Fallen Hero
I know a lot of Americans see soccer as a women's game and to some degree that's a fair assessment. The flopping and faking injuries is rampant and that turns a lot of people off, but if you look past that, it really is the "beautiful" game. The one team that really drew me to the game was Arsenal, a classy outfit from the Highbury section of North London. Two years ago, I knew next to nothing about soccer, but constantly wikipedia'ing player profile's and a shameful amount of FIFA playing (a super sad amount, i'm really good though so its ok) I fell in love. My favorite player on the video game was Robin Van Persie, the deadliest left foot in the game. RVP, a quintessential #9 - a goal scorer- started his Gunner career in 2004 being handed the number 11 shirt, previously held by a young Nicolas Anelka and one of his kinsman, the speedy Dutchman Marc Overmars. Van Persie was known as a hot head upon his arrival, as much Dutch footballers are seen to be (seriously, they think they're the best fucking thing to ever play, literally every single one of them) but Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal since 1996, saw great potential in the lanky Dutch Master. Under the tutelage of Wenger and perhaps the 2nd best Dutch player of all time behind Johan Cruyff, (go to youtube, type in that name, press play) Dennis Bergkamp (type his name in too), Van Persie was going to be the next superstar for Arsenal. Yet for years, Gooners (nickname for Arsenal fans) only saw glimpses of his immense potential. Marred by injuries, the early years of his Arsenal career were promising, but very frustrating.
In 2010, RVP changed his kit number to the famous number 10, previously worn by his mentor Bergkamp and many other illustrious players over the course of the game's history. The number 10 means you are the playmaker and the goal scorer rolled into one, and after missing the first half of the 2010-11 season due to yet another injury, something clicked. Robin became a scoring machine, tallying 18 goals in just half a year. That glorious form continued into the 2011-12 season where he would go on to score 30 goals in league, winning the Golden Boot (aka he was the Kevin Durant of the English Premier League) and pulled Arsenal from the flames of a early season of poor form and desertion from 2 of their best players, Cesc Fabregas who left for Barcelona, and Samir Nasri to Manchester City (Nasri is dirty French asshole, I hope he gets herpes in his eyes, Cesc was always going back to Barca since he's from Catalonia and played for the youth team of FCB). Arsenal finished a respectable 3rd place in the league and guaranteed themselves a spot in the Champions League, which is like the NCAA tournament I guess would be the best comparison, except it runs basically all year and the qualifying involves teams in fucking Belarus and shitty countries like that. Arsenal have a rich history full of trophies, but for the last 7 years, they haven't won shit. RVP was apart of the 2005 FA Cup winning squad, but none since then. He had a year left on his contract which is sorta similar to American sports where he could leave for free after his contract ends, or his team could sell him to the highest bidder. Arsenal fans were hoping and praying if they got some new recruits that RVP would be convinced to stay, but despite landing 3 studs, Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, and Santi Cazorla, Van Persie still desired to go to greener pastures.
To me, this shatters my image of a great player, they don't leave just when they realize their true greatness, there were times when Arsenal could have shipped him off years prior because he was on the treatment table so often and not on the pitch. Arsenal made Robin Van Persie into the player he is today, he can pretend it was all him (typical Dutch move, cocky assholes) but everyone who doesn't have their head up their own ass knows that it was Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. But the worst part about his transfer is that he goes to our most heated rival (besides Spurs), Manchester United. He legitimately could have gone anywhere else in the world, Russia, Italy, Spain, just not Man U. That Scottish bastard Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't even need RVP, he has like 8 different forwards already, and this buy was just out of sheer disrespect for Arsenal. Whatever, he can have him, dude's probably gonna break his femur or some shit at some point this season. Plus Arsenal got a nice little 23 million pounds for him so they can reinvest that in the squad and get players who actually wanna be there and can help them break their trophy drought. RVP is 29 and in the prime of his career so to turn that kinda profit on a player of that age is great business, which is nothing new for Le Professeur, Arsene Wenger. I just hope my Gunners turn around this season and shove it right in everyone's face, play that beautiful passing game they know they can and bring glory back to its rightful home in North London. Sorry for the lack of humor, this a sore subject for me, mostly because im gonna have to play without RVP in FIFA 13, why did he have to be such a little bitch?
In 2010, RVP changed his kit number to the famous number 10, previously worn by his mentor Bergkamp and many other illustrious players over the course of the game's history. The number 10 means you are the playmaker and the goal scorer rolled into one, and after missing the first half of the 2010-11 season due to yet another injury, something clicked. Robin became a scoring machine, tallying 18 goals in just half a year. That glorious form continued into the 2011-12 season where he would go on to score 30 goals in league, winning the Golden Boot (aka he was the Kevin Durant of the English Premier League) and pulled Arsenal from the flames of a early season of poor form and desertion from 2 of their best players, Cesc Fabregas who left for Barcelona, and Samir Nasri to Manchester City (Nasri is dirty French asshole, I hope he gets herpes in his eyes, Cesc was always going back to Barca since he's from Catalonia and played for the youth team of FCB). Arsenal finished a respectable 3rd place in the league and guaranteed themselves a spot in the Champions League, which is like the NCAA tournament I guess would be the best comparison, except it runs basically all year and the qualifying involves teams in fucking Belarus and shitty countries like that. Arsenal have a rich history full of trophies, but for the last 7 years, they haven't won shit. RVP was apart of the 2005 FA Cup winning squad, but none since then. He had a year left on his contract which is sorta similar to American sports where he could leave for free after his contract ends, or his team could sell him to the highest bidder. Arsenal fans were hoping and praying if they got some new recruits that RVP would be convinced to stay, but despite landing 3 studs, Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, and Santi Cazorla, Van Persie still desired to go to greener pastures.
To me, this shatters my image of a great player, they don't leave just when they realize their true greatness, there were times when Arsenal could have shipped him off years prior because he was on the treatment table so often and not on the pitch. Arsenal made Robin Van Persie into the player he is today, he can pretend it was all him (typical Dutch move, cocky assholes) but everyone who doesn't have their head up their own ass knows that it was Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. But the worst part about his transfer is that he goes to our most heated rival (besides Spurs), Manchester United. He legitimately could have gone anywhere else in the world, Russia, Italy, Spain, just not Man U. That Scottish bastard Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't even need RVP, he has like 8 different forwards already, and this buy was just out of sheer disrespect for Arsenal. Whatever, he can have him, dude's probably gonna break his femur or some shit at some point this season. Plus Arsenal got a nice little 23 million pounds for him so they can reinvest that in the squad and get players who actually wanna be there and can help them break their trophy drought. RVP is 29 and in the prime of his career so to turn that kinda profit on a player of that age is great business, which is nothing new for Le Professeur, Arsene Wenger. I just hope my Gunners turn around this season and shove it right in everyone's face, play that beautiful passing game they know they can and bring glory back to its rightful home in North London. Sorry for the lack of humor, this a sore subject for me, mostly because im gonna have to play without RVP in FIFA 13, why did he have to be such a little bitch?
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