The day Arsenal goal-scoring machine Robin Van Persie left Arsenal
Today 12 years ago Arsenal’s main talisman Robin Van Persie said farewell for Premier League title rivals.
On the 15th August 2012 the striker who had finished the 2011/12 Premier League campaign as top striker with 30 goals, joined Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United who had just lost the Premiership on the final day of the season to Manchester City.
Van Persie had been at Arsenal for almost a decade, joining in 2004 as a youngster when the Gunners were still at Highbury before setting up camp again in 2006 at The Emirates. He had certainly seen a lot of changes at the North Londoners, to say the least, and would become Arsenal’s eighth top goalscorer in history by the time he waved goodbye.
During his tenure at Arsenal he claimed one FA Cup Winners medal in 2005 when Arsenal overturned Manchester United on penalties in the final after having sealed the Community Shield in the summer of 2004 against The Red Devils again.
Before The Flying Dutchman left Arsenal, the once captain of the club said on the fourth July 2012 that he would not be re-signing on, causing concern amongst Gooners who hoped he’d stay with his lethal goalscoring capability’s which had been relied upon.
There was much confusion to why this was the case however earlier this year Van Persie explained that the Arsenal committee didn’t hand him a new contract.
A brutually honest Van Persie declared to Sportskeeda in early February; ”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.
“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 – which is fair enough.
“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.”
So this is why and how Van Persie left The Emirates for Old Trafford’s “The Theatre of Dreams”.
The man who is currently in charge of Dutch team SC Heerenveen of the Eredivisie later won the Premiership at last in 2013 with Manchester United in Fergusons last year as The Red Devils boss, who rounded off his record 13th English top-flight title. It wouldn’t have been possible without Van Persie’s 26 goals which witnessed him lift his second successive Premiership Golden Boot.
Even though he left over a decade ago the move still sits uncomfortably in the hearts of many Gooners…
Liam Harding
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