Now that Manchester United and Robin van Persie have parted ways, RVP has taken a final parting shot at Manager Louis van Gaal. Given that Van Persie was willing to uproot his family and move to Turkey, you knew that their had to be underlying tension during his third and final season at Old Trafford.
It was revealed that Van Gaal informed Van Persie that his United career was over at the recent Manchester United charity golf outing. That must have been a very difficult conversation given how the two countrymen are/were/maybe still are close friends. Van Persie regressed in form in the one season under David Moyes, but he turned in such a strong showing at the 2014 World Cup that it was thought he would be his old self at United in 2014-15.
With Van Persie flourishing under Van Gaal for country, the logic held, the same would occur for club. However, the Netherlands making a deep run to the semi-finals of the World Cup ended up taxing Van Persie, delaying his re-integration to United, and his season never got quite right.
‘I asked to play in the reserves, to get my minutes, but after was on the bench again,’ Van Persie said in the Sunday Times. ‘The atmosphere changed between me and Louis [van Gaal] and people at the club saw it, but I was always professional.
‘I was still thinking we could come back from holiday and start from scratch, but when I came back it wasn’t an honest battle any more. Fighting to get back in the team wasn’t given to me as an option.
‘I didn’t get angry or emotional. These things are part of football, part of life. You have to make the best out of any situation so I’m doing this by moving on.’
In other words, Van Persie believes that he wasn’t given a fair opportunity to win back his place, and that the problem originated with how his return to club was handled last summer after the World Cup. It will be very intriguing to see how Van Gaal answers a question on Van Persie’s remarks at the next press conference. We’ll see if this story line ends here, or if Van Gaal fires back and it becomes a he said, he said situation. Maybe Van Persie’s points are valid, but the fact that he’s firing shots shortly after exiting doesn’t make him look like a classy figure right now.
United plays their next preseason game tomorrow night. Here’s the TV info and time for United’s next exhibition match:
Manchester United vs. San Jose Earthquakes, Tuesday, July 21 (11:00 PM ET), FOX Sports 2.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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