Contract rebel,goal-machine and captain Robin van Persie had showed up to the Emirates' Chairman's room for crunch contract talks, along with his agent Kees Vos.
Manager Arsene Wenger, Chairman Peter Hill-Wood and Ivan Gazidis were already present.
Vos broke the silence."Let's cut to the chase. Robin may be willing to extend his contract with Arsenal. But we have one important demand."
Gazidis interrupted -"Well, what is it? What does he wanted? 190k a week wages?"
van Persie scoffed at the comment but Vos continued calmly,"Robin doesn't think Arsene is the right man to bring trophies to Arsenal anymore. He will only sign a new contract if and only if Arsene leaves.
The demand left the Hill-Wood and and Gazidis shocked, but Wenger did not react at all, he was just staring at the wall.
Kees Vos, having put down his demands said,"You probably will need some time to consider, we'll be leaving now. Call us when you have come to a decision.
Kees Vos left the room, van Persie followed him, but looked back at Arsene Wenger before he slammed the door shut.
Gazidis furiously spoke after the door slammed, "That bloody agent has the nerve to come here and tell us to fire..-"
Arsene, who hadn't spoken a word until then though, interrupted -"Ivan, I think its time. The team needs Robin more than me now, he's the leader, the role model for all our youngsters. We've got to stop this culture of letting our top players go."
Peter Hill-Wood then said,"Arsene, who in the world are we gonna replace you with?"
Arsene Wenger thought back to his holidays in France every year where had football related discussions and debated with a certain half-English half-French man.
"I know just the man.", he murmured. "But you'll have to trust me on this one."
Later that evening, it was revealed that Arsene Wenger had left the club, and was to be replaced by a Craig Braithwaite, who had previously played in France's Ligue 2 for two years before retiring due to a career ending injury.
In a short press conference, Braithwaite stated he had a similar-but not same-policy to Wenger. He said that while his squad definately had quality, it definately needed improvements. When quizzed about the van Persie situation, he said that he hadn't been briefed about the situation yet. He said he hoped he could bring glory back to Arsenal, starting with a good league finish, and hopefully a domestic cup in the first season.
Nice start, and if they have grown-up, I doubt.
Com'n, Van Persie demanding his boss to leave, so he gets what he wants. That's childish behavior.
I see RVP v Craig Braithwaite. The writing is on the wall, and I am selling tickets.
RIP RVP?
Good luck CarTOON, you may need it!
And does that mean that you are going to get RVP to sign a new contract?
i suggest looking for a replacement for RVP . or just use podolski or giroud to cover for him
On the first day of his managing career, Braithwaite wanted to get the van Persie situation sorted out, so he went met up with Kees Vos and Persie at practice with Ivan Gazidis tagging along with him for company, and they went inside the cafeteria with the players stopping practice in the ground and looking through the glass walls of the cafeteria from over 100 meters away, hoping to get an idea of what was going on.
Gazidis started the talk -"I can't believe that it has actually happened, but we've signed let Arsene go as he advised us to. Now, just sign the damn contract already."
van Persie laughed, and said,"I wanted a new manager, sure. But a world-class manager. Not some unknown person. But since you've fired Arsene anyway, I'll agree to sign one, for 300k a week."
Gazidis got out of his chair and was about to yell furiously, but the manager stopped him.
Braithwaite cut in,"Look, we've had it with you. We've already fired Arsene. No more of this bull****. We're not gonna be held to ransom anymore. We offer you 130k a week, and if you reject that - fine - expect to be out of England in the next month."
van Persie had a smirk on his face as he got up,"Well, that's it then. See you at practice tomorrow, gaffer."
Braithwaite replied,"Actually, don't bother showing up."
The player and agent left the room as Craig tried to calm Ivan Gazidis down. "Relax Ivan. It doesn't matter. Clearly he doesn't want to stay. We just have to move on."
Ivan Gazidis said,"But the whole point of letting Arsene go is that he would stay! We gave him what he wanted but he has the nerve not to sign a contract!"
Gazidis dialed up Wenger and asked him to return, but Wenger was quick to say that it was time he moved on anyway, and asked him to have a little faith in his hand-picked replacement. Gazidis put his phone into his pocket and said to Craig,"Well, its up to you now. Arsene trusts you to carry on anyway, and if he does, I do too. I will call up the chairman and let him know what has happened."
Craig looked at his players through the window - and they looked at him - as he left the room and got ready to meet them all after practice.
Great story, love the Van Persie scenario.. Will be definitely following. Good luck !
This story is delicious. I was hoping to read something like this.
With this story you make out RVP to be so ruthless...
... I like it.
After practice, the gaffer stepped up to the players, who had arrange themselves in a line in order of age, with young Alex-Oxlade Chamblerlain standing and the left-most and Tomas Rosicky standing at the extreme right. Braithwaite walked around, trying to read the expressions on the player's faces. Finally, he said,"Right lads, as you all know, Arsene has left, and I will be your new manager. Another person who will be leaving is Robin van Persie. Some of you may be worried that the squad will have been weakened by his departure but we have already signed the players who will step into his shoes."
He looked at Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski, and both of them nodded to the new manager as he continued speaking. "Arsene has left as well, after so many years, so I expect and will accept any strange feeling at the start, but I have a feeling we will gel. While on the topic of departures, some of you will be leaving the club. It's not that you are bad players, some of you just do not fit into my plans, and I don't like keeping a player around if I'm not giving him playing time, because that's unfair to them as well as the club. Anyway, that's it for now lads, I expect you to be here tomorrow at 6:00am sharp, anyone who is late gets to do 500 laps around the Emirates in a Tottenham shirt.
There were some worried faces and a few smirks as the players left the training ground.
That evening the chairman informed Craig that there was 50m set aside for transfers but with the players brought in that amount was reduced to 30m. He also would get a percentage of any sales he makes added to that budget. He was also told that the board expected a top-four finish in his first season in charge.
#61748 Kiwi :
The writing is on the wall, and I am selling tickets.
What exactly does that mean?
#61748 Kiwi :
And does that mean that you are going to get RVP to sign a new contract?
Well, actually the first thing I did was to try to get him to sign a new contract, in this new summer update it expires at 30-6-2012. So, in a year. But his agent (not Kees Vos, its a different one in game) said that he wasn't interested in signing a new deal and he intended to leave after his contract expired.
This is really good keep it up!
Thanks for the positive comments everyone, its very time consuming to think of a good plot and its encouraging to receive such nice comments. I'll try to keep this going as long as I can. It's only my second story (1st one died out in 2 days cause my brother accidentally deleted my save) so I'll welcome any positive criticism as well.
I am absolutely loving this, no joke. I like the plot and how you make it a point to write this like an actual story and not a biography or just a plain 'Football Manager playthrough word for word'.
Waiting to hear who will be going out and who will be going in, regarding transfers.
By the way, tell me if it's fun managing Arsenal, I was torn between the Gunners or Spurs when I wanted to choose a new club for the update and a new story, and in the end I chose Spurs.
Nice writing. You're making me feel like taking up writing myself. I think I might just do a story on Newcastle to piss shane off.
The next day, training went well, with no hiccups, and afterwards, Craig called up all the coaching staff into his room.
"Gentlemen, you've been great workers for the club over the past few years under Arsene, but I'm sure you'll understand that I'd like to have my own coaching staff. The chairman told me that you will all accept mutual termination of your contracts, and we'll give you a settlement package with it. I wish you luck in the future with any future jobs."
The coaches understood Craig and they all gave him a handshake as they left the room. At the end of the line was assistant manager Steve Bould.
"Well, good luck Craig. I'll still be rooting for Arsenal, I hope you do well.."
"Actually, Steve-" said Craig,"I was hoping you would still be my Assistant Manager."
"I'd be glad to!" responded the 48 year-old hurriedly.
"Well, that's sorted out then. Now, the transfers."
"Hmm..big question that. Have to do a lot of thinking about which players we should keep and who to buy."
"Exactly. Get all the scout reports we've got and some coffee as well. We've got a long night ahead of us."
You are reading "Arsenal - All Grown Up".
