There’s no love lost between Arsenal fans and Robin van Persie.
The Flying Dutchman had scored 132 goals in 277 appearances for the Gunners and he was touted to at least come close to Thierry Henry’s goalscoring record at the club because of the alarming rate at which he was scoring goals. In his very first game against the Gunners, he scored after a Thomas Vermaelen error and he was rather apologetic but as he played more games against his former employers, the relationship got soured.
In his first season at Manchester United, van Persie scored 30 goals for his new team with 26 of them coming in the Premier League. Those goals in the League helped Manchester United to their 20th Premier League title and of course, the end of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson’s career with the club. The incoming manager, David Moyes, favored the Dutchman to lead the line ahead of Wayne Rooney but the injury demons that haunted him in his early seasons came back to haunt him. He still managed to score 18 goals that season, one behind top scorer Rooney (19). Under Moyes, United endured their worst spell and in al honesty, it was fun seeing them struggle the way they did.
It was last season that things really went bad for the Dutchman. He just couldn’t stay fit and while many were thinking that he would come back to his best under his former national manager, Louis van Gaal, things didn’t pan out that way. Whether it was down to LVG’s tactics or the issues with RVP, things went downhill for the Dutchman, even to the extent when he was stripped off penalty duties when he missed a spot kick in Manchester United’s 1-0 shock home loss to West Brom.
Van Persie scored a meager 10 goals for Manchester Untied last season and after some speculation regarding his future, BBC Sport has reported that he’s closing in on a move to Turkish giants, Fenerbahce. As you expect from Arsenal trolls, van Persie has been mocked on social media in the wake of his proposed move to Fenerbahce. If he leaves Manchester United this summer, the club will have only two recognized strikers in Wayne Rooney and James Wilson, even though Memphis Depay can play through the middle when the need arises. He has scored 58 goals in 105 games for United.
The question on people’s minds would be – did he make the right decision leaving Arsenal for Manchester United in the first place? If he stayed at Arsenal and signed the contract the Gunners offered him, he would have been instrumental to the team in their 2013/14 Premier League title challenge and he would have been part of the FA Cup triumphs.
With the influx of exceptional talent into the club, van Persie would have formed a lethal partnership with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott but he’s set to play alongside the likes of Emmanuel Emenike and co. lol! At least, seeing David Ospina around would make him reminiscence on his Premier League days.
At 31, his career was on the wane and this move out of the spotlight was probably the best thing for him. At least, Fenerbahce is in the Champions League and anytime they lock horns with rivals, Galatasaray, van Persie would come up against Lukas Podolski, one of the players that was bought to replace him.
He has laid his bed, so he has to lie on it.
Farewell from the Premier League, Robin van Persie.
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