Van Persie: How About a Swap for Tevez?

Tevez' position at Manchester City has clearly become untenable—so much so that he is to be sold in January. Meanwhile, Arsenal are about to embark upon the pre-departure ritual slow dance with Mr. Van Persie who, at 28, is no doubt eyeing the possibility of the lottery-winning move that will boost his pension fund.

So how about a straight swap? Man City seem to have a fixation with Arsenal's players, having so far helped themselves to Toure, Adebayor, Clichy and Nasri. They would no doubt love to link up RVP with Nasri, particularly as Tevez won't be doing so anytime soon.

There has inevitably been the traditional British media pompous moral outcry at Tevez and his alleged hilarious refusal to come off the subs bench at Bayern Munich. Many of the thundering hacks in the English newspapers were calling this the beginning of the end of football as we know it.

Of course, Tevez being Argentinian makes him a prime target for the sort of jingoistic nonsense that still fuels the British media's obsession with Maradona's "hand of God" goal in the world cup against England.

One can only speculate as to the events that led to the spat between Tevez and his club. Clearly when the financially doped assemble a squad of alpha egos with alpha pay packets, sparks are bound to fly.

By all accounts,Tevez is hugely unhappy in Manchester and feels that he is now being victimized for wanting to leave. It is difficult to disagree with that given the bizarre decision to leave the club's leading goalscorer, and arguably most dangerous player, on the bench in such a critical match.

Be that as it may, there will clearly be no shortage of top clubs keen to secure the services of Tevez when he leaves Man City, so why should Arsenal not be one of them?

Arsene Wenger is a superb manager and seems to have no problem with South Americans. Tevez has all the attributes of a classic Wenger player: small, fast, skillful and offensive-minded.

Of course his wages might be a problem for Arsenal, but if he was simply being swapped for RVP then perhaps the club could use some of its substantial cash still left from the sale of Nasri and Fabregas to fund the wages.

And as for breaking the wage structure, why not simply structure the deal so that the player receives a signing on fee (like with Sol Campbell)?

Many Arsenal fans might be concerned that Tevez is a "bad apple" with a negative impact on team morale. While he does seem to resent not being given star billing, somehow one feels that this will not be a problem at the star-craved Emirates following the high profile departures.

Tevez was enormously popular at Upton Park where he obviously battled as hard as anybody for the cause.

No doubt this is all pie in the sky and Tevez will, in fact, never go anywhere near the Emirates. It is anybody's guess what will happen to RVP (albeit being made captain is usually a sign that the player will soon be leaving).

However, what an interesting prospect it would be to swap 28-year-old RVP for Tevez. Do Arsenal fans and the club really want another long drawn, depressing saga of the latest club captain to be "flattered" by the attention of other clubs?

If he won't sign a new contract there is a case for simply shipping him out before the process becomes demoralising for the younger players. Replacing him with Tevez would soften the blow somewhat.

The prospect of Tevez fired up in an Arsenal shirt in a match against Man City would be hugely enjoyable. Just think, it could even be in the Champions League.