Untold Media: All the things that Robin Van Persie did not say. (PS, you’ve been conned). « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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Untold Media: All the things that Robin Van Persie did not sa

By: Anne

Well readers… I guess that all I can say to open this article is “welcome.” Welcome to a brand new age in the targeting of Arsenal through the media, as we abandon old and archaic notions like “splashing the cash,” and embark upon the bold new tactical age of “forced transfers,” in which individual Arsenal players will apparently be targeted for vicious and deceitful personal attacks.

And I have to say, this attack on Robin van Persie is an outrage. But first, just for anyone who might have been hiding under a rock somewhere and missed it, Robin Van Persie, on 4 July, supposedly published an “announcement” on his “official website,” where he said that he wasn’t going to renew his contract with Arsenal.

In this “announcement,” which was supposedly written as an “update” for Arsenal fans on Robin’s ongoing contract negotiations (because that’s such a normal thing for a player to do, right, to personally update the public on confidential dealings with his Club) Robin also supposedly slagged off Arsenal.

Specifically, Robin supposedly said that he was leaving Arsenal because “my goal has been to win trophies with the team and to bring the club back to its glory days,” but that he and Arsene Wenger “disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward.”

Now, call me crazy… But doesn’t something about those statements sound almost… familiar? In fact, I could almost swear that I’ve read something in the past where someone was expressing very similar sentiments, except in that case, the author was most definitely not Robin Van Persie. I’ll see if I can remember who it might have been and get back to you.

In the meantime (and I will absolutely stand by this 100% unless somebody proves me wrong), there is absolutely no way in hell that this “Update for the Fans” that appeared on some random website was actually written by Robin Van Persie.

Yes, I can see that the anonymous author who posted it wrote “Robin Van Persie” at the end of the post.  And yes, I can also see that it says “Robin Van Persie Official Site” at the top of the page. But here’s the thing. Anyone could do that. And if that’s all that’s required to prove that you’re Robin Van Persie, and to get quoted in the media, why don’t we all start making public statements on behalf of Robin Van Persie?

Go take a look for yourself. There is absolutely nothing on this website that authenticates it as being linked to Arsenal, or to the real Robin Van Persie. And if you think it lacks credibility now, then I really wish you could have seen what it looked like when I first went there (which was just after the first media reports about this “statement” emerged). When I first looked at it, there was absolutely nothing on it at all aside from this one statement.  When I clicked on all the other tabs, they were empty.

And ever since then, someone has been gradually updating it to make it look more credible. For example, when I first started writing this article (later that same day), one “earlier post” had been added. And when I check it now, someone has added even more “earlier posts.” But unfortunately, I can’t prove any of that now, which means that you shouldn’t rely on it when forming your opinion. So I’ll just analyze it working with what’s there now (although there might be more by the time you read this).

If this is Robin Van Persie’s “official website,” why hasn’t Robin published any personal statements on it before now? He doesn’t seem to have attempted to use this website to communicate with the public at any point in the past, and wouldn’t that be the whole point of  a “personal website?” Aside from this one “update for the fans,” everything else is just a direct link to Arsenal.com. And the site certainly doesn’t go back very far. Did Robin commission it while he was at the Euros?

You can all look at it for yourselves and form your own opinions. But just ask yourself this: What does the primary purpose of this website appear to be? Specifically, does it seem like something that Robin Van Persie developed himself because he wanted to have his own personal medium for communicating with the public? Or does it seem more like the website was put up for the sole purpose of conveying this one “message,” along with just enough other stuff to give it the superficial appearance of credibility? You know my opinion already.

And if you’re not sceptical based on the website alone, why not just take a look at the “statement” itself as it originally appeared? For example, this is how it begins:

“This is an update for the fans about my current situation. I have kept quiet all this time out of respect and loyalty for the club and as agreed with Mr. Gazidis and Mr. Wenger, but since there is so much speculation in the media, I think it is fair for you guys to know what’s really going on at the moment.”

I mean, come on. Does that sound like the kind of thing you would expect to hear from Robin Van Persie or any other Arsenal player? And have you ever heard any statement like that from any football player before about confidential contract negotiations? No you haven’t, and I’ll tell you why not. Because confidentiality agreements are put in writing. If Robin Van Persie has a confidentiality agreement with the Club, Arsene Wenger, and Ivan Gazidis regarding his contract negotiations, it’s in writing, and it contains provisions for repercussions in the event that it is violated.

In other words, you can’t just decide one day to violate a confidentiality agreement because you think it’s “fair” for the entire world to know what’s really going on. Of course, some (read: many) in the media have suggested that Robin’s real motive in making this “statement” might have been because he was attempting to “force a transfer” away from Arsenal this Summer, as opposed to leaving on a free transfer next Summer. However, before we get to that subject, let’s take a quick look at one more aspect of “Robin’s” “statement”:

“As soon as Mr. Gazidis is back from his 2-week holiday in America further meetings will follow and I will update you if and when there are more developments.”

“Ok…How nice of “Robin” to offer to keep the entire world updated on, not just this one little tidbit, but on all of his confidential negotiations with the Club. I’m sure that Mr. Gazidis won’t have any problem with that at all once he’s back from America… Will we be hearing from “Robin” again, I wonder? But getting back to the subject of forced transfers. I find the following quote relevant:

“In propaganda truth pays… It is a complete delusion to think of the brilliant propagandist as being a professional liar. The brilliant propagandist is the man who tells the truth, or that selection of the truth which is requisite for his purpose, and tells it in such a way that the recipient does not think he is receiving any propaganda… The art of propaganda is not telling lies, but rather selecting the truth you require.”

Applying this principle to the current circumstances, I have come to the opinion that it is completely and 100% true that the motive for publishing this “statement” was to force Arsenal to transfer Robin Van Persie during the current window, as opposed to allowing him to leave on a free transfer next Summer. And how would this work? By making Arsenal fans so angry at Robin that we would reject him as Captain. This would prevent him from having any value to Arsenal as a player for another year, so they would be left with no alternative but to go ahead and sell him. And this seems to me to be the only logical motive that anyone could have for making a public statement such as this one.

However (and here’s where the “deceptive” aspect of the propaganda comes in), it does not seem to be the logical method for Robin Van Persie himself to pursue if he was the one who was attempting to force the transfer. Rather, Robin has a multitude of other options that he could use to exercise leverage over the Club to force a transfer, and which wouldn’t require him to damage his public image. Also, I would imagine that any confidentiality agreements associated with contract negotiations would include provisions to severely punish any attempt to influence negotiations by leaking details to the public.

Rather, I would say that the most logical explanation for something like this being “published” would be if someone else was attempting to “force a transfer” of Robin Van Persie away from Arsenal. Because absolutely everything about this “message to the fans” suggests to me that it is intended to make Arsenal fans as angry at Robin Van Persie as possible. And for someone who doesn’t have any internal influence over the contract negotiations, and is attempting to influence the negotiations from outside, causing the fans to reject Robin Van Persie as an Arsenal player and captain would seem to be the only means available to exert enough pressure externally on the Club to cause this to happen.

So, I believe that the most logical explanation for what’s going on here is that someone outside the Club is attempting to force Arsenal to transfer Robin Van Persie one year ahead of time. Another reason I think this is because Robin himself wouldn’t have much of a motive to go to the trouble of forcing a transfer when he only has one year left anyway. But to certain outside parties, it would make a big difference.

Why, you ask? Well, let’s just say that, to us, Robin Van Persie is a football player and the captain of Arsenal. But to others, Robin Van Persie is nothing more than a non-cash asset that needs to be liquidated into cash, and it is of the utmost importance that this “liquidation” occur before the “asset” loses its monetary value. The idea, of course, would be for whatever cash was moved into Arsenal as a result of the “liquidation” to be moved right back out again, and “reinvested” into the hands of the party who forced the “liquidation” in the first place (in other words, asset-stripping).

In this sense, the “forced transfer” agenda is identical to the old “splashing the cash” agenda that we’re already familiar with, and which we’ve already rejected. Repackaging the old agenda would be a means of making a fresh attempt to sell us the same idea. Personally, I believe that this is exactly what’s occurring, and if I’m right, I don’t need to prove it to you now, because we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this tactic in the future. Along with a lot more “statements” of this nature that are reported as coming from Arsenal players.

This article will continue shortly with extracts from the media’s response.

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The Robin van Persie story…