(Un) Reliant Robin: Van Persie Announces No Contract Extension

Yes, it's the news that every Arsenal fan has been dreading, their talisman Robin Van Persie wants to leave Arsenal. As a member of FA Cup Vinyl being an Arsenal fan themselves, they're not far from distraught. But let's take a look at why he wants to leave.

In a release on his own personal website Robin stated "Unfortunately in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract. You guys, the fans, have of course the right to disagree with my view and decision and I will always respect your opinions."

So that's Robin's take on the situation, but what about ours? Well Robin has been at Arsenal for 8 years now, that's a long time especially in today's modern football society and there's no doubt he is going to be hot property after his sensational goal scoring record last season, 30 goals in 38 Premier League games is nothing short of spectacular. Arguably as well at the age of 29, it is his big last contract in football, so if he were to move it would be now. With Arsene Wenger acquiring two new strikers in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, Arsenal fans will have to hope they can replicate the same kind of form shown by 'Van The Man', yes that's an actual name used by fans. Let's also remember from an Arsenal fan's viewpoint that he has been injury plagued as a striker in past seasons.

So who's interested in him? The question is really who isn't? Well surprisingly Manchester City are, as they are with every decent player in the world, but can Arsenal fans handle another player leaving to money bags Manchester City? Having seen the likes of Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri leave the red of North London to go to the blue of Manchester, every Arsenal fan must be sick to the teeth of seeing this sight. Plus we get the sneaking suspicion that Man City are buying every good player so no other club can have them? Do City need him really, with them currently boasting a striker collection of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and every knobhead teenage boy's favourite Mario Balotelli or as they've cleverly nicknamed 'LADotelli' *sigh*.  With Manchester United and Italian champions Juventus also interested as the 'Old Lady' have reportedly had an £8million fee rejected, it seems that Robin is not short of suitors.

The question is for Arsenal do they cash in on their captain, the PFA's Player of the Year and the Premier League's golden boot winner? Or do they keep him until next season, take a gamble by trying to sign him throughout the season, and then take the risk of losing him when his contract expires and he can leave on a free? It's an interesting decision and one that is down to the chief executive Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger to decide, we guess Arsene must be annoyed having seen similar ongoings with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last year and having being forced to sell them. Are we about to see the same for RVP? It seems to us, like it could be another ongoing saga at the Emirates Stadium this summer.

But what do you think let us know by commenting on the post below.

King Kenny's been overthrown.

So Kenny Dalglish has been sacked. The question is are we surprised? We all know football's a ruthless business take today for example, (May 16th) as soon as the 23 man squad for England was announced, the top trend on social networking site twitter was 'Hodgson Out' it's hardly fair to go to that extreme, especially when Roy hasn't even had his first match in charge yet. (God 'The Sun' are going to have a field day with 'John Ruddy' being selected, they've already mocked his speech impediment ). But that's football we love it, we hate it, it's never left alone, fans always want more and rightly so.

Anyway back to the king and I'm not talking about the blue suede shoes one, it appears my good article's are pun-ning away from me. See a terrible joke in a serious football blog , bet you weren't expecting that. Anyway King Kenny. It was the second coming of the king in January 2011 and while everyone was excited about his return, critics had their doubts (what a shock, I know) but unfortunately the cynics were right this time, annoyingly I know. However to all those diehard Dalglish fans reading this, which I doubt there will be, it hasn't worked this time. Simple. Once again, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news but all the neutrals can see as well as I, but I think FSG have bravely got it right.

There's several reasons why as well, poor buys, a poor placed finish and an overall poor performance this season. Two words sum up Dalglish's second experience in the Anfield hot seat and they are Andy Carroll. £35 million, it's a astonishing amount of money even in the football world, unless you're Man City. In all fairness to him, he's on a run of form now and has been named in the England squad so well done to him but for the hefty price tag, 6 goals in 42 starts is simply not enough. 

Also spending £20 million a piece on Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, Henderson might improve in the future but Downing? Really? This is a personal opinion obviously, but I think for £20 million Liverpool could have and should have signed a much better winger.

Now, in all fairness to Kenny I am fan and what he has done for Liverpool is remarkable also winning the 'Carling Cup' and reaching the 'FA Cup Final' is better than what my team achieved this season,  but they narrowly beat Cardiff on penalties. That is simply not good enough for a club with so much rich history. The statistics don't lie, worst finish since 1994 and with Liverpool finishing 8th, yes 8th winning as many games as they have lost, looking back on it based on statistics it seemed likely. 

Now obviously, what's gone on this season hasn't helped with the Luis Suarez racial incident and the increasing pressure on players like Carroll, Downing and Henderson to deliver and haven't, won't have helped King Kenny's cause. I might add they seemed to be one of the most unlucky teams this season with the amount of times they've missed open goals and hit the woodwork, but the bitter truth is the king has been made to look like a pauper, and so the king's reign has come to the end. (oh another pun).

So the question is, who will replace him? Surely not Rafa Benitez? That would be terrible as he left the place in such a mess last time, although not all his fault and personally I don't think Roberto Martinez is able to take on such a difficult task like Liverpool just yet. But they're the joint favourites. Who knows, we'll have to find out. But what I do know is, whoever it is, they will have a mammoth task on their hands.

First post.

Hello, this is our first post on our blog called 'FA Cup Vinyl'. As you can tell from the title it highlights the two things that not only we love but what this blog will feature, which is football and music. We're very passionate about both, and we hope you are too. It may take a while for us to fully grasp this and post decent articles and posts, but most of all we hope you enjoy it.


Thanks, FA Cup Vinyl.