Robin Van Persie Deserves Better from Arsenal Fans

Arsenal's Dec. 10, 2011 match at home against Everton served as the official commemoration of the club's 125 years in existence.

"Onward" was the message of that now-completed season, the message inserted between the years 1886 and 2011. It was an exhortation of the direction in which Arsenal have always looked to travel as an organization, a path they will continue to traverse in years to come.

That message had become the butt of numerous jokes during the early portions of last season, when three points from Arsenal's first five Premier League games seemed to consign the Gunners to a historically moribund season steeped in ineptitude.

Like tea allowed to sit too long, there was a chance the campaign would turn irreversibly bitter.

All that changed, however—and quite quickly at that—thanks in large part to the incredible work of one man.

Fortune favors the bold, but it also has a historical tendency to shine favorably upon the, well, fortunate.

For whatever reason—improved fitness, better nutrition, fewer taxing challenges, less time spent on international duty with the Netherlands (he's injured himself twice while away with the Oranje), Robin van Persie enjoyed a watershed calendar year in 2011.

By its end—fittingly enough, van Persie scored against Queens Park Rangers on Dec. 31, capping the year doing exactly what he'd done for its entirety—the 28-year-old, named Arsenal's captain back in August after Cesc Fabregas left for Barcelona, had scored 34 goals in league play (including two hat-tricks), providing the saving grace for the Gunners with the sort of reliability normally reserved to death and taxes.

Stoke City, Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland, Chelsea, Norwich City and Borussia Dortmund (Champions League) were just some of the teams that bore the brunt of van Persie's swath of scoring during the first three months of the season.

Braces seemed to come in blizzard-like flurries, erasing memories of how the striker had scored just one league goal in three matches (and it was a nothing consolation effort during the 8-2 mauling to United at Old Trafford) to begin 2011-12.

Thus, a trend developed, which would only strengthen in the months to come. As Robin van Persie went, so too did the Gunners. It's little coincidence that his most brilliant run of goal scoring last season coincided perfectly with Arsenal's best spell as a team.

That was evident once again on that cold December night against the Toffees.

With Thierry Henry and a host of Arsenal legends in attendance to mark the occasion, van Persie uncorked a bit more of his left-footed brilliance (with the power he generates, you could call it Thor's hammer with nary a snicker in reply), catching a well-picked-out, angled cross from Alex Song perfectly in stride and firing across and past a despairing Tim Howard lunge into the back of the net.

One-nil to Arsenal never sounded so sweet.

It was a touch of brilliance that brought the scarved and gloved Henry to his feet in applause; it would prove, like so many van Persie goals that season, to be all Arsenal needed to win.

Of the 30 league goals (37 in total) van Persie would score by mid-May, by which time he had accrued a glut of personal awards commemorating his campaign, so many proved to be the saving grace from an Arsenal perspective.

(When you score some two-fifths of your side's entire league goal output, that has a tendency to happen.)

So Now What?

The news reports circulating Wednesday morning, that van Persie had taken to his personal website to address his current contractual situation—his deal expires after next season—drew the considerable ire of nearly an entire fan base.

Those that had cheered him less than two months ago, during Arsenal's season finale against West Bromwich Albion, now took to Twitter and any and all other social media outlets to spew forth their two cents' worth on what they deemed to be the latest betrayal from a star Gunner.

Van Persie used words such as "...goal has been to win trophies" and "in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward."

The words hit like that hammer of a left foot of his, and fans must have felt he was stepping and squishing around a wound yet unhealed from last August when he said the most important words, that he would not be signing a new contract with the club.

The irony in this is almost overwhelming. After seeing so many speculative stories emerge regarding his future, van Persie had sought to set the record straight with one clear, concise statement.

What happened is that he has only fed the rumor mill a juicy morsel, upon which it will feed, wrack and wring dry in the coming months until the original news falls limply, spent to the ground.

Arsenal released an official, albeit vague statement just minutes after van Persie's message went viral:

"

We have to respect Robin's decision not to renew his contract. Robin has one year to run on his current contract and we are confident that he will fulfil his commitments to the Club.

"We are planning with ambition and confidence for next season with Arsenal's best interests in mind."

Its flimsy look and feel aside, that club stance has "power play" written all over it. It is likely an attempt to shoo away potential suitors from making laughable inquiries into van Persie's services (hey, Juventus), but the likelihood remains that the Dutchman will leave the club this summer.

The Hatred Needs to Stop

We live in a media-driven culture, blah blah blah.

However many times we've heard that cautionary tale, it is a message that bears repeating, especially given its particular resonance on Wednesday.

When a story pops up on the web, within minutes you have thousands of proffered personal opinions, many lacking in any reflection or insight. Gut feel and instinctive reaction rule the proverbial roost.

So it was on Wednesday. While everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, the lack of introspection on display strikes me as a terribly worrisome trend. When you say something, you can't take it back. And some of the things that were said yesterday should be forbidden.

When you say something callous and cruel about a player who has bled for Arsenal since joining as an unproven teenage winger in 2004, without knowing the full details behind a story, you set yourself up for a bit of a shot-in-the-foot lesson when those details, as they invariably do, filter into the public domain.

Call van Persie "LeBron James" all you wish—a reference to the former Cleveland Cavaliers star's decision to skip town after the 2009-10 NBA season and sign with the Miami Heat. Like James, van Persie promises to earn unnecessary hate.

In many ways, the comparison is an apt one. James announced he would be leaving Cleveland two summers ago by way of, let's call it a controversial social medium in the guise of a televised announcement broadcast throughout the United States.

James's main reason for joining the Heat—by which he had alienated millions (maybe thousands is a better figure) of Cleveland fans who wasted little time flexing their carbon footprint by soaking their No. 23 jerseys and assorted paraphernalia in gasoline and then casting them into infernos—was to win trophies.

James had spent seven seasons with the Cavs (one fewer than van Persie has spent with the Gunners), witnessing management fail spectacularly to surround him with the necessary talent to win a title. That Cleveland were as good as they were with James (a league-best 66-16 record in 2008-09 is testament enough to James's brilliance) was evidence enough of his considerable effort for the organization.

When push came to shove once his contract had run dry, he decided to pursue titles with another team.

If and when van Persie leaves Arsenal, there is a very real chance that he will do so having won just one title—an FA Cup triumph from the way-back-when year of 2005, the last silverware Arsenal have won.

Whatever Wenger has done in the past 12 months—bringing in 10 players to the club, with the promise of more on the way, the fact remains that too often last season, and in the ones before that, Arsenal did not possess the talent or mettle to realistically contend for titles.

That they did come within striking distance several times, even as they fielded a roster that so visibly reflected the financial constraints saddled upon the club from the construction of the Emirates Stadium, may amount to a small miracle.

Since January 2011, van Persie has been at the fore of that revelation. He should be commended for that effort, not chastised for a future that may lie away from the club.

Despite his best efforts, he has not won a trophy at the club. If he believes it is time now to move on to win some, he has every right to do so. This does not stink of a Nasri mercenary move.

The way van Persie should be remembered is how he was seen on that dark Dec. 10. A goal met by rapturous applause from Arsenal fan and former great alike, an applause granted because they realized they were in the presence of greatness.

Few could do, or even hope to accomplish, what van Persie did last year, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Arsenal fans would do well to remember that before they cast stones. Without RVP serving as a mighty pillar, the Arsenal house last season would not have the faintest of prayers to remain upright.