Former player and Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen has detailed his impact on Robin van Persie’s transfer to the club.
Van Persie made headlines back in 2015 when he made a controversial move from Arsenal to United.
The two sides have always boasted a fierce and longstanding rivalry, so a player deciding to switch between the two was always going to be a notorious and ballsy step.
It certainly paid off for the Dutchman though, as he secured the Premier League title in his first campaign as a Red and finished the term as the top goalscorer, making him an instant icon in the eyes of the Old Trafford faithful.
Meulensteen, who held an assistant role to Sir Alex Ferguson at the time, has revealed that the manager wasn’t all too keen on Van Persie’s arrival at first – and actually took some convincing.
He told talkSPORT: “I think it was in January, I got a call from Robin’s agent and he just said, ‘Listen, Rene, things at Arsenal are stalling with Robin. He’s got certain expectations of the club; he wants to take the club forward and they’re not seeing the right investments coming in so he’s not really happy. He’s not going to extend his contract. He likes to stay in England and in the Premer League and predominantly, there’s only one club he wants to play for – he wants to play for Manchester United and he wants to play for Sir Alex Ferguson.’
“The only thing I could do is ask Sir Alex to see what he thinks, so I walked into his office and said, ‘I’ve got this phone call and Robin van Persie is interested in joining us, what do you think?’ ‘Nah, too old.’
Meulensteen goes on to describe how the transfer unfolded in the video below:
📞 “I got a call from Robin’s agent. He wanted to join #MUFC & play for Ferguson.”
😱 “I walked into Fergie’s office & said ‘Van Persie is interested’. He said ‘Nah, too old!’”
Rene Meulensteen reveals how he had to persuade Sir Alex to sign Van Persie! 👀 pic.twitter.com/TBXJaCq3JJ
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 3, 2023
Footage courtesy of talkSPORT.
