Striker Robin van Persie has said that he will not be switching to the No.9 shirt at the start of new season because he does not want to overload the fans, who have bought the van Persie shirts with the No. 20 on the back. Van Persie was signed from Arsenal for around £ 20 million in the summer and he decided to go for the No. 20 after his arrival. His favourite No.9 shirt was occupied by Dimitar Berbatov, who left the club just a few months after his arrival. This number has been vacant ever since his departure, which has prompted suggestions that van Persie may consider switching to No.9 for the new season.
The Dutch international has said that there are several fans who have bought shirts with his name and his current number. Hence, he does not want to change the number and cause fans to spend more money on him. Further, he is also quite happy with his current number since it has been quite lucky for him. Not only has van Persie ended up as the top scorer in the Premier league this season, but he has also lifted his first league title with Manchester United. This, incidentally, is the 20th league title for United.
“I think I’ll keep it. I have the option to take number nine but I don’t think I will do that. I’ll stick with what is right and what feels good. Also, I don’t want to be harsh on the fans who have got number 20 on their kit. I don’t want them to have to buy a new shirt. It’s been a good number for me and now I can at least celebrate the 20th trophy for another year. I’ll stick with it,” said van Persie to United Review.
Despite scoring more than 20 goals in the first half of the season alone, the Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has sensationally claimed that he is not happy with the goals he has scored so far. The Dutchman was £ 24 million signing in the summer at a time when his arrival was questioned by many. However, his goals alone have been able to help United opened seven point advantage over arch rivals Manchester city. He recently scored the only goal for United in the 1-1 draw with Tottenham during the weekend. This helped him improve his tally to 22 goals in the first six months at the club.
He has scored 10 goals in his last 10 matches, but has urged his teammates to be more clinical in front of goal. Despite taking the lead in the match, United were unable to hold on to the advantage and conceded a late equaliser. This meant that their seven-point advantage has been cut down to 5 points. United wasted a number of opportunities to finish the match on the counter-attack due to a poor final ball. Van Persie has also claimed that his decision to leave Arsenal after eight years has also proven to be the correct one.
“It should have been 10 games, 14 or 15 goals. At least four or five I shouldn’t have missed. It’s not going really well. It is going well but if you start to believe it’s going well, you’re going down. If I look at all those games, I should have done better in most of them because I had more chances than just one chance and one goal. Arsenal is a great club and I always had a really good feeling, but after eight years sometimes you feel that you need a new challenge,” said van Persie.
The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that he is extremely disappointed to see the likes of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, and Alex Song depart the club at crucial stages. The departure of these players also came in a span of just two years, which has been extremely difficult for the club to adapt according to Wenger. Arsenal have been losing their captains and the best players on a regular basis in the last two seasons. Even though they have profited extremely well in terms of the financial aspect, they have struggled on the pitch as a result of losing their best players.
Arsenal are currently struggling to get into the top four this season, while the recently suffered the embarrassing defeat at the hands of League Two club Bradford city in the Capital One cup. The exit from the competition on penalties means that Arsenal have lost yet another great opportunity to win a title for the first time since 2005. Wenger has been criticised by the fans unlike never before for not spending money, but the Frenchman has said that it has been difficult to adapt to the situation of losing key players in a short span of time.
“My regret is that we already had a great team two or three years ago which could compete on four fronts. But you could feel the potential was there, and I thought, ‘Okay, let’s do this together’. Then the team split up, sometimes after five or six years’ work, it is frustrating, you have to start all over again. We have lost recent players earlier in their careers – to lose Van Persie, Fabregas, Nasri and Song in just two years, it is a massive amount of potential, of course you worry,” said Wenger in a recent interview.
The Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has said that the striker Robin van Persie reminds him of another Dutchman at Old Trafford – Ruud van Nistelrooy. Robin van Persie recently completed his £ 24 million switch from Arsenal. He also scored against his former club in the 2-1 win for Manchester United. He has already become the leading goal scorer in the Premier league this season after largely being responsible for helping Arsenal finish in the fourth position last season. The 29-year-old has been extremely prolific for Manchester United in the first weeks of the new season that the defender Patrice Evra reckons that he is the next Ruud van Nistelrooy for the club.
The Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy enjoyed a hugely prolific spell at the club during his time at Old Trafford. He was one of the best strikers in Europe alongside Thierry Henry before moving out of the club after falling out with the manager Sir Alex Ferguson many years ago. A lot of people questioned the decision by Manchester United to sign the 29-year-old with a lot of fitness problems for around £ 24 million. However, Sir Alex Ferguson’s faith in the Dutchman has been rewarded after he has already scored eight goals in the Premier league.
“Robin seems like he has played for us for many years and he reminds me of Van Nistelrooy. I played with Ruud when I signed for United and I remember what a great player he was. The class and the touch they both have when you pass the ball to them is the same, but Robin is just a top-class player and you can see why United wanted him and why the gaffer worked so hard to get him,” said the French defender Patrice Evra following the 2-1 win over Arsenal.
The manager of Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, has said that he didn’t want Nani to take that penalty in the Champions League match against Galatasaray. As per Ferguson, he was expecting Robin Van Persie to take the penalty. When he saw Nani taking that penalty, he got surprised.
In the earlier part of the second half against Galatasaray, United got a penalty. The Portuguese midfielder, Nani, took that penalty for United, but, his shot was not well placed at all. He smashed the ball straight into the hands of the Galatasaray goalkeeper and missed a golden chance to score the second goal for United in that match. Alex Ferguson looked quite frustrated after that penalty shot of Nani.
In the post match press conference, Ferguson said that it should have been decided before the match that who was going to take the penalty shot for the team in the match. It was his mistake not to decide that. But, Nani was not the player whom he wanted to take the penalty. It was one of the poorest penalty shots he has ever seen in his life. Nani was completely outsmarted by the Galatasaray goalkeeper.
Ferguson looked disappointed with overall performance of the team. The United team lost a number of opportunities in the match. The team could have easily scored two more goals in the first half. As per Ferguson, the players were not up to the task at all. It was a match which the team should have won with a much bigger margin. Everything went well in the first 15 minutes, but, after taking a lead of 1-0, the players got a bit relaxed and they started playing with casual attitude. That’s the reason why so many opportunities went begging. As per Ferguson, he is expecting the players to put up a better performance in the next match against Liverpool.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that Robin van Persie is much better than the football being played in the Italian Serie A. There have been a lot of rumours linking Robin van Persie with a move to Italian champions Juventus this summer. It is thought that Juventus are willing to pay up to £ 180,000 a week for the 28-year-old Dutchman, who is entering his final year of his current contract with Arsenal. Even though Arsenal are not close to agreeing a deal with the player, Arsene Wenger has said that the striker should certainly consider his quality before moving to Italy.
Italian football has been extremely poor in the last couple of seasons after it has been found guilty of many match fixing scandals including the most recent one. Juventus have won their first league title since 2003. Even though they have stated that they hope to do well in the Champions League next season, Italian clubs have not been dominant in this competition in the last five seasons. Spain and England have been the most prolific in terms of the success in this competition. As a result, Wenger believes that Robin van Persie is much better than Italian football and should not consider a move to Juventus.
“In Italy there are big problems and your league is at a level lower than the Premier League. Serie A is at a low level now. There is no reason at all why a great player like [Van Persie] should come and play with you, in Italy, in your league. Football players get paid better in England, you have not heard of the new television contracts? The Italian league was once extraordinary, and I remember well, when the league had 16 teams and each team had their own champion. Now it is not the case,” said Wenger.
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May 14, 2013 10:58 am | 
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