They say a player is worth as much as someone is willing to pay him and pay for him but according to the Sun Robin van Persie believes he is worth £10.1 million a year.

He’s 29, he’s managed one season without a long term injury and completed one season where he was the best player in his league, so does that justify asking for wages of £10.1m per year?

When you break this figure down it comes in at just shy of £195k per week, or £27k per day or £1.16k per hour, even when he’s sleeping.  That’s a lot of money for a player who has only just hit the top of his game and has no proof that he will be able to sustain it.

There is no way that Arsenal will be able to match this amount per week and if money is his motivating factor then he will not find happiness at Arsenal.  Our best offer will probably only come in at around 50 per cent of what he thinks he’s worth, and, after all, £5m a year, who could possibly be expected to live comfortably on that?

People often cite the fact that a footballer’s career is short but at £5m per year for three or four years on top of what he has already earned, a decent accountant and a relatively healthy interest rate in the bank, you’d be left with more money than you could ever need.  The argument that players have to earn as much as they can as fast as they can hides the fact that it is not about securing a future, the wages that Premier League players at the top end receive today does that.  This is about greed. Pure and simple.

When a player’s playing career is over a world of options are available to them – TV punditry, journalism, coaching, managing, or they could do what the rest of us do when we lose a job and retrain for another career. Spare me the ‘woe is me, my career is over at 35′ crap. I’d quite happily have retired a year ago if you’d been paying me £5m a year to play the game I love and then go in to coaching or something similar. I’d still be able to travel first class around the world when I wanted as well with all the money I’d made gathering a nice amount of interest.

There comes a point when money is not all that matters.  You would think that would be at £5m when you could relax and play for the club that you love, but for Robin it seems £10.1m is the magic figure. I just don’t think he’s worth it.

Do you?

(in case you needed reminding, here’s RvP’s injury record since he joined Arsenal in 2004 via PhysioRoom)