What's an acceptable way to leave?

RVP was top scorer in 4 out of the last 6 seasons (scoring 92 in 156 in those 4 top scoring seasons). The two season he wasn't, were cut short by injury (and he managed 19 in 43 over those 2 seasons). Played more than 270 matches for the club, our 8th all-time top scorer.

He has been at the club 8 years, scored a shed load of goals, put in a number of fantastic performances, his quality has never been in doubt. Yes he's had his injury problems but you don't rack up over 270 appearances if you're a perma crock. He's contributed significantly towards the club during his time here.

But he has seen the club continuously let go of its best players season after season. The club is getting further and further away from being really competitive (19 points off the title tells its own story). He's 29 next month and realistically if he does want to win trophies, he won't do it here (as the current pattern indicates). So he has decided that he doesn't want to waste his last years at the top level here.

Is being an Arsenal player a prison sentence? Even if it is, hasn't he served his time and done more for the club than any of the current squad and indeed more than many players that have left previously?

So I wonder : If he believes that he cannot achieve what he wants to achieve at this club (and the pattern of last 5 years certainly does indicate that), what is he supposed to do?

I can understand that the behaviour of Cole, Hleb and Adebayor was totally unacceptable. Even Cesc, with his sulking. But what has RVP done wrong? Is anybody surprised by the statement? He's only said what most of the fans are thinking/feeling anyway.

Hasn't been caught in a secret meeting with another Club, hasn't compared other clubs to beautiful pop stars and hasn't been close to crashing his car over contract negotiations. he hasn't slagged off the club, he's simply stated his reason for not extending his contract (I still have a small hope that it was a final attempt to force the board into action).

It seems as though every player that wants to leave gets slagged off by the fans, unless the club decides that they're surplus or they're mistreated by the club. The only players I can think of that weren't, were Gilberto and Eduardo.

So my question is : Sometimes a player will feel that he has to leave. How can a player leave without incurring the wrath of the fans?

Well in RVP's case he was within his rights not to renew. All he had to do was say : "I will see out my contract and leave at the end of the season" OR "I want to leave and take up another challenge after 8 years at Arsenal".
Everyone would have understood either of those. He did not have to go further than that.

So my question is : Sometimes a player will feel that he has to leave. How can a player leave without incurring the wrath of the fans?

Do it like Henry did and try not to insult the club's ambition in the process even if it looks hopeless. Once you have a player criticizing how the club should be run, he's no longer a player. He's a manager. There shouldn't be 2 managers in a football club.

The problem most people have with Van Persie is not that he lied and said bad things about the club, it's because he disrupted the club's harmony in his process of engineering a move away. Gallas did that with his dressing room story and look where it got him.

I'm not saying this type of things are not true, because to an extend we do have the problem. But this kind of things should stay internal and be solved internally. He should've been a professional and said he's just going to move on instead of claiming our ambitions doesn't match his, even though our ambition suits him fine while he was at the treatment table.

Well in RVP's case he was within his rights not to renew. All he had to do was say : "I will see out my contract and leave at the end of the season" OR "I want to leave and take up another challenge after 8 years at Arsenal".
Everyone would have understood either of those. He did not have to go further than that.

This!!

We may not have liked it but we wouldn't be slagging him down to the ground and calling him a Judas.

Because tongue in cheek he basically said "Your clubs crap, you'll never get anywhere, I don't like the way the clubs run even though it gave me an entire career" etc etc as the media has said it was very confrontational and by saying that as well he's damaging our chances with other signings and that's what's so unforgivable.

One good season and he tells us to go fk ourselves, even Fabregas signed an extention so we were guaranteed good money!

my question is : Sometimes a player will feel that he has to leave. How can a player leave without incurring the wrath of the fans?

By not issuing statements full of lies and attacks on the club. By not weakening the bargaining position of the club you want to sell you.

No one forced RVP to sign a lucrative contract that brought him up till 2013, he made that choice and refusing to honour that contract or deal with it in a professional and respectful way is obviously going to annoy Arsenal fans.

It been a long time since I'd hoped RVP would sign a new contract, that ship had sailed a long time ago IMO. I didn't begrudge him leaving and I don't expect blind loyalty from players with no real affection for the club. What I did expect was him to show some respect to the club, the manager and the fans who've all stood by him over a career thats been ravaged with injuries.

Just look at Clichy and Toure, they both left for City but they did it in a professional way and now no reasonable Arsenal fan has a problem with either. In fact almost everyone still has a bit of love for Kolo.

my question is : Sometimes a player will feel that he has to leave. How can a player leave without incurring the wrath of the fans?

By not issuing statements full of lies and attacks on the club. By not weakening the bargaining position of the club you want to sell you.

No one forced RVP to sign a lucrative contract that brought him up till 2013, he made that choice and refusing to honour that contract or deal with it in a professional and respectful way is obviously going to annoy Arsenal fans.

It been a long time since I'd hoped RVP would sign a new contract, that ship had sailed a long time ago IMO. I didn't begrudge him leaving and I don't expect blind loyalty from players with no real affection for the club. What I did expect was him to show some respect to the club, the manager and the fans who've all stood by him over a career thats been ravaged with injuries.

Just look at Clichy and Toure, they both left for City but they did it in a professional way and now no reasonable Arsenal fan has a problem with either. In fact almost everyone still has a bit of love for Kolo.

This. If RVP wanted to leave with any respect/good will intact he should of followed their example, not releasing such a classless statement undermining the club

There is no "acceptable" way to leave if you are an important player. Clichy and Toure were seen as very replaceable. The aggravation and hate he is receiving is, in my view, Arsenal fans backwards rationalising their bitterness towards him leaving.

It was the same with Fabregas and with Nasri and countless others too. They are all branded as the bad guys, when it is really the board who are unwilling to do what it takes to keep them at this club.

Ironically, the players would only be happy if we were winning trophies which is what we as fans also want. The board are prioritising profits, not football, and that isn't going to keep top players and win trophies.

Well in RVP's case he was within his rights not to renew. All he had to do was say : "I will see out my contract and leave at the end of the season" OR "I want to leave and take up another challenge after 8 years at Arsenal".
Everyone would have understood either of those. He did not have to go further than that.

This really , instead he went on to cause quite a bit of upheavel apparently the squad is a bit shocked as well .

There is no "acceptable" way to leave if you are an important player. Clichy and Toure were seen as very replaceable. The aggravation and hate he is receiving is, in my view, Arsenal fans backwards rationalising their bitterness towards him leaving.

It was the same with Fabregas and with Nasri and countless others too. They are all branded as the bad guys, when it is really the board who are unwilling to do what it takes to keep them at this club.

Ironically, the players would only be happy if we were winning trophies which is what we as fans also want. The board are prioritising profits, not football, and that isn't going to keep top players and win trophies.

Henry was an important player for us, and he left with his status intact.

All of the above. Leave in silence with dignity.

What he said was detrimental to the club and its chances of finding a replacement imo.

He cocked up to be fair, he was trying to put the fans out of their misery waiting on a decision but unfortunately that came out in the wrong way.

Lets face a Star player leaving for another club will never feel good. Even with Henry it wasn't fun was it?

It hurts because you love them and the team.

So I wonder : If he believes that he cannot achieve what he wants to achieve at this club (and the pattern of last 5 years certainly does indicate that), what is he supposed to do?

What's ironic is that Van Persie is partly to blame for not securing the title in the '07-08 season. Him and the medical staff, anyway.

lets be fair though... Henry was becoming less important to us when he left. he had already given us the best years of his career (and then some) and he was clearly on the decline.. and he had actually brought us plenty of silverware.. only reason he left was because he wanted to win the Champions League, which he did..

players now are leaving us in their primes (or even slightly before)..

There is no "acceptable" way to leave if you are an important player. Clichy and Toure were seen as very replaceable. The aggravation and hate he is receiving is, in my view, Arsenal fans backwards rationalising their bitterness towards him leaving.

Well thats simply not true. Henry, Pires, Vieira all left without falling out with the fans.

It was the same with Fabregas and with Nasri and countless others too. They are all branded as the bad guys, when it is really the board who are unwilling to do what it takes to keep them at this club.

No Fabregas went on strike. Nasri slated the fans themselves rather than the club. Thats why people dislike them.

Ironically, the players would only be happy if we were winning trophies which is what we as fans also want. The board are prioritising profits, not football, and that isn't going to keep top players and win trophies.

The fans pay to watch the team, they have a right to make demands. These players have signed multi-million dollar contracts of their own free will. All people want is for them to act professionally.

Yeah that's the key though USArsenal, Henry already went above and beyond for us whereas VP decided that his prime is better suited for helping other clubs rather than helping the club he supports.

Besides, a declining Henry was still better than any of our striking options at the time so he was still technically our best player then.

The emotional blow of losing Henry was horrible. I'll never forget the morning I read the deal was done. It floored me.

There is no "acceptable" way to leave if you are an important player. Clichy and Toure were seen as very replaceable. The aggravation and hate he is receiving is, in my view, Arsenal fans backwards rationalising their bitterness towards him leaving.

It was the same with Fabregas and with Nasri and countless others too. They are all branded as the bad guys, when it is really the board who are unwilling to do what it takes to keep them at this club.

Ironically, the players would only be happy if we were winning trophies which is what we as fans also want. The board are prioritising profits, not football, and that isn't going to keep top players and win trophies.

I couldn't disagree more Markstar, the fans if they feel anything like me are pissed because we are in a position caused between RVP and the board of not getting adequete compensation for our no1 star due to his contract status.
We would all feel a lot better if we were receiving the sort of payback Liverpool got for Torres or Man U got for Ronaldo, Newcastle for Andy Carrol so we could buy a suitable replacement straight from the profit.

2nd minus the contract ransom it is the way his comments are damaging to the club, potential transfers and the squad he's leaving behind.

He was the captain of our team, this team, the team that fought for 3rd place and got it, disgusting behaviour.

The board want a self sustaining model .... fine, sort the contracts out to 24 month minimum renew or sell and at worst we sell a star and buy a star.
This keeps continuity of the standard of player we can have in the team and heals the disappointment of any stars who leave.

.... also I never branded Fabregas a bad guy, I actually think he went well out of his way to help Wenger, Wenger though tried to blackmail him into staying right up to the last.

There is no "acceptable" way to leave if you are an important player. Clichy and Toure were seen as very replaceable. The aggravation and hate he is receiving is, in my view, Arsenal fans backwards rationalising their bitterness towards him leaving.

It was the same with Fabregas and with Nasri and countless others too. They are all branded as the bad guys, when it is really the board who are unwilling to do what it takes to keep them at this club.

Ironically, the players would only be happy if we were winning trophies which is what we as fans also want. The board are prioritising profits, not football, and that isn't going to keep top players and win trophies.

Henry was an important player for us, and he left with his status intact.

There was a lot of Henry hate at the time, whether you remember it or not. I certainly do. There are also lots of other factors to consider such as the amount of trophies Henry helped us win, how recently we'd won a trophy, selling a top star every year etc. When talking about his "legacy" and "status". We are far more frustrated as a fanbase, and RvP hasn't helped us to win any trophies.

(it is important to note that I don't personally agree with the logic in itallics - it is a squad game, and you can't blame one player for a squad's failure to compete. I was merely highlighting how some people perceive it)

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies. However, we won't be allowed to compete with this board/owner combination as it stands anyway, so hating RvP for leaving for the very reason we're annoyed as fans is equally pointless and hypocritical.

Most of the Henry anger as far as i recall was due to the fee we received from Barcelona, i thought we should have got more for him.

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies.

I don't think thats really true. Obviously none of us like losing our best player, which he clearly is, but I also don't think that many people expected him to stay and there wasn't this sense of bad will towards him until he put that statement out. Its taken his departure from what was a generally a sense of resignation to a total "**** you then".

Yes there are problems at the club with the board, the wages and the lack of success but that doesn't justify players behaving unprofessionally.

I for one doesn't feel any hate towards Henry when he left DJ_Markstar. Don't know about the others tbh as I wasn't that active in Arsenal forums back then. But the general consensus among my Arsenal fan friends was that he deserved to get his last piece of silverware. Hell I even cheered for him when he finally got them.

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies. However, we won't be allowed to compete with this board/owner combination as it stands anyway, so hating RvP for leaving for the very reason we're annoyed as fans is equally pointless and hypocritical.

This is where I disagree. While we are bitter that he's leaving us while being our key player, I believe it's not just that but rather the combination of that and the fact that he undermined the club while trying to justify his move away. Henry in his statement never did that. That is what separates the "legends" and the "just another good player" in my books.

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies.

I don't think thats really true. Obviously none of us like losing our best player, which he clearly is, but I also don't think that many people expected him to stay and there wasn't this sense of bad will towards him until he put that statement out. Its taken his departure from what was a generally a sense of resignation to a total "**** you then".

Yes there are problems at the club with the board, the wages and the lack of success but that doesn't justify players behaving unprofessionally.

I agree on the bolded part, but you only have to look at the similarities in was said by Denilson when he (sort of) left and the way RvP is (likely) leaving, and the reactions to the two players are markedly different imo.

my question is : Sometimes a player will feel that he has to leave. How can a player leave without incurring the wrath of the fans?

By not issuing statements full of lies and attacks on the club. By not weakening the bargaining position of the club you want to sell you.

No one forced RVP to sign a lucrative contract that brought him up till 2013, he made that choice and refusing to honour that contract or deal with it in a professional and respectful way is obviously going to annoy Arsenal fans.

It been a long time since I'd hoped RVP would sign a new contract, that ship had sailed a long time ago IMO. I didn't begrudge him leaving and I don't expect blind loyalty from players with no real affection for the club. What I did expect was him to show some respect to the club, the manager and the fans who've all stood by him over a career thats been ravaged with injuries.

Just look at Clichy and Toure, they both left for City but they did it in a professional way and now no reasonable Arsenal fan has a problem with either. In fact almost everyone still has a bit of love for Kolo.

Kolo was past his best and Clichy was poor in his final two seasons. Nasri, Adebayor and now RvP were key members of the team. Cole was one of our own and ended up with the most abuse of all.

Funny how we are more ''forgiving'' to those players we no longer perceive as essential. I'm not sure we can claim much moral high ground on the back of giving Kolo a warm ripple of applause.

Kolo was our best centre half when he left.

I for one doesn't feel any hate towards Henry when he left DJ_Markstar. Don't know about the others tbh as I wasn't that active in Arsenal forums back then. But the general consensus among my Arsenal fan friends was that he deserved to get his last piece of silverware. Hell I even cheered for him when he finally got them.

Fair enough, I had a very different experience with my friends. I was in the same boat as you, I was pleased for the guy, but I was the only one of my Arsenal fan friends who felt the same.

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies. However, we won't be allowed to compete with this board/owner combination as it stands anyway, so hating RvP for leaving for the very reason we're annoyed as fans is equally pointless and hypocritical.

This is where I disagree. While we are bitter that he's leaving us while being our key player, I believe it's not just that but rather the combination of that and the fact that he undermined the club while trying to justify his move away. Henry in his statement never did that. That is what separates the "legends" and the "just another good player" in my books.

It is hard to say who is undermining who really. You could argue that RvP is being undermined by the board for not backing his talent with a squad capable of competing.

It may appear that RvP is undermining Arsenal publicly, but I think the fact that he is looking to leave in the first place should be of greater concern. Why do out best players all want to leave for pastures new? How do we know what is really going on behind closed doors?

It should also be of concern that Nasri's cheap shots weren't a one off. A lot of these ex and soon to be ex-players feel a lot of bitterness on leaving Arsenal.

Kolo was past his best and Clichy was poor in his final two seasons. Nasri, Adebayor and now RvP were key members of the team. Cole was one of our own and ended up with the most abuse of all.

Funny how we are more ''forgiving'' to those players we no longer perceive as essential. I'm not sure we can claim much moral high ground on the back of giving Kolo a warm ripple of applause.

Funny how all the bolded players also released a statement undermining the club.

Just saying, there's more than just "being key players to your club and leaving" to make your fans dislike your attitude.

See out your contract, keep your mouth shut, do your job and leave on a high!

At the root of it all, it is bitterness that he is leaving as our best player when we feel we need to him to stay to compete for trophies. However, we won't be allowed to compete with this board/owner combination as it stands anyway, so hating RvP for leaving for the very reason we're annoyed as fans is equally pointless and hypocritical.

This is the crux of it in my opinion. People are hurting because RVP's departure and reasons therein serve as a very real manifestation of the problems at the club.

He isn't leaving for money, he isn't leaving for his boyhood club, he's leaving because the Arsenal board are not capable (for whatever reason) of matching his ambitions.

It may appear that RvP is undermining Arsenal publicly, but I think the fact that he is looking to leave in the first place should be of greater concern. Why do out best players all want to leave for pastures new? How do we know what is really going on behind closed doors?

It should also be of concern that Nasri's cheap shots weren't a one off. A lot of these ex and soon to be ex-players feel a lot of bitterness on leaving Arsenal.

This is where the problem is, what happens behind the closed doors should've never been made public. I'm not saying our club is dandy and all, in fact we do have a big problem with our boardroom members and owner, but being a professional footballer, keyword being professional, means that you don't advertise the negatives behind the closed doors.

Kolo was past his best and Clichy was poor in his final two seasons. Nasri, Adebayor and now RvP were key members of the team. Cole was one of our own and ended up with the most abuse of all.

Funny how we are more ''forgiving'' to those players we no longer perceive as essential. I'm not sure we can claim much moral high ground on the back of giving Kolo a warm ripple of applause.

Funny how all the bolded players also released a statement undermining the club.

Just saying, there's more than just "being key players to your club and leaving" to make your fans dislike your attitude.

Depending on when the statements were released (before/after initial fan abuse), this could back up Draiocht's point, though. They may have just been replying to the fan's bitterness, whereas a player like Clichy who was deemed non-essential didn't receive that abuse in the first place and so had nothing to "respond" to.

Ah mon frère, but hate is a two way street.
Some people may just hate them because they were our key players when they left, others may hate them because they left and insulted the club in the process. There's always a reasoning on why people hate/dislike each players. It's all very subjective DJ_Markstar. Depends on each individuals' interpretations really.