The Big Decision: Robin Van Persie, time to say goodbye?

My love affair with Robin van Persie this season began in gameweek 2. Initially I was unsure about bringing him in because I feared Fergie wouldn’t play him every week and for 13.0 I wanted guaranteed starters. Then in gameweek 2 Rooney got that flesh injury and was ruled out for a month so with Aguero also injured for month I now had more money to spend and RVP was less of a rotation risk. So I bought him and its fair to say he changed me as a man.

Up until then I thought “love at first sight” was for chick flicks and hallmark card but when he treated me to a hat trick against Southampton in his first game I was smitten. His second game he only made a sub appearance against Wigan but since then he has started every game except 1 during the busy Christmas period. In that 25 game weeks since he’s scored 18 goals, created 11 assists and picked up 31 bonus points making him the games top scorer and pretty much everyone’s default captain. In short he completed me.

However  as our relationship evolved throughout the course of the season my initial fears always lingered beneath the surface and a number of times I’ve looked bitterly at the Dutchman’s 14.0 price tag and thought if I ditched him I could do X, Y and Z with my team and it would be so much better. Each time though RVP has proved me wrong. This time though, this time I feel it’s different. United pretty much have the title wrapped up there’s a good chance that Fergie will use his squad more in the league and go all out to succeed in Europe and, sure while he’s at it, he may as well go for the FA Cup too.

Last weekend against QPR Robin went off with a bizarre injury and even if he’s recovered this weekend when United play Norwich I doubt he will feature. Real Madrid are in town next Tuesday night so he will be wrapped up in cotton wool until then.

Gameweek 29 clashes with the FA Cup 6^th Round so United’s Premier League fixture has been cancelled. It’s possible that their Gameweek  29 fixture will be rescheduled for the following Tuesday/Wednesday which would bring it back into GW29. However the spanner in the works here is that those nights have Champions Leagues scheduled, Champions League games that will be shown on Sky Sports. Sky Sports also has rights to the Man United game that was supposed to be played in gameweek 29.

The sports broadcasters have the power to insist that the game is rescheduled for a time that doesn’t clash with their TV schedule. In saying that however last year’s Mersey side derby was rescheduled for the same night as a Champions League night by Sky so it’s not unprecedented for them to show both competitions on the same night. Confused? You should be. I certainly am and I’ve been trying to figure it out for a couple of weeks now. The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m unsure and £14 million shouldn’t buy your 2 gameweeks of unsure. That is enough to make the most ardent RVP fan like me sell him.

The downside to this is obviously I will lose 0.5 million when I sell him so it will be difficult to buy him back. There is a theory that RVP could drop in price and the striker you replace him with could rise in price just enough to soften to even negate the money you lose on the initial transfer. This would be true if he wasn’t currently Orange Flagged (doubtful). When a player is flagged orange or red their price can rise or fall as normal BUT once their flag is removed their price is frozen for a week regardless of how many times they are bought or sold in this period. So his price is unlikely to change much.

The upside is that you are now the Manchester City (or at least QPR) of fantasy football with cash to burn on not just one but two or possibly even three players. If you already have Suarez then it is likely you will replace RVP with someone like Ricky Lambert as the Saints have both good form and good fixtures for the next couple of weeks. Doing this will leave you with about a £7.0million profit, that’s enough to, for example, upgrade Raheem Sterling to Gareth Bale AND Guy Demel to Jose Enrique.

When looking at replacements I’d keep a close eye on how Gameweek 29 is developing. Arsenal and Everton are both definitely called off (6^th Round of FA Cup and unsuitable for midweek rescheduling) but as already discussed both Manchester clubs are also doubtful which also pulls in their opponents Wigan and West Ham. I think Chelsea vs Fulham could be off too as Chelsea beat Middlesbrough to qualify for the 6^th round and they have Europa League games the midweek after gameweek 29.

Hopefully the Premier League updates their fixture list soon so we have some more clarity around this. Personally,I’m planning on bringing in Suarez for RVP this week and the profit I make will allow me to upgrade Pogrebnyak (who made me cry last week. seriously!! sent off and suspended for the only games I actually needed him) to Lambert. I’d see Suarez and Lambert as the most attractive forward options for the next couple of weeks as they are in form and play in gameweek 29.

If you already have both these players I’d be looking at Fletcher, Papiss Cisse, Benteke, Sturridge and Adebayor as potential options. Most of these transfers will leave you will £6.0 million+ in the bank so I’d recommend saving that money to help you navigate through gameweek 29, unless you don’t have Bale in which case you should buy him now.

So back to the man with the little boy inside him, it’s been a fantastic, magical run and it says it all really that it takes a combination of injury, Champions League distractions and gameweek 29’s fixture turmoil to finally convince me to sell up. Maybe as soon as I hit “Confirm Transfer” I’ll regret it instantly and realise I’ve killed the golden goose.

Maybe time apart will do us good. Or maybe, in two weeks time when United are out of Europe, are playing Reading, have a double gameweek in the pipeline and Sir Alex announces he has a bet with Robin that he won’t score 35 league goals this season, maybe then I’ll be frantically transferring my team around screaming “WE WERE ON A BREAK”! to anyone who will listen.

So what do you think? Are you going to sell release Robin this week?

Article by Tony Cummins

Tony has written 29 awesome articles.

check out my team how my team is doing http://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/509829/event-history/22/ Feel free to tweet me any questions on @TonyCummins81 Welcomes feedback!

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