Robin Van Persie quit Arsenal in order to join rivals Manchester United, but despite firing his new side to success, the feeling just wasn’t right.
The Dutch striker left Arsenal in the summer of 2012 with only one year remaining on his current deal, and went onto score a huge 26 League goals for United that season, picking up his first ever Premier League title, while also earning back-to-back PL Golden Boots.
Arsenal fans were deservedly unhappy with the way in which he ditched our side to join our rivals, but the striker admits that he wasn’t able to enjoy getting the guard of honour from his former side after earning that title.
RVP told MUFC: “I didn’t like it. Some of them were my friends, I spent eight years there and I was just happy that it was over.
“I could see in their faces that they didn’t like it, which I get. And then you see me walking there, I was just happy that it was over.
“I think it’s a nice gesture to do towards the champions, but it just didn’t feel right, not for me and not for Arsenal.
“It was a little bit awkward there, so I didn’t feel really comfortable about that.
“From my point of view, it didn’t need to happen. Okay, it’s part of the rules and, from the basics, I did like it but not that particular day.”
Many Arsenal fans will always remember RVP as a ‘judas’ or a ‘traitor’, but one could argue that the club should have done more to convince him that we wanted to be challenging for titles, and were willing to make the investment in our squad to help put us there.
Has our club tried hard enough to get us back on top over the last decade? Can we really blame ambitious players for wanting to win things when our owners aren’t willing to match that ambition?
Patrick
