Robin van Persie explained why Arsenal are to blame for his transfer to Man Utd
Robin van Persie was at the big match on Sunday.
No, not Arsenal's almighty Premier League title clash with Liverpool, but Manchester United 's home game against West Ham. Spotted taking his seat before the Red Devils ran out 3-0 winners, Van Persie further pledged his allegiance to United and it brought back the memory that fateful day in August 2012 when he literally did that by signing for the club from Arsenal.
In a move which soon swung the English football pendulum back to the red half of Manchester, Van Persie sensationally quit the Gunners in a £24million deal and linked up with Sir Alex Ferguson. But why?
Well, according to him, it's Arsenal who made up his mind by failing to offer him a new contract, and he never wanted to break fans' hearts at a time when the Gunners were edging close to an elusive league title and he was club captain. Speaking on The High Performance Podcast, Van Persie explained: "I get that (the criticism).
"But I can promise you on my kids if someone comes with proof that Arsenal offered me a deal, I will give you a million [pounds] now, today. It was Arsenal's decision not to offer me a deal and that is up to them. After many conversations, it became clear that we had different ideas about the club.
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"I had seven points where I thought Arsenal could improve and in my opinion those seven points they should start dealing with them straight away to be able to compete with the best teams. It doesn't really matter what points they are, what matters is that Ivan [Gazidis] decided that he didn't agree with one single point of those seven points - which is fair enough.
Your turn! Should Arsenal have given Robin van Persie a lucrative new contract? Join the debate in the comments section.
Robin van Persie signed for Manchester United ahead of their title-winning 2012-13 season (John Peters)"So taking that information on board, Arsenal doesn't offer me a deal, they didn't agree with my views - which were only to help, honest views of how the club should move forward - that is a very clear message. For me it is not an issue anymore, that's life.
"That's life at the top clubs, businesses make decisions and players as well in this case do as well. I'm perfectly happy with how it ended up, I went to United, we won the league, so it's perfectly fine for me."
Van Persie did want to go back to Arsenal in 2015, but legendary Gunners manager Arsene Wenger wasn't interested. "After three years of the four that he signed for, he was injured and Louis van Gaal sold him to the Turkish club, Fenerbahce," Wenger revealed in 2020.
"He called me because he wanted to come back, but it was impossible: he was at the end of his career and we were investing in young players."
Van Persie spent another three seasons in Istanbul before returning to the Netherlands and joining boyhood side Feyenoord, later retiring in 2019. The 40-year-old is now a youth coach in Feyenoord's academy and helps train the club's first-team squad.
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