The Story Of The Player Who Sacrificed His OWN Club To Win the Premier League — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So… listen to this… Back in 2012, Van  Persie was Arsenal… That wasn’t a team,
2. 0:06that was a one man army… They had signed him 8  years earlier… hoping that one day….. he’d be
3. 0:11able to fill the massive hole that would be left  behind by Henry and Bergkamp…. and that season,
4. 0:17even with the team in the gutter… he almost made  it seem like the achievements of those two weren’t
5. 0:21so impressive after all… 39 goal contributions  in a single premier league season… Bergkamp never
6. 0:28managed more than 27 and Henry… well, not only  did Van Persie match his goal scoring record… but
7. 0:34let’s just say that hadn’t he been selfless enough  to stop his run so that Henry could score on his
8. 0:38comeback to Arsenal… that one extra goal would  have allowed him to match Ronaldo himself, as the
9. 0:44Premier League’s all time record goalscorer… I think you get the picture but… as good as he
10. 0:49was then… It was the fact that he had stuck  by his team throughout 6 long trophyless
11. 0:54years that had made him their hero… Just the  year before, their captain Cesc Fabregas had
12. 0:58gotten so fed up with the situation the club was  in that he offered to pay out of his own pocket
13. 1:03to leave… And once he did, it was Van Persie who  took on the armband… all while swearing to the
14. 1:09fans that he would never do the same, claiming  that: "My heart is with Arsenal… I couldn’t
15. 1:14even picture myself in a different shirt”... I think we all know where this is going… Less
16. 1:20than 2 months after scoring the final of those  30 goals, Robin Van Persie refused to renew his
17. 1:25contract at Arsenal and a month later, not only  had he left… He had signed for their rivals,
18. 1:30going as far as claiming that “the little boy  inside me has always screamed for Man United”...
19. 1:37The fans came after his family, they burned  shirts, the whole deal… It was one of the
20. 1:42greatest betrayals in the history of the sport…  but what hurt the most was that it paid off
21. 1:47tremendously for both Van Persie and Man United… However, I always found it strange that people
22. 1:53were so shocked that Van Persie would do such a  thing because…. for a player who had so much class
23. 1:58with the ball at his feet, he has always been  problematic… like… even when he was a kid he was
24. 2:03going off the rails… He always tells this story  about how he got kicked out of class so often
25. 2:07that he became close friends with the janitor… and  what’s even more ridiculous than that is that his
26. 2:12family never really cared because before he was  even born, they went to a fortune teller because
27. 2:17they wanted to know the gender of the baby…  but not only did she confirm to his father
28. 2:21that he’d finally have a son, but she told him  that he would become a footballer and play for
29. 2:26the Netherlands one day… So once he noticed the  kid had talent, he just accepted that was his
30. 2:31destiny, he pretty much let him do whatever he  wanted and that had some clear consequences…
31. 2:37When Van Persie was 16, as much as he was already  recognized as one of the best talents in the
32. 2:42country, he literally got expelled from his club’s  academy because according to one of the coaches:
33. 2:47“He did nothing he was told and everything he  wanted”... yeah they got so annoyed at him,
34. 2:53that they would rather not have him in the team  at all… In fact according to Man United’s chief
35. 2:57scout back then they were already looking  at the possibility of signing him but the
36. 3:01stories they heard about his behavior  at the club literally scared them away…
37. 3:06Regardless, Feyennord ended up signing him  and though they also worried about his lack
38. 3:09of maturity, after a series of injuries they ended  up being forced to bump him up to the first team
39. 3:14way sooner than they expected and the result  was just wild… 8 months later, Van Persie was
40. 3:21yet to score a single goal, however he was the  dutch young talent of the year and an european
41. 3:27champion… That seems almost like a paradox, but  back then he was a traditional winger in a system
42. 3:33with two strikers… so scoring goals wasn’t exactly  his job, but when it comes to everything else,
43. 3:39he was a talent beyond his years… Just looking  at that UEFA Cup run, he was the man of the match
44. 3:45several times… Not only did he dominate both games  against Rangers, being involved in three different
45. 3:50goals… but even more impressive, then… in the semi  finals, he went against Ronaldo Fenómeno’s Inter
46. 3:56and made their defense look like swiss cheese…  had Van Hooijdonk not wasted an open goal chance,
47. 4:01he would have come out of there with two  assists… So yeah… I think you can tell by now,
48. 4:06that he really was just a generational talent… In fact, Feyennord were quick to make him sign a
49. 4:12professional contract after all of that,  but only 3 matches into the next season,
50. 4:17he had already ruined everything… You see, they  were about to play Real Madrid for the European
51. 4:22Supercup and Van Persie was obsessed with Zidane,  he wanted to play against him more than anything,
52. 4:27but the game before that, in the champions  league play offs, the coach told him to warm
53. 4:31up and then didn't even bring him on, which in  Van Persie’s head meant that he would never get
54. 4:36a chance to play in the supercup so he lost his  mind and while most of his teammates celebrated,
55. 4:42he went into the locker room shouting in anger,  throwing his boots on the ground and the coach,
56. 4:47knowing how much of a brat he could be, decided  to punish him by repeatedly benching him and
57. 4:51at times even sending him to play with the  reserves, but the moment he let him play the
58. 4:55full 90 for the first time, he scored 5 goals  in a match… Then obviously they couldn’t just
59. 5:02keep benching him and before you knew it he was  on 15 goals in 12 matches… but even after that,
60. 5:07his form was as unstable as his temper and as much  as the fans already seemed sure that he’d become
61. 5:12the next Bergkamp… they also kind of hated him… He  was so frequently harassed in the streets that his
62. 5:18father forced him to hire a bodyguard, but even  though the club was as interested in selling him
63. 5:23as he was interested in leaving… At that point  the other clubs had all caught up to the fact
64. 5:27that he was trouble… so he was stuck… and… it was  actually kind of strange how he got around that…
65. 5:34You see, Wenger was one of the people who had  their eye on him already, but he thought that Van
66. 5:39Persie wasn’t ready to play in the Premier League  or as he said “to play in extreme conditions” but
67. 5:44then… Feyennord sent Van Persie to play another  match with the reserves, who knows what he did
68. 5:49that time, but once he got there the Ajax fans  were just crazy, they spat on him, they threw
69. 5:55stuff at him, he was abused the entire match… and  somehow he still managed to score… which angered
70. 6:02the rival fans so much that they rushed into the  field and beat him up… I am not even joking… after
71. 6:09that match, as you might, rsene Wenger finally  decided to sign him, either out of sheer pity or
72. 6:15because he now had confirmation that Van Persie  really could handle “extreme situations”...
73. 6:21But yeah… the plan was simple… Bergkamp and  Henry were getting old, Anelka had left them,
74. 6:26so they needed a new heir for the throne and if  Wenger had managed to turn Henry from a winger
75. 6:30into the deadliest striker on the planet… he  believed he could do the same to Van Persie…
76. 6:35What he didn’t realize was that he would  make his job much harder than Henry had…
77. 6:41Right on his first season, he was already getting  slammed in the media for being immature. I mean,
78. 6:46the Telegraph literally wrote that “his brain  serves no use” and if you’re wondering what
79. 6:51happened that time… well.. In a match against  Southampton, Van Persie was on a yellow card, so
80. 6:56Arsene Wenger, knowing that he had that Balotelli  gene, stopped him and told him “Robin, be
81. 7:02careful. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t even make  tackles”... 5 minutes in, he lost the ball trying
82. 7:07to dribble on the halfway line and proceeded to  hit a Southampton player with a two footed tackle…
83. 7:13As he walked off to the locker room, Wenger  looked absolutely dumbfounded… But hey, that
84. 7:19was just kind of funny, you know? But over summer,  things got very serious very fast when Van Persie
85. 7:25ended up spending a few weeks in jail after being  accused of “a crime” I cannot mention… you know
86. 7:31what I mean… In fact, It got so bad in prison,  that they had put him in solitary to protect him
87. 7:36from the other guys and there was so much worry  that he could end up doing serious time for it,
88. 7:40that some sources claim Arsenal impulsively bought  Aleksander Hleb to cover for him if he ended up
89. 7:46being imprisoned for good, but the case ended  up being dismissed… and somehow he still made
90. 7:52it back in time for pre season and it was around  that moment that, for some reason, he thought it
91. 7:57was a good idea to approach Wenger and demand more  playing time, as Van Persie himself recalled it:
92. 8:03“He looked me in the eyes and told me “You’re  still not a top player”, I asked him why and he
93. 8:08replied “No, I’m not telling you, you have to find  out for yourself, you have to start asking the
94. 8:13right questions, look around, so many top players  and you’re not of them, why? why are you not a
95. 8:19top player, Robin?”... From that moment I began  paying attention, I’d look at Dennis, at Henry,
96. 8:24at Pirés, the runs they made, the way they read  the game… I realized that he was right, I was so
97. 8:30far off… I told myself “That’s where I wanna go”” And I’m guessing the motivational talk worked
98. 8:37because by November, Van Persie had scored  8 goals in 8 matches and had been named the
99. 8:41player of the month, but that was precisely  when his other big issue began to surface…
100. 8:47Van Persie was pretty much made of glass and when  a player stepped on his foot a few matches later…
101. 8:52he literally broke his toe… add to that 3 ankle  sprains over the rest of the season and yeah… his
102. 8:58form died down massively… By the time Arsenal  made it to the UCL final, he had only played 8
103. 9:03minutes throughout the entire knockout stage… Then, of course, as his third season began,
104. 9:08we got another glimpse at his problematic  side, when he lost control of his bmw,
105. 9:13crashed it and literally just left it there,  hitching a ride to training like it was nothing,
106. 9:19which as you might imagine is a crime, one that  could get up to six months in jail… thankfully
107. 9:25his excuse that he “didn’t know” somehow  worked, otherwise who knows what would have
108. 9:30happened… Regardless, that season, despite going  through 3 more injuries, he managed to outscore
109. 9:35even Henry, somehow finishing the season as the  club’s top scorer and doing it in style, even
110. 9:39scoring a goal against Charlton that Wenger called  “the goal of a lifetime”... and with Henry leaving
111. 9:45to Barcelona over summer, the day had arrived…  It was time for Van Persie to put on his big boy
112. 9:51pants and take over as the king of the Emirates… But again… after a streak of 7 goals in 10
113. 9:58matches, he went out for international duty,  injured his knee and spent 5 months on the
114. 10:04sidelines… He even returned twice, but every time  he stepped on the pitch, it was either his ankle
115. 10:08or his knee… it seemed impossible for him to stay  fit…. The next season, thankfully things weren’t
116. 10:14too bad, only 4 minor knocks and 7 matches on the  sidelines throughout the year and the result was
117. 10:20incredible 20 goals, 14 assists, a spectacular  goal vs Liverpool, he even led the league’s
118. 10:25assist providing charts and was named player  of the season at Arsenal, but the following
119. 10:29year it happened again… 16 goal contributions in  the first 14 matches of the season and then he
120. 10:35got injured in an international friendly and was  out till April… By the time he got another start,
121. 10:41there were 3 matches left in the season… You have to realize that, at this point,
122. 10:46Van Persie was closing in on his 28th birthday…  It was starting to be questioned if he’d ever
123. 10:50be able to have a world class season, but then  a lot of things happened very quickly… First,
124. 10:56despite the injury, Van Persie still made it to  the world cup and surprised everyone, playing a
125. 11:00huge role in getting the Netherlands out of the  group stage and then assisting one of the decisive
126. 11:04semi final goals to secure their place in the  biggest game on the planet… And though they lost,
127. 11:10he didn’t stop… Once back at Arsenal, he took on  Bergkamp’s number 10 and though he injured his
128. 11:15ankle again before he had even managed to score a  single goal, by new year’s he was fully recovered
129. 11:20and… then… he went on a run that made every  other player in the league look like an amateur…
130. 11:26You see, on January 1st, Van Persie scored  his first goal of the season… At that point,
131. 11:31Berbatov was on top of the goalscorers table  with 13 and Tevez was second with 11… But only
132. 11:377 matches later, Van Persie had already scored 10  goals himself and though, you know, just to stick
133. 11:43to his brand, he did get injured and missed 2  matches, he still came back and even with Arsenal
134. 11:48in disastrous form, he went on another run of 8  goals in 10 matches, even breaking Drogba’s record
135. 11:54for scoring in the most consecutive away games… By the end of the season, he had tied
136. 11:59Ronaldo and Henry for the record of most goals  ever scored in the second half of a season but
137. 12:03unfortunately, even if very impressive regardless,  he was still 2 goals away from stealing the golden
138. 12:08boot from Berbatov and Tevez… Even more disappointing, he was
139. 12:12on 26 goals and 6 assists in 25 matches across all  competitions and still did not make it any further
140. 12:18than the round of 16 in the UCL… Had Arsenal not  been completely robbed against Barcelona with
141. 12:24Van Persie being sent off for kicking the ball  literally just one second after the referee had
142. 12:28blown his whistle… who knows what could have  happened… after all, they were in the lead…
143. 12:34Regardless, it didn’t matter, because, at 28 years  of age, the next season would be the first since
144. 12:39his arrival in the Premier League where Robin  Van Persie did not get injured a single time,
145. 12:44not even a minor knock… The moment Fábregas left  the club, he took on the armband and just kept
146. 12:50going… 21 goals and 6 assists in the first half  of the season… By new year’s he had been named
147. 12:55in the FIFA World XI for the first time in his  career and then with Tottenham seemingly running
148. 13:00away with the final Champions League spot, Van  Persie put his foot down and just kept scoring,
149. 13:06even leading Arsenal to a comeback win against  Tottenham themselves, as they eventually finished
150. 13:11just 1 point above them… as one newspaper would  put it… Van Persie was “A one man band of the
151. 13:17highest order”... in a season where he got within  inches of beating every single goalscoring record
152. 13:22in sight, Arsenal’s second highest goalscorer  was Theo Wallcott with a measly 8 goals…
153. 13:29Even if his team had finished 19 points away  from 2nd place… when it came down to the voting,
154. 13:34there was no doubt… Robin Van Persie  was the PFA Player Of The Year…
155. 13:39And as you may imagine, here’s exactly where  the whole betrayal took place… Once Van Persie
156. 13:44met with the board to negotiate his new  contract, just like Fábregas he asked
157. 13:48them where the club’s ambition had gone,  what had happened since the early 2000s,
158. 13:52what was the plan… and I kid you not they  started showing him the club’s profit margins,
159. 13:57the net and gross whatever! It was obvious to  him that their objectives were not the same, as
160. 14:03he once said “My relationship to Arsenal was like  a marriage… After 8 years, we had grown apart, we
161. 14:09were tired of each other… I was still ambitious,  I still dreamed of winning the league title so I
162. 14:14began looking around, that is life!” Honestly, as  much as I understand, this is incredibly ironic
163. 14:20considering that Van Persie was known for  having cheated on his wife… but moving on!
164. 14:25When Van Persie arrived at Man United, there was  a lot of doubt surrounding his signing… Some said
165. 14:30Rooney and him wouldn’t mesh well, some said  United should have focused on improving their
166. 14:34midfield… But Sir Alex clearly did not agree, not  only did he address that second claim saying that
167. 14:40“when a player of that caliber shows up you  have to act, there’s no time to think” but
168. 14:45there’s also the fact that, the moment he  signed Van Persie, he went into the locker
169. 14:49room and according to Rio Ferdinand he told his  players “Scholesy, Carrick, Shinji, Wayne, I got
170. 14:55a new player… I’ll show you how to get the ball to  him… and if you can give him the ball like that….
171. 15:00he will win us the league… And if you can’t…  you will not play”... As Ferdinand would add:
172. 15:07“I had never seen him talk about a player like  that… Ronaldo was probably the only other one”...
173. 15:12And thankfully for Van Persie, the entire club  was convinced that this was possible, in fact, the
174. 15:17assistant coach, Rene Meulensteen even convinced  him to take the number 20 shirt… because that year
175. 15:22he would take United to their 20th league title  and so… he did… In fact, it was one of the most
176. 15:29clutch, most decisive performances in the history  of football and it started off at an absurd pace…
177. 15:36After having already scored a decisive goal in his  first start for the club, the very next match Van
178. 15:41Persie faced Southampton… and around the one hour  mark, United were trailing behind 2-1, with Van
179. 15:47Persie having scored the one, obviously… However,  then he missed a few chances and topped it all off
180. 15:53by missing a penalty which greatly upset him, but  with about 10 minutes left, his leg began cramping
181. 15:59and it was pretty severe, most players would have  signaled for a substitution and gone on with their
182. 16:04day… but Van Persie refused to leave and on the  87th minute he tied the match and in injury time
183. 16:11he completed the comeback and got his hat trick…  but still, when he walked into the dressing room
184. 16:16with the ball, he asked for everyone’s attention  and apologized to his teammates for missing the
185. 16:22penalty… That bratty entitled young boy was  dead and gone, this new Van Persie was a
186. 16:27professional and he had a license to kill… A few matches later, he scored the winner vs
187. 16:33Liverpool, then 3 assists and a goal over  his next three matches… and once they beat
188. 16:37both Chelsea and Arsenal back to back on minimal  margin, guess who scored in against both? Yeah,
189. 16:4310 matches in, his goals had already won his  team 13 points… but people tend to focus way
190. 16:48too much on those first 10, because he  didn’t really stop… On his 11th match,
191. 16:54he assisted a goal in a 3 to 2 win and then, after  2 more quiet games, he went on another absurd run,
192. 17:00scoring the winning goals in 3 consecutive  games, finishing off with an injury time goal
193. 17:04vs City and then carrying on with 5 goals and  2 assists in the next 5 matches and then adding
194. 17:10two opening goals vs Tottenham and Liverpool…  now 23 matches into the season, he had won 24
195. 17:18points for his club with 24 goal contributions in  20 starts… and even if then he went on a dry-er
196. 17:24streak after in colliding with a tv camera and  injuring his hip, United were already 11 points
197. 17:30ahead… The carry job was completed, but still he  made sure to come back before the season ended,
198. 17:36scoring maybe the coolest hat trick ever against  Aston Villa… With his first goal, he made United
199. 17:42champions, with his 2nd he literally won the  award for goal of the season and with his third
200. 17:47he leapfrogged Luis Suárez to the top of the  goalscorers table, allowing him to take the
201. 17:52golden boot at the end of the season… As he said  it himself: “That whole season, I felt relaxed and
202. 17:58confident… We went behind in 16 different games  and still won by 11 points”... You want me to tell
203. 18:04you why? Because Robin Van Persie was there… But of course, this is Robin Van Persie so we
204. 18:09couldn’t really get a happy ending… Then  Sir Alex surprised everyone by retiring and
205. 18:15according to Ferdinand: “His retirement hurt  Robin the most”... Dare I even say… He felt
206. 18:20betrayed… And then, no matter how well he kept  playing, even scoring that goal over summer and
207. 18:21taking another medal at the world cup, eventually  he fell off with Van Gaal and after a truly
208. 18:22remarkable stint at Fenerbahce, he got a victory  lap at Feyenoord and man, he was still scoring hat
209. 18:23tricks only two months before retiring…  When you’re good, you’re good…