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Needless to say, as an Arsenal fan, I’m quite disgruntled by the news that emerged last night that Robin Van Persie, Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ player of the year last season, has decided he will not renew his Arsenal contract.

With only one year left remaining this means that Arsenal are going to be forced to sell him, hopefully before the start of the season or risk losing him on a free transfer next year. As was the case last year with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, it’s probably much wiser to cash in now.

This news came as quite a shock to me because I believed that RVP was one of the gentlemen of football. He has never seemed aggressive, never seemed to care much about being paid, just having a love of football. Now he appears to have thrown all that out the window. On his personal website, Van Persie wrote:

I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract. I personally have had a great season but my goal has been to win trophies with the team and to bring the club back to its glory days…in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward.

Excuse me? Is Robin suggesting that Arsenal don’t want to win trophies and bring the club back to its glory days? Arsenal have spent money on bringing in two new strikers to the club to assist RVP next season. It was to everyone’s belief that Van Persie wanted Wenger to spend some money and invest in the squad, which he has just done. Did RVP want a new defence instead?

Van Persie also claims this isn’t for money, it’s for “footballing reasons” which I for one think is pure bullshit. He knows he can get £200,000 a week by putting on a Man City shirt.

The problem now is by revealing this, he has shot Arsenal in the foot. Not only will they be selling their top striker but they won’t be able to command top dollar for him either. RVP’s worth is a little vague, despite being the top goalscorer last year he’s also injury prone and his spell at Euro 2012 wouldn’t have helped either. In fact, last season was probably his best ever in an Arsenal shirt, before that he has be plagued with injuries and goal-droughts, so perhaps selling him is the best idea. It’s just trying to commission a £30m fee could prove tricky, especially when other clubs know they could get him for nothing if they just wait another year.

Again, I’m disgruntled, but Arsenal have two new strikers and this should hopefully step things up for Wenger to go out and get another and whoever else he needs to keep fans confident that there is a life after Van Persie and indeed one where we win trophies without him.