Just after the transfer window had closed, a new circle of rumours have started. One of those involves Robin van Persie and his possible return to Arsenal in the summer. Apparently, he hasn’t been very happy with David Moyes’ management and The Lying Dutchman is hardly thrilled with the fact Manchester United are seven points away from a Champions’ League spot with 14 matches to go, not to mention that his previous club Arsenal have a double-digit-cushion ahead of the reigning champions. Out of nowhere, that specific rumour says that the striker’s family hasn’t been fond of living in Manchester and would like to return to London.
That rumour didn’t surprise me to be honest. We have been connected with our former players in more or less every transfer window – Fabregas, Song…and there was even a rumour last season that Samir Nasri wanted to leave Manchester City and re-join Arsenal. Given that Manchester United are going through a rough period and van Persie has a history of being a sinking-ship-leaving-rat, he might have been considering his options lately.
Still, even if that is true, I don’t see Arsenal as one of his options.
First of all, The Lying Dutchman is going to be 31 in the summer and has an Abou-Diaby-level-injury-record. So, not exactly the hot prospect he had been before he joined Arsenal and an injury prone player. The best he can hope for is that all of our strikers but one get injured before the end of next January transfer window, he gets injured while playing football at the beach in Abou Dhabi and then Wenger may try to secure a free loan deal for him!
Second of all, Arsenal fans hate van Persie more than any other traitor and he burned all the remaining bridges (if there was any of them to burn) with his celebration of the winning goal against us. He also said that he cheered for Spuds against City last season even though United would have won the title without Spuds’ victory over Citizens. Furthermore, after he had looked very lively against us at the Emirates in the match that had no significance to United, he gave a poor performance against our rivals for the Champions’ League place Chelsea.
Thirdly, Arsene Wenger would humiliate himself with an offer for van Persie. It’s not just that Manchester United would be reluctant to sell him to a rival club without a significant fee but also because van Persie publicly declared his discontent with the direction of the club. Wenger is the key factor for that direction and his statement was an insult to Wenger as well.
Fourth of all, even if van Persie’s family wants to move back to London, it is more likely that his new club will be Chelsea. After he had signed for Manchester United, he was full of joy to join such an illustrious player as, er, Mickael Silvestre on the list of players that had been managed by both Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson. Now, given that his current manager hasn’t made anyone believe that he is going to fill Ferguson’s shoes, van Persie might go for the hat-trick. There are only three managers in the history of the Premiership that have won the Premiership more than once and the third (hint: you can find the pun in the pronunciation) one is Jose Mourinho.
The big-mouthed Portuguese has already hinted that he plans to sign a striker in the summer and that people will see why he didn’t go for a striker in January. Given that Manchester United and Chelsea have made good spot of business lately with Juan Mata, they might arrange another shocking deal.
Well, if that happens, you’ve read it here first.
Finally, we are doing well without van Persie this season. Some might argue that we would have been better with him in place of Olivier Giroud but van Persie wouldn’t have had an impact in defending our goal like Giroud has had this season. If we really go for a striker in the summer, it will be someone who didn’t stab Arsenal, our fans and Arsene Wenger in the back. At this moment, I believe we will go for Mario Mandžukić.
As for van Persie, he would fit into Chelsea perfectly – only a club with a despicable manager and a despicable captain deserves The Lying Dutchman in their ranks!