Robin van Persie meeting Wenger tomorrow to discuss contract, presumably

The BBC is reporting that Robin van Persie will meet with Arsene Wenger and club CEO Ivan Gazidis tomorrow at 10 AM London time at Mr. Wenger's home to talk:

Striker Robin van Persie will open talks to determine his Arsenal future at a meeting with Gunners boss Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis on Wednesday.

Discussions are scheduled to take place at Wenger's house at 10:30 BST.

Now, this probably isn't news to anyone, because all season long, van Persie has been saying that he will wait until the end of the campaign to think about his contract situation at Arsenal (one year remaining, as of right now). He said he would meet, and now he's meeting. A bit more after the jump:

Van Persie has, of course, been non-committal about his future up until now, which is basically a thing that people in contract negotiations do, or so all my capitalist pig-dog friends tell me. Here is what one might expect, in all probability:

1. One should expect not to hear anything about the results of the talks anytime soon. Seriously. Don't get your hopes up. This is a long process, and your ticker will thank you for taking a pretty Zen approach to the whole thing. What will be, will be.
   
2. Arsenal cannot offer the wages that at least six other clubs on earth can. That is obvious.
3. Arsenal can, however, offer legend status and a captaincy should he remain. A couple more seasons like the one he just finished would put van Persie into the same breath as Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Wright, Brady, Adams (if he's not there already).
4. It is highly, highly probable that van Persie is an Arsenal player next year, whether it is in the final year of his deal or the first year of a new one. He is simply too key a player to let leave for any reason.
5. Van Persie will likely ask himself what he thinks Arsenal are capable of, as a club; his eight years in North London haven't offered much in the way of medals. There is a large gap between Arsenal and the top two this year, but things can change rapidly in football sometimes, this year's Premier League results being Exhibit A.
6. Although it is nice to hear things from teammates about whether or not van Persie will stay, there are ultimately only three people who will know: van Persie, Wenger, and Gazidis. Laurent Koscielny, in the BBC link above, is right to point out that he will be an Arsenal player next year, and it's nice for morale, but that's about all he could know, and everyone sort of knew that already.
7. If he leaves, it is not the end. Arsenal will miss him, but the club is far bigger than any one player. And besides, what are you gonna do? Go be a City fan?

We all have feelings about van Persie staying. I'd like to think he would stay out of loyalty and love he will get nowhere else, but the Venn diagram circles representing how the world works and how I wish it would work are about as far apart as the earth and the moon.

Breathe, everyone. What will be, will be.