And so another pre-season is upon us. Double training sessions, long flights, prestige friendlies, photo opportunities and signing sessions; just some of the mundane tasks that fill these quiet weeks leading up to the season starting. Arsenal kick off the season at home to Sunderland in nearly 3 weeks time, with much left to be decided. At the forefront of this is one Mr Robin van Persie. Our cap-i-tan took it upon himself to release a statement on his personal website stating that he would not be signing a new contract – fine, no problem with that, most Gooners didn’t expect him to. What irked most fans however, was that Robin went on to criticise the club, the manager and the board for a lack of ambition, and said that he and the club have very different ideas of how the club should be run and what direction to head in. This was what we feared. I was hoping that Robin would keep schtum, see out his final year, play great, score goals, and leave with everyone’s best wishes, but this statement makes his position at the club practically untenable. Wayne Rooney tried something similar and was offered a huge new contract which funnily enough caused him to retract his statement – all of sudden Utd were ambitious again. Arsenal won’t be doing that. The club are very proud of their self sustainable model (even if no-one else, including UEFA, seems to care) and won’t do anything to put that in jeopardy, especially not for a player who let’s face it, has had one great season and a lot of injury ravaged ones. I’m not one of those who thinks he ‘owes’ the club anything, or has a ‘duty’ to stay (it would be nice, right?), but I do think that publicly criticising the club as he did, is unacceptable. Clearly he wants to force through a move, and if he’s to do that without putting in a transfer request then he is entitled to all sorts of bonuses. He’s made his position untenable and is now available to the highest bidder.

To where dos thou go Sir Robin? As far as I’m concerned, the club CAN NOT sell him to another English club, end of story. Man City and Utd are both ‘ahead’ of us already, so to sell them our best player would be madness, and I think we could already wave goodbye to the league title. I’d rather chuck him in the rezzies than ship him up north. People will say that we should take a big fee from City if it comes, or else we could lose him for free next summer – how about we worry about next summer, next summer for once? Let’s think about this season, please. If Wenger told RvP that he’s not going anywhere, sure he’d be disappointed, but I think by Sept/Oct he would see sense and get his head down, work hard and try and win for this club. How does it look to potential suitors if you go on strike and refuse to play? Can’t see it. We’ve strengthened our rivals (particularly City) over the last few summers, and then faffed about with the resulting transfers fees to buy some unconvincing players. If the interest from Juventus is genuine then let’s get him out the door to them ASAP – I’d even take a lower transfer fee just to not have him sold to Manchester. There’s even an Ibrahimovic’d size hole in Milan that needs filling – Silvio?

Transfers have been so far so good to date this year, Podolski – good, and Giroud – sounds good (let’s hope he’s not another Chamakh), we’ve moved Vela out of the club, and Denilson’s robbed another year away on loan, but there’s still a ton of dead wood that needs shifting. Nick Bendtner seems to be linked to a different shit club every day (latest being Celta Vigo), Arshavin’s time is up, Chamakh and Park are both available (but who would buy them?) and there’s still uncertainty surrounding Djourou, Fabianski and Ramsey. If we can get a few of those out, the boss has already confirmed that he’s looking to bring in another one or two. By the sounds of it the M’Vila deal has gone very quiet, if there was ever genuine interest in the first place. One that’s hotting up is Santi Cazorla from cash strapped Malaga, which would be a fantastic signing. Versatile, experienced, quality. Plenty of uncertainty surrounding the club in any case – just another summer at Arsenal then.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Are Arsenal fans EVER going to have a relaxing summer? Robin Van Persie’s delicately poised contract situation means not, for the summer of 2012 at least. The handling of last summer’s ins and outs was frankly nothing short of a disgrace, and alarm bells are ringing yet again. We knew Cesc was going, we knew Nasri was going, so why didn’t we facilitate getting them out the door quicker, thus giving us enough time to recruit top quality replacements? Cesc ended up leaving 16 days before the transfer window closed, Nasri just 9 days later. I’m not here to knock the likes of Arteta, Mertesacker and Santos (in fact I think they’re all decent players, Arteta especially) but they’re not in the same league as the 2 best players we had at our football club. During last summer, the club will have no doubt noticed that our next best player’s contract had just 2 years left to run. Did they decide to get Robin and his agent into the boardroom and effectively offer him a blank cheque? No, they decided to let things play out, and here we are 12 months later in a pretty sticky situation (not to mention the same sticky situation with Theo Walcott).

At 28, Robin knows that this will be the last big contract of his career, and he’s rightly thinking long and hard about whether he wants to commit to Arsenal or go elsewhere. Some on Twitter have suggested that he ‘owes’ the club in some way, and that because the club stood by him through his injury problems he should in some way ‘repay’ the club. Anyone who still believes that this is how the world works is deluded. You can see that Robin loves this club, I think he actually WANTS to stay, but doesn’t see enough reasons to do so (whether that’s money, signings, ambition, trophies or all four). Wenger has made it clear that he intends to keep Van Persie next year regardless of whether the Dutchman signs a new contract, a move which I’d agree with. Plenty before me have eloquently emphasised how crucial the man is to the team, it’s quite obvious we’d be up shite creek if he leaves the club. But his on pitch performances aren’t the only reason why I’d like to see Robin stay. If Man City or Real Madrid come in with a £30 million bid which we decided to take (on paper not bad business for a guy who will be 29 in August and has 1 year left on his deal, right?), I’d have absolutely zero confidence that we would spend that money on an adequate replacement(s). Just look at what we did last summer.

Like Wenger, I’m not one who thinks that spending is always the answer, but I do think that the club have severly mis-managed transfer and contract negotiations of late. Far too much time and money is spent on tieing poor to average players down on ‘long term contracts’, rather than rewarding those who deserve it, and clearing out those who don’t. For instance, we’re currently paying Bentdner £52,000 a week, and he’s out on loan at another club. Squallici is on 80k, Vela on 40k, Almunia on 60k – the list goes on and on and doesn’t make for pretty reading. We desperatley need to clear out the dead wood that is rotting our great club, and replenish with real quality that will, I’m afraid to say Arsene, cost money. Let’s hope that our captain is there to greet a fresh, hungry and talented squad come pre-season.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Given that I am indeed a Gooner, it’s probably about time that I shed some light on my current feelings on the club. We been through the wringer in the last 9 months; we had a distressing summer, a terrible start to the season, a welcome mini-resurgence in the Autumn, a mid-season collapse in the New Year, and now we’re seeing another fightback from AFC. The last few results have been pretty remarkable. We’ve come from behind to win the last 4 Premier League games, including battering them lot up the road and a win at Anfield, plus on top of that we restored some pride with a comfortable 3-0 win of AC of Milano. Let’s not think about the first leg.

Despite the recent upturn in results and performances, we’re still going to end the season with no trophies (“but 4th place IS a trophy!”), so what’s missing? Who and what would give us that little bit extra to compete for a whole season, not just in fits and starts? This is the team I think we could realistically put together by Saturday 18th August 2012. We’re not Man City (i.e. less money, more class) so I’ve tried to go with something as reasonable as possible. Let me know what ya’ll think.

GK – Wojciech Szczesny – Still makes me nervous occasionally with his antics when the ball is at his feet, but how can you not love the man. Super shot stopper and a true fan.

RB – Bacary Sagna – We look a much poorer side when he’s missing, so crucial to defensive and offensive balance. Best RB in the league.

CB – Laurent Koscielny – ‘I wanna dance with Koscielny, I wanna feel the heat with Koscielny…’ etc. So quick and comfortable bringing the ball forward. Has come on a mile since he arrived.

CB – Thomas Vermaelen – The Verminator is half a proper old school centre back who is brave, strong and solid, and half a deadly assassin who uses his left boot to go on murderous rampages. Really.

LB – Kieran Gibbs – If he can stop breaking down at practically every turn, Gibbo could be our (and England’s) left back for the next 10 years. Converted from left midfielder he has all the qualities going forward, just needs to cut out defensive lapses.

DM – Yann M’Vila – The future of French football, this boy is sure to have plenty of offers post-Euros. Hopefully an approach from AFC is already well  under way.

CM – Jack Wilshere – The star of last season has been so cruelly kept from us this year, but the boy is still the most exciting talent to emerge from our academy to date. Can’t wait to see him back on the pitch.

CM – Eden Hazard/Mario Goetze – Either will do, no chance at getting them both!

RW – Theo Walcott – Has his critics (including me a times) but when he does it, he really does it. His pace is impossible to stop and if he can just add most consistency to his game, he’ll be unstoppable.

LW – Lucas Podolski – Almost certainly will arrive from Germany this summer, his goalscoring record is impressive and will take the pressure off RvP in front of goal. Always been dangerous, hopefully his step up to a big club goes better than his short spell for Bayern Munich.

CF – Robin Van Persie – He scores when he wants. Let’s hope he signs when he wants, too, because he is the best out-and-out striker in the world.

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SUB 1 – Mark Schwarzer – We almost had him a couple of years ago (and would have done for the sake of £500,000 more than we offered, apparently), we need a reliable and experienced ‘keeper to support and help develop Woj.

SUB 2 – Jan Vertonghen - The solid and versatile Ajax defender is seemingly ready to leave Holland for pastures new. We could do with another defensive body to come in ahead of JD and SS, seems like a logical fit.

SUB 3 – Ryo Miyaichi – Was playing high school football a couple of years ago, today he’s having a significant impact on loan up at Bolton. Should be ready to play a part for us next season.

SUB 4 – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – The new kid on the block has shown remarkable flashes of his potential in the last couple of months. Don’t say it too loud, but this boy is special.

SUB 5 – Mikel Arteta – Has been very solid since he came in under what were difficult circumstances. He was never going to be a replacement for Cesc, Miko is a ball player, he keeps things moving and ticking over, something that we most definitely need.

SUB 6 – Tomas Rosicky – Has really shone as the talent we know he is in the last few games, which coincides with a new 2-year deal. Super Tom has got the rhythm back in his game and steered clear of the injuries that have blighted much of his career. Super Tom, super talented.

SUB 7 – Nicklas Bendtner – We’re not going to go out there and buy 5 new strikers this summer, and the big man frankly a better option than Chamakh or Park. He’s started to score goals on Wear-side while up there for his loan spell, hopefully he returns as a better player and more humble man.

OTHERS – Fabianksi, Mertesacker, Miquel, Santos, Jenkinson, Djourou, Coquelin, Henderson, Ozyakup, Frimpong, Song, Ramsey, Diaby, Arshavin, Gervinho, Afobe.

MANAGER – Arsene Wenger – Arseblog put it best – he might be a stubborn old fool, but he’s OUR stubborn old fool. Are his glory days behind him? Probably, I don’t see us winning ‘doubles’ or remaining unbeaten for a whole season anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still have something in him. Something magical.

Outs: Almunia, Squillaci, Denilson, Vela, Park, Chamakh.

@SolidBackFour | @patlangridge