone in my eyes and I had zero interest in him anymore. I was really disappointed in the content of that statement as I expected better from him but I've covered all that before so won't go into it again.

I'm glad he's going, if someone doesn't want to play for my club then I don't want them there no matter how good they are. Especially someone who has shown such disrespect to Arsene Wenger who has played a key role in their development. I think we all would have loved Van Persie to move abroad so we could just forget about him but that's not the case, we'll be seeing plenty of him.

I have to admit that the first time I see him put on a United shirt I will probably throw up slightly......I may even need to remove my eyeballs as they will probably feel violated by the image. It's a big call by the board and Arsene, they knew full well that this would go down incredibly badly with the fans. We've sent out a horrible statement here and I hope they realise that and in turn send out another statement, one which tells us that we're going to mean business this year.

With Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski we have bought well, I'm genuinely excited to see what these guys bring to the table. The Van Persie deal is a hard one to swallow but I honestly think we have a stronger squad despite it. One which won't be reliant on one man to score the goals. But we can't put down our tools and call it a day now. If we continue to strengthen with quality players in areas where they're most needed then this window is not a disaster but a success.

What we do next is key and will set the tone for the season. There is a possibility that a new Arsenal will emerge from all of this, one that can do good things. As always people will dismiss us and predict a dramatic fall from grace but that's not new, we're used to that. Forget them though, get hyped up for the season........time to jump onto the merry-go-round again as it's nearly upon us.