How GOOD was Robin van Persie?

Dennis Bergkamp.

One of the finest players to grace the world of football. I grew up surrounded by Arsenal fans and when I really started getting into football around the turn of the century, it was near impossible to go one conversation without them mentioning this guy, among others, in some shape or form.

Despite this, I was still but a young boy. I had not been paying attention for long enough to truly appreciate what this man did on a weekly basis. I have since gotten a better idea, due to the magic of highlights, but the fact still remains.

Although, by the time that I was all caught up, another dutchman had entered the spotlight. This time, I paid full attention.

And, as a matter of fact, this guy was even tipped by some to be the like-for-like replacement of the aforementioned Dennis Bergkamp. While Bergkamp was widely dubbed as the non-flying Dutchman due to his fear of flying, the man this article is about did not seem to have the same reservations.

You have probably guessed by now, this one’s about none other than Robin van Persie.

Really not too long ago, this man was just dripping with class and technique on the pitch and is undoubtedly one of the greatest Dutch players to ever live.

Having said that, something we’ve all seemingly forgotten is that early in his career, his disciplinary problems not only burned a fair few bridge, but also led some to completely right him off.

We’ve got a lot to unpack today. And with all that in mind, how good was Robin van Persie, really?

Table of Contents

Early life

Born in 1983 in Rotherdam, Netherland, RVP was a bit of problem child from the get-go. When it came to school, he just wasn’t having it. From a young age, he was constantly being kicked out of class for misbehaving and generally causing a ruckus. This character trait: it unfortunately did not seem to go away.

Although, his father did not seem to mind. In fact, after a fortune-teller told him that his son would go on to achieve great things, he more or less let him be. I mean whether you believe in clairvoyancy or not, and seeing how things eventually turned out, perhaps that was not such a bad call.

Because when it came to football, no one questioned his ability. The guy was sublime, like any other Dutch prospect, many were labelling him as the next Johan Cruyff. Perhaps an overly ambitious label. But it was hard to argue against the claims at the time.

By the time that van Persie had entered the Dutch youth system just about the entire country had adopted a coaching model popularized by Ajax. The TIPS model. Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed. The latter two are more difficult to train, but the first two were hardcoded into him as well as several other young Dutch boys.

In the case of RVP, through this training as well as his natural ability, he excelled. His wand of a left foot, positional awareness, on and off ball movement and striking ability were impressive from very early on.

Having spent the majority of his early youth honing his skills at S.B.V Excelsior, he ended up moving to Feyenoord at the age of 16 in 1999. The reasoning for this move? Attitude problems. He fell out with the coaching staff.

Early career

Embed from Getty Images

At Feyenoord, he only went from strength to strength improving year after year. A common theme in career. Slowly but surely, he became more and more of a player as he got up there in age. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

At 17 years of age, he made his debut for the Feyenoord first team and immediately made an impression. So much so that he was awarded the young Dutch player of the year award for the year of 2002.

At this point in his career, he was playing as a left winger in a 433 system. Although he wasn’t the fastest of players, he did possess good acceleration from a standing start. All the same, his off the ball movement and exception timing of his runs more than made up for his shortcomings in the system he was playing in.

The future was looking bright for our man at this point.

That is until he started falling out with his coach at the time, Bert van Marwijk. The reasoning for this might shock you.

Attitude problems.

I know, right. No one could have predicted this. Believe me, I’m in a state of disarray, myself.

His body language and general argumentative nature was causing several problems for the teenager and his coach. So much so that the rift between the two saw RVP being demoted to the reserve squad on occasion and getting comfortable on the bench more frequently than he would have wanted.

By the end of the 2003/2004 season Feyenoord had begun to offer RVP to teams across Europe. Only problem was his reputation had preceded him in most cases.

Several teams did not want to take a gamble on a then 20-year-old with attitude problems. One such team was Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson even admitted to being interested in him back in 2001 and sending scouts out to go watch him play. However, he was red carded in the game that they watched and showed what was deemed to be immature behaviour. Not the best first impression.

Although, I do not think van Persie minded all that much. After all, he was about to join not only a team that had just gone invincible, but a team that he had supported in his younger day. In steps Arsene Wenger to take the troublemaker off Feyenoord’s hands.

During his time in Feyenoord, at the start of his career, he went on to make 78 appearances, scoring 21 and assisting 10 goals.

Arsenal

Embed from Getty Images

At the time that van Persie was brought in, Arsenal had just come off arguably their greatest season in the Premier league era. Despite this, the squad was somewhat ageing.

And amongst the stars they had in their ranks, Dennis Bergkamp was the most senior of the regular starting line-up.

Arsene Wenger’s intention from the beginning was to convert RVP from a left winger to a central forward in hopes that he would eventually replace Dennis Bergkamp in the long term, as Thierry Henry’s strike partner. Playing in that slightly withdrawn inside forward role, towing the line between striker and number 10. He was signed for £2.75 million at the beginning of the 2004/2005 season.

And while his ability was unquestionable, his first few years at Arsenal were scuppered due to various aspects. For one, he was still getting used to the league.

It happens.

When you have to constantly butt heads with these guys each week, you probably deserve a bit of an adjustment period. His first two seasons were rather mild from a numbers perspective, scoring only 10 times in 50 appearances in the league (1 assist).

Secondly, his body was constantly letting him down. Between the years of 2004 and 2009, he missed over 60 games in the league due to injury. And even more surprisingly, he only played 115 games in the same time period.

And above all else, his disciplinary problems were still as prevalent as ever. In his very first season with the club, he was sent off after receiving 2 yellow cards against Southampton.

Having said all of that, when he did play, he was phenomenal. His touch, his movement, even his attitude added several dimensions to his game. The man was hungry. Adding onto that, he came up with some ridiculous strikes.

International disappointment

In the same vein, on an international front, things were looking up. He was fortunate enough to be a part of a Netherlands golden generation which consisted of some pretty heavy hitters. Welsey Sneijder, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rafael van der Vaart; the list goes on.

By the 2006 World Cup, he had earned a regular spot in the Dutch national team.

Although that hardly mattered. Oranje failed to even make it past the round of 16 in this tournament. History repeated itself 2 years later when they could not get past the first knockout round in the 2008 Euros.

Despite this, van Persie and this Golden generation would soon have their day in the sun.

More injury woes

Taking things back to England, by the time Thierry Henry left for Barcelona in 2007, RVP was all of a sudden Arsenal’s first choice striker. There was also a bit of a drop in the quality of his striking partners on occasion.

Although, to be fair, Adebayor was a baller at the time, and he was still around.

But again, van Persie’s body just wasn’t doing him any favours. An ankle in injury in 2009 led to him missing over half of the 2009/2010 season of the Premier League. And even taking that absence into consideration, he still managed to score 9 goals in 16 appearance in the league. Not too bad, you know.

Although he did make his comeback on the backend of this season. And it was pretty good timing too. He had the chance to build up his match fitness before an important trip to South Africa.

The 2010 World Cup

Embed from Getty Images

Going into the 2010 World Cup, van Persie was finally the leading man in the Netherland’s attack.

Throughout the tournament, he only scored one goal, but his contributions to the team were still elite.

Again, his off the ball movement, hold up play and link-up play were important to the Dutch set-up. And along with some sublime performances from the team and Wesley Sneijder in particular, they reached the final.

Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out. Alas, this would be the closest that this golden generation came to cup glory.

Prime and London departure

In contrast, at club level, he was just about reaching his prime. In the 2010/2011 season, he scored 18 goals in 25 appearances, a career high. He still missed quite a few games though injury, but you got the sense that his fortunes may have been slowly changing.

If you did indeed have this suspicion, congrats you were right. At 28 years old, RVP was finally able to play a full Premier League season without an injury. Seriously, this was his first season without being injured.

Even more so, he played in every single match, scoring 30 goals in 38 appearances. Equalling a record set by Thierry Henry in 2004 for the highest number of goals scored by an Arsenal player in a single Premier League season, winning the golden boot in the process. Saying this guy was in form would be an understatement.

Having said that, Arsenal, as a whole, weren’t looking all that great. Despite van Persie’s stellar season, they finished in 3^rd Place, 19 points off eventual winners, Manchester City.

Surely this won’t do.

Manchester United

So, RVP did what any other reasonable player in that time period would do, he listened to the little boy within him. The one he listened to screamed Man United.

Embed from Getty Images

Having just lost out on the Premier League to Manchester City on goal difference, Sir Alex Ferguson was on a mission to right the ship in what would be his final season. A fact that was unknown to us all at the time.

After several speculated that he would look to add stability to United’s midfield, signing van Persie for £24 million raised a fair few eyebrow. There were also growing concerns that the addition of the Dutchman would adversely affect the playing time of Wayne Rooney.

Having said that, they ended up forming a very fruitful relationship, combining for 38 goals in the league, with RVP contributing 26 of them in a season where he played the full 38 games once more. Back-to-back golden boots secured.

And the cherry on the icing on the cake was this strike on the day that United secure the league title against Aston Villa, assisted by Wazza himself.

Robin van Persie; Premier League winner.

But with the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson the party didn’t last for long.

Van Persie, in particular, was apparently extremely bewildered upon hearing of Ferguson’s retirement. According to Rio Ferdinand, amongst the United players in the dressing room, this announcement hit him the hardest.

And the 2014 world cup wasn’t all that much better with the Netherlands being knocked out in semi-finals.

Although, the tournament was memorable for the Dutch for a few reasons, most notably their opening game of the competition. Not only did they humiliate Spain beating them 5-1, but van Persie also provided us with this article’s featured photo. Thanks for that, bro.

The header was alright, too, I guess.

United exit and retirement

After falling out with Louis van Gaal in 2015, United’s manager at the time, RVP ended up leaving the club and joining Fenerbace for £3.84 million. He went on to spend 3 seasons at the Turkish club before rejoining his boyhood club Feyenoord in 2017 for two seasons.

And at the end of the 2018/2019 season, he retired from the game altogether.

Closing thoughts

So, what do we have to say about Robin van Persie? Depending on who you ask, opinions on this man can somewhat vary. But then again, if you’re a top class footballer and this isn’t the case, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Despite this, I think it’s universally accepted that he was an absolutely incredible footballer to watch on his day. The technique, the elegance, the finishing. The guy really had it all.

Even without considering his iconic 2014 World Cup goal, the man was well deserving of his nickname.

Salute to the Flying Dutchman.