Players who have moved me. Part 3.
Robin Van Persie
Two United players in a list of 3…
I think my influences in terms of what I saw often as a child are obvious (my older brother is a Manchester United fan).
Although how Van Persie impacted me was largely for what he did as an Arsenal player, I still maintain that in that two-year spell (the one year being his time at Manchester United), Robin Van Persie was the best striker in the world. Bar none
He just unfortunately played for two sides who accomplished very little in Europe during that time, and that largely determines what becomes of your perception in the bigger scheme of things.
The blemish of his availability aside, when he played it was special, even on his off days there were moments in the game that would still shake you, that would make you want to rewind, that would make the commentators take note even if the ball ended up going out rather harmlessly thereafter. I mention this not to praise inefficiency but to highlight that the goals he scored and created only added to all that he could do with a football.
Robin Van Persie only ever started 30+ league games in two seasons: 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, so he would have only ever been truly front of mind to people who weren’t Arsenal fans in his final season there, hit has been described as a breakout season or his defining season but having watched him as long as I did, both of those seasons just felt like a reward for my patience. Everything he was praised for or that stood out in those seasons as these supreme moments of talent felt like reminders of ridiculous moments, he’d already shown for Arsenal long before. The moments I’d imagine stand out most for Manchester United fans would be his first goal against Fulham, the volley to the opposite corner, his winner against Manchester City, and of course the often-cited hatrick against Aston Villa, especially that third goal.
For me though, watching him playing for Manchester United, a moment that stood out for me as particularly painful and as particularly indicative of Robin Van Persie’s talent, his hatrick against Southampton. It might feel like a random throw away game, but the version of Southampton he scored those goals against, is very very different to the Southampton side we’ve just seen get relegated.
United go 1–0 down early doors thanks to a goal from Rickie Lambert, United then equalise with a neatly controlled finish from Van Persie, you’d think that would mean they would go on to control the game from there, but no. Southampton go on to score again. Worry not though, Van Persie has won a penalty. He tries to go for a chip and its saved. At that moment in time I’d still been hoping against hope itself that Manchester United’s Robin Van Persie wouldn’t do what Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie did, so that particular moment filled me with joy, that maybe this would be the first chink in his armour, a game where he would cost Manchester United points. He equalised for Manchester United in the 87th minute. He then scores a header in the 90th minute to complete his hattrick. A Robin Van Persie hattrick to win it for Manchester United in Fergie time. I can’t think of many moments in football that had nothing to do with my team that crushed me as much as that goal did.
Van Persie was for two years in a row far and away the best player in the Premier League, and in my eyes, the best in the world bar Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. What I saw Van Persie in that two-year span I have not seen another striker come close to replicating given the level of the teammates around him when he did it. Any other striker you’ll name had a team capable of at least going past the Round of 16 in the Champions League… Van Persie’s only fault in his career would be that he was never fit for long enough to show the world at large how good he consistently was.
I hate to be the stats guy but for this specific player I think it’s necessary, but I won’t inundate you with numbers, so I ask that you humour me for a moment. The only strikers in Premier League history with better goals per game scoring records are Dion Dublin, Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Mohammed Salah and of course Thierry Henry. He’d have ranked even higher had he not hitched himself that was the dying horse known as Manchester United in the post Sir-Alex Ferguson era.
Until last year he was the all-time top-scorer for the Netherlands, since he left, Arsenal are yet to have a player reach the 30 goals he scored in his final season there. Manchester United still have not had a player score 20 league goals in one campaign since Van Persie left.
Truthfully I don’t think either club has come close to replacing his all-round impact, and if you would argue they have, I’d then tell you that they still haven’t replaced his quality, only Erling Haaland, Luis Suarez and Mohammed Salah have touched 30 goals in the Premier League since, and again I must reiterate he did that while playing for 3rd placed Arsenal, in the same season where I saw my team lose 8–2 to our bitter rivals, I also saw my favourite footballer lift us up from a position I thought we’d never get up from. Not only in that season, or in that game, but on a week to week basis that is what he did, he did it everywhere.
The level of quality that Robin Van Persie displayed every time he stepped onto the pitch in the Premier League is permanently etched in my mind. Indelible
If any other footballer did what he did and joined a rival the way he did, to celebrate the way he did when he scored against us a year later at Old Trafford I’d have hated them, but I can’t hate Van Persie, until last year he was the only player whose name I’d ever wanted on the back of my shirt, even after he left I kept wearing that shirt, he is a footballer who truly made me believe anything could happen, that he could take a shot from any angle and however unlikely or how ridiculous the angle or technique required, he might put it away. And he did. He did it so many times, in improbable moments, he scored goals he really and truly should not have scored, against Chelsea, against Liverpool, against Totttenham, against Everton, against Barcelona, against Blackburn, I say again, against Chelsea, especially against Chelsea, a hattrick at Stamford Bridge, I’d pay to rewatch that game for the first time, against Tottenham, and of course against Charlton. He scored a volley against Charlton that I’ve never seen someone replicate or even come close to. Better still, anytime I’ve heard people reference it, they use their hands to try and show how connected with the ball, I’m yet to see someone come close to striking a ball the same way.
Robin Van Persie, there is not a single player like him. “Moved” is an understatement.
Here is part 1 and 2 of the Players who have moved me series.
Part 1 — Wayne Rooney
Part 2 — Neymar
