Struggling: Robin van Persie of Manchester United (Picture: Getty Images)

I know, I know, on the face of it, it seems a stupid question. But bear with me.

I don’t deny that he was the top striker in the country and one of the leading lights in world football when he was sold to United.

I also don’t deny that I’m still incredibly bitter about the whole thing.

At the time Arsene Wenger said he was sold for ‘footballing reasons’ and even the most staunch Wenger-supporters amongst us couldn’t quite get our heads around that one.


Of course, at the time, Wenger had only two options – sell an ageing striker to Manchester United for £24m because he was refusing to join any other club, or keep an unhappy and disruptive player and let him join United the following year for free [none of us could know Ferguson would be leaving at that point and Van Persie probably wouldn’t have joined them].



If you have any doubt that he was disruptive, just look at the statement he issued trying to turn the fans against the club, the statement which turned Arsenal fans against him long before Manchester United came on to the scene.

In his first year with Arsenal, Van Persie won the FA Cup.

After that it was injury upon injury and, as his form finally returned some eight years later, he started throwing tantrums, demanding that he be allowed to dictate the direction of the club and telling Wenger that Ramsey wasn’t good enough.

Now, after one year with United and one trophy, the injuries are back and the tantrums are starting to surface.

His teammates are in his ‘zone’ and he doesn’t seem like a happy little bunny at all.

I don’t know if he’s supposed to be passing to Wayne Rooney or vice versa, but I’m pretty sure there should be more exchanges between them than we’ve been seeing lately.

I remember a World Cup or a Euro’s when none of the Dutch players would pass to him either – this isn’t a one-off.

There is no denying that without Van Persie, the Arsenal team – although lacking a world-class striker – are considerably more united [no pun] than they have been in years.

His departure last summer rocked the club and they stuttered for a while, but with him gone they eventually found a rhythm which they’ve kept going ever since.

Van Persie’s unhappiness is, no doubt, partly related to being sold one Manchester United – one with Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm which was winning trophies on a regular basis – and finding himself at another where a rebuild will be necessary while they struggle to get fourth place. Something he thought he’d left behind when he deserted Arsenal.

He didn’t want to show any more patience at Arsenal and now he has to do just exactly that at United as he enters the final years of his career.

Only one or two of his toys are teetering on the edge at the minute, but it won’t be long before the little boy inside Van Persie starts throwing them.



I, for one, am glad it’s at United and not at Arsenal.

Perhaps Arsene was right all along to let him go.

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