Sir Alex Ferguson had brutal response when Robin van Persie was offered to Man Utd before he helped him win final title
ROBIN VAN PERSIE became a legend at Manchester United in his three years at the club – but an age old excuse almost meant the move never happened.
The Dutch striker arrived in England with bitter rivals Arsenal from Feyenoord way back in 2004.
He scored 96 Premier League goals in 194 matches for Arsene Wenger’s side and was a huge fan favourite at the Emirates.
However, after eight seasons in North London, he began pushing for a controversial move to Old Trafford in the summer of 2012.
United were desperate for a new forward, but boss Sir Alex Ferguson initially had a brutal response upon hearing that Van Persie was keen to join.
But, fortunately for the star, Fergie’s former assistant Rene Meulensteen was able to convince the iconic Scot to take a punt on the then 29-year-old frontman – although it took much persuasion.
“I think it was in January, I got a call from Robin’s agent,” Meulensteen explained to talkSPORT.
“He said ‘Robin’s not going to extend his contract [at Arsenal], he wants to stay in England … and he wants to play for Manchester United and also for Sir Alex Ferguson.
“I thought, that’s a bit of a statement, and the only thing I can do is ask. So I walked into his office and I said ‘Robin van Persie is interested in joining us, what do you think?’ and he said, ‘Nah, he’s too old’, he was 27 at the time [he was actually 28], had a bit of an injury record. And I said, ‘Ah, we’ll look into that, I wouldn’t dismiss it straight away’.
“We had more discussions and we said ‘this teams needs something, they need a spark’, so what I did is I asked some of the senior players during training, if we could get [Luka] Modric, Van Persie, or this guy, who would you pick? And most of them said, ‘Well Robin would be brilliant’.”
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United paid £24m to sign Van Persie in what transpired to be Ferguson’s final season at the helm.
And it turned out to be one of his best bits of transfer business as the ace fired 30 goals to secure the title before Fergie’s retirement.
He ended up staying on at the Red DEvils initially under David Moyes and then Louis van Gaal until his exit in 2016.
RVP scored 48 times in 86 top-flight matches prior to joining Turkish club Fenerbahce, where he stayed for another three-year spell, and then headed back to boyhood side Feyenoord for what proved to be his one final campaign.