What Robin van Persie to Manchester City Would Mean for Arsenal and the EPL

It is just another summer in the new world of football.

Robin van Persie, the best player in the Premier League last season and winner of the Golden Boot, is the subject of constant reports linking him to seemingly every big club in the world.

Except, you know, the one he actually plays for.

It is inevitable that a high-profile player who has had a fantastic season and sees his contract start to run down will be linked with the sort of club like Manchester City, which has unlimited resources and can afford to splurge on the kind of transfer fees and salaries that attract the world's best players.

And, with the culture that exists in modern football, even clubs like Arsenal, who finished third in the Premier League, cannot compete with the upper echelon of teams whose extraordinarily wealthy owners fund purchases that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

When van Persie decides on his future at some time this summer, he may well set a benchmark in the transfer market for years to come.

We already know what Manchester City's selling points to the Dutchman will be, if he ever decides to consider an offer from the Sky Blues: money, trophies and, presumably, prestige.

That pitch has worked on several of City's recent signings (a disproportionate number of which have come from Arsenal), which include such North London pariahs as Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Gunners' tactics will center around intangible factors—saccharine emotions like loyalty, appreciation, and devotion to a common cause, which have failed in the past.

But if Arsenal cannot keep their star man this time, it will not just be another rebuilding project for the brilliant Arsene Wenger.

The club will not be able to just groom another youngster to take van Persie's spot, nor will Lukas Podolski be able to adequately fill RVP's shoes.

In addition to being his team's best player, the Dutchman is a remarkable leader, and the departure of the captain would surely sap Arsenal players' morale. Van Persie is simply irreplaceable for a side that leaned so heavily on him this past season.

More worryingly, though, his exit would signal once and for all that Arsenal are, in fact, a selling club that cannot truly hope to hang with the big spenders of the league, instead merely serving as a glorified feeder team for the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

Understandably, there has been some suspicion around the club about the true intentions of the brass—are the board members more interested in pocketing hefty transfer fees and qualifying for the Champions League or fielding a team that can realistically challenge for the Premier League title?

If Arsenal fail to secure van Persie's services beyond next season and sell him, the football world will have its answer.

And if this rumored move does actually happen, it has broader and much more dangerous implications for the Premier League as a whole.

A large part of City's success in recent years has come from their ability to buy their competitors' best players, thereby weakening those around them even if they do not actually play their new purchases.

Buoyed by their recent League triumph, if the Citizens sign van Persie, it will show that their momentum cannot be stopped, that players truly believe in their project and that clubs not financed by rich owners do not have a chance at any sort of parity.

In short, power will become even more consolidated at the top of the table than it is now, at a time when the difference between second and third place is a staggering 19 points.

The last time anyone other than City, Manchester United or Chelsea won the league, in the 2003-04 season, that gap was only four points.

And, of course, an already very strong Manchester City will get much better with arguably the best pure striker in the world accompanying the magnficent Sergio Aguero up front. An attack led by those two will be nearly impossible for any side to contain, and the Citizens would undoubtedly be heavy favorites to retain their title next season.

In truth, if Robin van Persie transfers to Manchester City this summer, the only team in the world that will benefit is the one purchasing him.

Losing their best player and undisputed leader would be a titanic blow for an Arsenal side that constantly faces accusations of becoming a fading club that is more interested in selling its top talent than keeping it.

Gunners fans and the footballing community at large would see the club as a rapidly declining force, it would be harder to attract top players and all optimism surrounding the seasons to come would be instantly crushed.

All the other teams in the Premier League would know that, no matter how strong an emotional connection a player has to his club and no matter how much they may try to keep him, City's oil money is always there—and is irresistible.

No big signing that the Sky Blues have made has had the type of emotional connection to a club and its fans that van Persie has fostered over the past eight years.

For Arsenal, the clock is ticking to both save their team and all the others who hope to knock Manchester City off their perch.