Читать книгу Robin Van Persie - Andy Williams - Страница 8

It sounds like a classic case of fabricated football club propaganda but van Persie, a lad raised in a working class area of Rotterdam, claims he grew up supporting Arsenal. He admired Robert Pires, Thierry Henry and (it goes without saying) a certain Number 10 going by the name of Dennis Bergkamp.

Van Persie was, somewhat predictably, introduced to English supporters as ‘the new Dennis Bergkamp’. The comparisons were obvious – both were Dutch, attacking, expressive players with good looks to boot.

In his youth van Persie would have had Dennis Bergkamp rammed down his throat as he was such a successful, popular player – the inspiration behind many wins for both club and country. Bergkamp would go on to be voted the second-best player in the history of Arsenal by the club’s fans and certainly gave van Persie something to aspire to.

Van Persie did not feel the need to hide the love he felt for his fellow countryman and he told The Times: ‘For many years Bergkamp was the star player I absolutely adored. I must have studied every one of his tricks with the ball.’

Bergkamp was from a different generation of Dutch players to van Persie but the two still had the chance to play together as Bergkamp stayed at the club until 2006 – despite many fans assuming van Persie had been drafted in as his replacement.

Robin van Persie signed for Arsenal on 17 May 2004 for the modest fee of £2.75 million, with wages reported to be set at £25,000 a week. At the time not a lot was known about the 20-year-old who was only a Netherlands Under-21 international at that stage. That did not detract from how much of a bargain his transfer fee was – the same summer Wayne Rooney had cost Manchester United nearly 10 times as much with a deal worth over £25 million.

It was a dream move for van Persie but at the same time he had a hard task ahead. He told the Evening Standard: ‘It’s been a huge challenge for me. In Arsenal’s terms I wasn’t a big money signing. So I knew that when a chance came, even if it was only for two or three minutes, I would have to make the most of it. Every minute, every training session I try to improve.’

He had been courted by the club for quite some time beforehand but it was reported Feyenoord wanted to hold out for something closer to the £5 million mark. After five long months of negotiations to sign this ‘next Dennis Bergkamp’, Arsenal had their man.

Arsenal’s chief scout Steve Rowley was the driving force behind the deal and he was the man who travelled many times to watch his protégé in action. After van Persie spectacularly fell out with van Marwijk – during one bust-up allegedly hurling his boots across the dressing room – van Persie was banished to the reserves in the spring of 2004. This was a move that could have spelled the end in Arsenal’s interest and potentially wrecked van Persie’s career.

Amazingly, and thankfully for van Persie, Rowley was not deterred by this and travelled to watch van Persie turn out for Feyenoord’s reserve side against bitter rivals Ajax.

The average reserve game is played at a snail’s pace and attended by one man and his dog – if the dog can be bothered to turn up – but when Feyenoord and Ajax are playing, it is an entirely different kettle of fish.

When the rivals’ second strings met on 15 April 2004, it’s fair to say all hell broke loose. Four thousand hostile Ajax supporters lined the perimeter of the pitch and van Persie was drenched with beer every time he went near the touchline. Rowley must have been impressed when van Persie responded to this intimidation by raising his game. The Arsenal-Tottenham rivalry might have been this strong but it certainly wouldn’t be this hands-on (or beer-on). At full-time some hooligans ran onto the pitch, attacking Jorge Acuña and van Persie, who later said he feared for his life.

With van Persie in serious trouble, Ajax youth coach Marco van Basten sprinted into the resulting melee to rescue the young star. A shaken van Persie emerged with severe bruising to his neck and back and later told the press it was ‘no exaggeration’ he thought he was going to die in the carnage.

Less than two weeks later his transfer to Arsenal was confirmed and van Persie was saved from this nightmare – it seemed everything that could have gone wrong in Rotterdam, had gone wrong, and he must have considered himself very fortunate to have been able to salvage a move to the reigning Premier League champions from the flaming wreckage of his Feyenoord career.

Van Persie was quick to salute the belief Rowley showed in him: ‘I know the manager gets all the credit, but I think Steve Rowley is just as important for Arsenal. Every young player at Arsenal gets to know him first. And when I look at the quality of the young players we have, you can only say the club does a fantastic job every season.’

Steve Rowley would continue to play an important role in van Persie’s Arsenal career as the pair would regularly sit down to sift through hours of videotaped match action together. The wily scout was not afraid to highlight things van Persie had done wrong in matches because he knew the Dutchman would not take offence and only wanted to learn and grow as a player. Rowley had even been known to chip in with suggestions to help van Persie improve his game.

Arsène Wenger was very pleased with the capture of van Persie, praising his skills and adaptability. Shortly after he signed, a club statement read: ‘Robin is a great young talent and a fantastic signing for the club. He has a great left foot and is a great passer with excellent vision. He can play as a striker or on the wing. Robin has shown great potential at both club and Under-21 international level and will help to strengthen our squad considerably.’

Van Persie said Wenger took no time at all to win him over and the pair instantly clicked: ‘It took Wenger 10 minutes to gain my trust. Wenger told me that I’m a great player but that I need patience. He said to me, “When you go past Campbell or Kolo Touré in training, then you will play in my team.”’

That strong bond was an extremely important factor in van Persie making it through an extremely challenging next year. Wenger would be there when his young star needed him the most.

It was a period of change in the Arsenal front line as £13 million France striker Sylvain Wiltord had fallen out of favour and would not be offered a new contract that summer, along with the aging Nwankwo Kanu, who was allegedly much older than the 28 years he claimed to be, and who had lined up a move to West Bromwich Albion after the Arsenal bench had started to give him splinters.

The club’s iconic ‘Invincibles’ squad had just managed to win the Premier League by going an entire season unbeaten but there was no time for sentiment in Wenger’s eyes, so it was out with the old and in with the new. Dennis Bergkamp was in his mid-thirties and surely only had a few seasons left in the tank so van Persie was the kind of fresh blood the Gunners desperately needed. With Bergkamp and Thierry Henry – at the time two of the best strikers in the world – both very much in their pomp, it would take van Persie time to get his chance in the side and as he matured the hothead would have to learn the art of patience as he waited his turn.

Van Persie said it was like a dream come true to sign for a club like Arsenal and he must have been thrilled to link up with household names Bergkamp, Henry and Robert Pires in pre-season training. He had hardly made a good first impression in the dressing room as he wore blue-and-white clothes when he first met his new Arsenal teammates. Captain Patrick Vieira immediately noticed he was standing there in the colours of arch rivals Tottenham and made a jokey comment. Van Persie had been blissfully unaware of the rivalry with Spurs but his choice of clothing had broken the ice and the dressing room banter could commence.

In a typically understated interview with the club website, Bergkamp said van Persie was ‘quite a talent’ and ‘obviously knows what he’s doing’. He was never one for going over the top with his words and Bergkamp was probably keen for van Persie to follow his example and let his feet do the talking. At the end of the day for a footballer what happened out on the pitch was all that mattered and maybe it was time for van Persie to follow the senior player’s lead and only pay attention to what was happening during the game itself.

Those feet were chattering away when Robin van Persie scored on his Arsenal debut as the Gunners thrashed neighbours Barnet 10-1 – van Persie netting in the 30th minute against the Conference side. He followed this up with goals in his next two games: a 3-2 win at NK Maribor and a 2-1 victory at Grazer AK.

He had made good ground early on but that fresh start would have to wait a little while as there was to be a Dutch kick in the tail. The 20-year-old had to return to the Netherlands when Arsenal took part in the pre-season Amsterdam Tournament. Van Persie started the opening game on 30th July at the Amsterdam ArenA against River Plate in the ‘Bergkamp role’ – sitting just behind striker Francis Jeffers – as the former Ajax man watched on from the bench. Some clever play with Jeffers and Jermaine Pennant looked promising and van Persie would have been relatively pleased with the way he was playing. The Amsterdam public appeared less than impressed with the man who had previously starred for their bitter rivals and his every touch was booed and jeered. It wasn’t quite as ridiculous as being assaulted by Ajax fans following a reserve game but it was still strange to see a crowd behaving like this in a pre-season friendly. A former Tottenham star playing against Arsenal would certainly not come under such fire during a friendly match.

Things only got worse on the journey back to Arsenal’s hotel when van Persie came face to face with members of the public. As van Persie and his wife Bouchra neared the team’s Hilton Hotel, two men on bikes approached their car, began shouting abuse and spat at the star through his open window.

Van Persie told the Evening Standard: ‘Two guys on bikes started yelling at me and spat at me through the open window. They kicked the car three or four times and spat again. They drove after us but could not keep up. It was unbelievable.’

The couple were shocked by the incident and van Persie would surely now be even more eager to make a good impression at Arsenal with bridges seemingly burned in his home country. That defiant characteristic spotted by Arsenal chief scout Steve Rowley was there for van Persie’s teammates to see as he came off the bench in the game against Ajax the next day. Despite the heavy barracking he was given, van Persie got on with the game – taking free-kicks and skipping past opponents as if he had ear plugs in and was blissfully unaware of what was going on around him. The fact that at the age of 20 he was able to handle such an atmosphere would have impressed Wenger and surely boded well for derby clashes with Spurs.

Ajax manager Ronald Koeman said the barracking given to van Persie in this second game was shameful. The game came just months after that reserve team incident and Koeman told the Evening Standard: ‘Van Persie is a great talent. After what happened here a couple of months ago he deserved a different reception. That was appalling.’

He had shown the Ajax fans that he would not be affected by their appalling behaviour and said after the game that he just wanted to move on from the two incidents. He was keen not to tar all Ajax fans with the same brush – probably a wise move when you take into consideration the fact that the Dutch national side use the Amsterdam ArenA to host some of their fixtures so he would be back at some point in the not-too-distant future. After the game he said: ‘What happened in April is history to me. It was done by a few guys who cannot be called real fans. I want to forget about it, and hope things like that will never happen again.’

His Arsenal career was off with a bang as van Persie made his debut in the 3-1 Charity Shield win over Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Whilst Wembley Stadium was being redeveloped, English domestic finals were played in the Welsh capital. José Antonio Reyes ran the show for Arsenal as they hit three in the second half and it was clear van Persie was the new kid on the block. When Reyes had got in behind the United defence and was bearing down on Tim Howard’s goal, van Persie was up alongside him just waiting for the ball to be squared. Instead Gilberto powered in front of the new man and gleefully smacked the ball home as van Persie half-heartedly celebrated what could have been his first competitive goal in Arsenal colours had his teammates allowed it to happen.

As Arsenal overawed United, van Persie squandered the opportunity to score a perfect opening goal when his mentor-to-be Dennis Bergkamp crossed from the right. Van Persie did well to beat his man to the ball but his near-post header cannoned into the side-netting. Thierry Henry and Reyes were much sharper than van Persie that day and this would set the tone for the opening months of the season.

It would be a tough transition from the more measured attitude of the Eredivisie to the fast-paced, full-blooded action of the Premier League. His new manager said it was only natural that van Persie would take months to adjust to life in England. The Dutchman had quite a slender build and would certainly receive his fair share of knocks to welcome him to the country.

Wenger said: ‘I feel there is an adaptation for a young player coming to English football of six and eight months to adjust to the pace of the game and the physical challenges. I was pleased with the way he used his body against Sunderland, that was his problem when he arrived here because it is not as physical as that in Holland.’

This transition period took longer than it might have done because Wenger decided van Persie needed to move in from his favoured position on the wing to find more joy in a central role. Thierry Henry had been transformed in a similar way after being signed as a winger from Italian giants Juventus to go on and become one of the world’s best strikers and Wenger clearly believed he could replicate this success with van Persie.

Midway through van Persie’s second season at the club, when he was scoring for fun from a central position, Wenger said: ‘It’s quite strange as Robin was educated as a winger and played at Feyenoord only as a winger. I tried at the start to play him as a winger but felt he didn’t really have that game, with mobility trying to go behind players. So I put him more central.’

There was another piece of off-the-field drama for van Persie in October as he was once again involved in an incident with his car. Not content with being spat and sworn at in Amsterdam, van Persie took his poor vehicle one step further when he smashed it into the central reservation of the M25 motorway before crashing into a field. Foolishly van Persie then phoned a friend to pick him up and left the wreckage of his £65,000 BMW – Police later traced him to Arsenal’s Colney training ground where he was questioned.

His mentor Dennis Bergkamp played the role of interpreter and told police that van Persie had panicked and had no idea it was an offence to leave the scene of a crash. An Arsenal source told the Evening Standard: ‘Robin had no idea he was doing wrong by leaving the scene of the crash. He went to a phone box and called a colleague to pick him up. He was very shaken.’ He eventually escaped punishment after claiming to have not fully understood the road regulations and saying he had needed his teammate to take him out of a stressful situation to make sure he was on time for that day’s training session.

He may have escaped punishment but it was still reckless to leave the scene of the crime and a serious punishment could well have come van Persie’s way – especially if law enforcers wanted to make an example of a footballer misbehaving. It is not a wise thing to make a name for yourself in this way as this ‘footnote’ would undoubtedly be brought up in the future.

Arsenal had extended last season’s unbeaten league run to almost the end of that month but as they looked to make it 50 games without defeat they suffered their own crash as they neared the Manchester United junction of the Premier League motorway. Van Persie was an unused substitute at Old Trafford as the home side ran out 2-0 winners after a hotly disputed Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty and Wayne Rooney’s 90th minute second. But the action really kicked off after the final whistle had been blown as the two sets of players clashed in the tunnel. As they hurled obscenities at each other, a slice of pizza was launched at United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Ashley Cole described the scene in his biography: ‘This slice of pizza came flying over my head and hit Fergie straight in the mush… all mouths gawped to see this pizza slip off this famous, puce face and roll down his nice black suit.’

It was not revealed at the time who the culprit was but it could well have been van Persie as Cole said in his book that whoever hurled the pizza at Ferguson was not English or French. In all honesty it would have been no surprise to see hot-headed van Persie ‘grab a pizza the action’.

His next start came in the same city a few days later as a youthful team headed to Manchester City in the League Cup – a competition low on Arsène Wenger’s list of priorities. The Arsenal players were greeted by a tongue-in-cheek ‘no pizza or soup for safety reasons’ notice as they walked into their Eastlands dressing room. The competition seems to have been of little importance to Arsenal throughout the club’s history as various managers have fielded weakened sides in a competition they have won just two times compared to 10 FA Cup wins and 13 league championships.

Wenger had all the excuses on hand ahead of the game. He said: ‘Those who played on Sunday [when Arsenal slipped to 2-0 defeat at Manchester United to end their 49 match unbeaten run in the league] are on the fringe of injury and many of them just at the limit of being able to play. So at the moment I cannot risk any players because we have so many who are just on the fringe of being injured. Robin van Persie is a big talent in the role Dennis Bergkamp plays for us. He can create, he can score and I am confident he will have a good game.’

It was hardly a classic but once again van Persie was able to get on the score sheet as he gave Arsenal the lead in a 2-1 win. After initially fluffing his lines as he completely missed the ball following a generous cut-back from Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, van Persie showed composure to bury a similar chance that fell to him later in the game.

The young guns had shown what they were capable of and Wenger said van Persie’s goal was a ‘real Arsenal goal’ – praise indeed. The emerging Arsenal stars had done themselves proud and Wenger told the Evening Standard: ‘The next generation looks very good. It makes me convinced the club has a future. The scouts and the coaching staff, they are getting the good young boys in. We have concentrated on that for the last few years and now, slowly, you start to see the quality.’

This would have been a real confidence boost for van Persie and he was on a roll as Southampton came to town for a Premier League game the following Saturday. That defeat at Old Trafford was bad enough but to lose at home to the struggling Saints would have been a complete disaster. The Gunners had led through a Thierry Henry strike but a late Rory Delap double looked to have nicked all three points for the south coast club. Wenger said he was worried the side had a hangover from the previous week but in complete contrast to the rest of the team van Persie came into the game with his tail up after that midweek win.

He came on for Freddie Ljungberg with just over five minutes left and in that short window of time managed to cut inside a defender and curl a shot into the top corner to score his first ever Premier League goal and salvage a point for the home side. Van Persie could have won the game in stoppage time with a much easier opportunity but he could only direct his header straight at goalkeeper Antti Niemi.

People kept saying it was the time for van Persie to elbow his way into contention and it sounds like he listened to them when Arsenal travelled back to Old Trafford for a League Cup match at the start of a busy December. United striker David Bellion’s 19th second goal settled the game but all the talk was about van Persie, who stole the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

As the second half began, he was involved with an unsightly clash with Kieran Richardson and swung an elbow the way of his United counterpart. Richardson lashed out in retaliation and it is fair to say all hell broke loose as a result. After the drama of their last few meetings there had hardly been any love lost between Arsenal and United. Although both sides showed the competition their usual ‘respect’ by fielding teams full of young and fringe players, the clash still had plenty of bite.

Van Persie quickly found himself surrounded by a pack of irate United players as referee Mark Halsey attempted to restore some kind of calm. Yellow cards were dished out to both men as the official tried to calm the situation and van Persie would have considered himself extremely lucky to still be on the pitch. Richardson sought some revenge at the end of the game when he clattered into his Dutch friend and Halsey immediately blew the full-time whistle to prevent things from getting out of hand.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was predictably fuming at the final whistle and demanded that the FA take further action. The red-nosed moaner said: ‘Van Persie was lucky to stay on. The FA must look at it because the boy threw an elbow. I asked the referee why both players had been booked, he said “for aggressive intent” and told me he had not seen the elbow.’

Wenger later admitted it deserved more than a yellow card and – although he would have been pleased with the fire in van Persie’s belly – might have been that little bit more hesitant when thinking about putting van Persie in his starting line-up. After the game Wenger said his young star had to learn to keep his calm – something he thought van Persie was already capable of after he dealt so well with that backlash in Amsterdam just months beforehand. He said: ‘Robin shows great potential but he must also learn to keep his nerves under control and not get overexcited. I considered taking him off because he was involved in some heated moments. He must learn to keep calm.’

He may have been limited to these substitute appearances but van Persie was making the most of them and doing his chances of starting more matches no harm at all. When he came on as a second-half substitute to score the final goal in Arsenal’s 5-1 Champions League humiliation of Rosenborg, his strike made it the Gunners’ biggest ever win in the competition at their Highbury home. With the part-time Norwegian champions run ragged by a rampant Arsenal, van Persie could have hit a hat-trick but after a couple of misses had to be happy with just the one goal. He was smartly set up by Reyes and dinked the ball over the advancing goalkeeper. Wenger joked after the game, ‘Maybe we were never as bad as people said we were.’

His game time was seriously limited but as 2004 drew to a close van Persie ruffled a few feathers with a feisty showing as Arsenal stayed within five points of leaders Chelsea with a 1-0 win at Newcastle. Vieira’s first-half goal settled it after van Persie had hammered several shots at Shay Given – one striking the Irish goalkeeper in the face and another drawing a more conventional sprawling save. It was fair to say this wasn’t a vintage performance – Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Winter noted the club’s younger Dutchman was very much a poor man’s Dennis Bergkamp rather than a more youthful version of the club legend. Van Persie would then flash a sight of the dark side to his game after letting wind-up merchant Lee Bowyer get under his skin. Bowyer feigned injury after a tame van Persie tackle to draw a dangerous free-kick for the hosts, before a hot-headed tackle on Steven Taylor which may have only drawn a yellow card but showed van Persie had not grown out of that petulant attitude that got him into trouble back home in years gone by – and would continue to do so in the future.

The continued absence of José Antonio Reyes gave van Persie the chance to impress as Arsenal travelled to South London neighbours Charlton Athletic on New Year’s Day.

Charlton kept them at bay in a quiet opening to 2005 that hardly fired a warning shot across the bows of title rivals Chelsea and Manchester United. They eventually awoke from that extended lie-in and it was van Persie who was the catalyst as Arsenal took the lead 10 minutes before the break. He did well to hold up possession before finding captain Patrick Vieira who fed Freddie Ljungberg to score.

The hosts equalised on the stroke of half time but Swede Ljungberg doubled his tally straight after the restart after Fabregas’ clever back-heel. Now was van Persie’s time to shine and he grabbed the chance with both hands when it presented itself. The lead up to his goal must have had supporters in the Jimmy Seed Stand wondering if they had come to watch the right team because it was not the type of goal they usually scored. Young defender Justin Hoyte punted a somewhat uncultured ball up the field and it looked like the unimaginative delivery would be easily dealt with by the Addicks’ defence. But when van Persie caught the faintest whiff of a goal-scoring opportunity, he was on to it like a shot and he made the most of Jonathan Fortune’s cock-up to put Arsenal 3-1 up. The Charlton man miscued a header aimed back towards his goalkeeper and van Persie nipped in to crash a sumptuous left-footed effort through the helpless Dean Kiely and just inside the far post. He ran over to celebrate in front of the jubilant Arsenal fans housed behind the goal and it looked like 2005 might just be Robin van Persie’s year.

Coincidentally, around six months into van Persie’s first season with Arsenal, Wenger told the Observer that it usually took players six months to adapt to life in the Premier League. He said: ‘I give all my young players six months to adapt and it must have been a shock to the system to go to Portsmouth for your first game. He (van Persie) was better at Newcastle and even better here.’

When Arsenal went to Southampton in February they had both Bergkamp and Reyes suspended after an ill-mannered FA Cup draw with Sheffield United. It was up to Thierry Henry and van Persie to lead the line against the strugglers. Things were going to plan when David Prutton was dismissed for Southampton before Freddie Ljungberg put the Gunners 1-0 up. Van Persie was lucky to escape with just a yellow card in the first half as he appeared to elbow Rory Delap in the face. This elbow did not go unnoticed and was his second such offence in December – as Sir Alex Ferguson would tell anybody who would listen. Wenger warned van Persie to calm down at half time but he completely lost his head after the break and a rash challenge on Graeme Le Saux drew a second yellow card to level up the numbers.

Van Persie had told Arsenal TV that every proper footballer was ‘his own piece of art’ but with a performance like that he was more like a badly scrawled ‘Banksy’ than the Mona Lisa.

As he trudged off the field, van Persie felt the full wrath of Arsène Wenger who could not believe what he had just seen. Later on Wenger told The People: ‘What did I say when van Persie went past me? I just told him he’d had his warning. I told him at half-time he’d been booked already and with the home side down to 10 men, the referee might be looking to make another quick booking to even things up. Van Persie had his chance to calm down, he had his chance to keep cool and to think about what he had to do – and yet he still does something like that. I talked to him afterwards but what I said will remain private.’

Southampton took full advantage of an Arsenal defensive mishap when six-foot seven-inch striker Peter Crouch used his height to make it look easy as he headed home from goalkeeper Jens Lehman’s flapped clearance to tie the game.

Southampton manager Harry Redknapp said this was a ‘bonus point’ for his side but Arsenal desperately needed to pick up all three at St Mary’s and now lagged 10 points behind Chelsea, who also had the luxury of a game in hand. Like an over-committed father at a parents’ evening, whether they had done right or wrong, Wenger always sided with his players in post-match interviews. But this game proved to be the exception to the rule as the finger was firmly pointed at the man who was sent off. With Reyes and Bergkamp missing, van Persie was desperately needed not only in this game but upcoming fixtures but now he too would have to spend time out serving a suspension.

Wenger had even warned van Persie at half time that he was treading on thin ice but his advice had apparently fallen on deaf ears. He fumed: ‘I cannot support what van Persie did, he knew he had to behave himself. When you are playing against 10 men, the most important thing is to keep 11 players yourself. I told him at half-time that when the home team has a player sent off, the referee is under pressure to send off an opposing player who has already been booked. I am definitely not happy with his attitude and behaviour. We know he shouldn’t have done it and he’s intelligent enough to know. It was unprofessional. It is difficult to put yourself in his boots and explain his reactions. Intelligent behaviour is needed on the pitch to win big games.’

Southampton manager Harry Redknapp wasn’t exactly full of praise for van Persie’s actions either, branding him a ‘stupid player’ for what he saw as a needless red card. In a typically straight-talking interview, Redknapp said: ‘Luckily they had a stupid player on their side as well and he obviously decided he was going to get himself sent off to make it a fairer game for us.’

Freddie Ljungberg stopped short of saying van Persie had let Arsenal down but said they desperately needed his creative presence on the pitch. He told The Sun: ‘I wouldn’t say Robin has let the side down but we’re all disappointed with the sending off. We had an opportunity to play with 11 men against 10 and we didn’t use that advantage at all. We specifically spoke about it at half-time, the need to be careful and not get any more silly yellow cards. But within five minutes of the second half we’re down to 10 men as well. I’m sure the boss will speak to him. There’s no question that he has talent but we need him on the pitch and today we missed him for the last 35 minutes.’

He was being condemned left, right and centre but finally someone came out to defend van Persie – teammate Ashley Cole admitted he had committed similar crimes in the past and insisted the Dutchman could put the incident behind him. Cole told the Evening Standard: ‘Robin hasn’t let anyone down. I’ve done it before and I hope nobody blamed me. It’s something that can happen in the spur of the moment.’

That sending off at Southampton came at exactly the wrong time as Arsenal were already desperately short up front. At the time it may have seemed that Wenger’s very public criticism spelled trouble but perhaps that was the worst of what was said to van Persie and the two could move on quickly. Much like a bust-up in a relationship, it was a lot easier to get on with things with everything out in the open than if Wenger had said nothing at all.

As well as harsh words for van Persie in public, there was a private line of dialogue going on with his manager. Arsène Wenger loved playing mind games with the opposition but it seems he also has a penchant for trying it on his own players. He probably even tries it on his butler.

Van Persie told The Independent: ‘He didn’t shout or say I was wrong. He just opened up a question. He said, “If you want to go to the top level, you have to change something.” I said, “Okay, what?” He said, “I’m not telling you, find out for yourself.”’ So I went away and asked myself what I wanted from football. The manager was very clever. He thought if he told me what I needed I might forget it in one week, but if I figured it out myself, maybe it would take longer, but it would stay in my mind. I matured. I decided from then on I’d do everything to be successful, go to training and watch how the older players do it, become a lot more professional than before.’

The Independent found out he was mentally strong following years of playing street football in Rotterdam. He had played on the harsh concrete streets from when he was first allowed out of the house on his own right up until his breakthrough into the first team at Feyenoord. Playing in the baking Kralingen streets in a ‘winner stays on’ competition taught him how to handle pressure and stay mentally strong during stressful periods. Practising regularly was the only way to become a great footballer, according to van Persie, and these street matches gave him plenty of opportunity to learn how to play the game.

Street football can be extremely unforgiving for a young teenager with no referee in sight and the popular kids’ mates lining the sides of the pitch (a bit like those Ajax fans) just waiting to squirt their water bottles or stick out a leg.

That environment was the breeding ground for a lot of talent, as van Persie said a total of seven professional footballers grew up within three streets of each other in Kralingen. His best friend, Ajax’s Nouredine Boukhari, was one of them.

He told The Independent: ‘There were lots of better players than me. They were fantastic with the ball, with fantastic tricks. I know a lot of guys who were brilliant but not strong enough in the mind. When I go back to Holland, they say, “I should have taken my chance. You took it and I’m proud of you.” And I say, “You were 10 times better than me but you messed up.” If you want to make it in football you have to take your chances and be patient.’

It was strange for a man red-carded for a needless tackle to boast of his patience and this may have been a false claim for van Persie to make about himself. From that St Mary’s lunge right through to his yellow card in the World Cup Final, van Persie would consistently show an impatient character throughout his career. Perhaps this interview was his attempt at turning a corner. It didn’t quite work, but nice try.

Indeed it was largely thanks to those almost daily pilgrimages to the city streets that van Persie’s great left foot had developed from his tame secondary weapon into a trusty sniper rifle. Every footballer tells young hopefuls that practice is the key to success and the proof was in the pudding when former Netherlands coach Marco van Basten had gone on to call it a ‘great left foot’.

In what sounded a bit like a training video, he said: ‘My left foot is because of the street. In the beginning it was poor. When I was 8, 9, 10. It was nothing. I didn’t realise that it was good for me. But I like the game so I shot and shot and shot. Goal after goal.’

That honest and frank nature was a breath of fresh air because van Persie had clearly been reflecting back on what had got him this far in his career. He certainly had his feet more firmly planted on the ground than your typical player who invested the entirety of their spare time in video gaming and getting up to no good in nightclubs and hotel rooms. More on that later.

Arsenal strikers were thin on the ground and van Persie was called upon when Freddie Ljungberg was injured in the warm-up before their game at Blackburn Rovers nearly a month later. Their title dreams were already effectively over as they sat 13 points adrift of leaders Chelsea with Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires all missing. But van Persie took the game by the scruff of the neck and hit the only goal of the game just before the break. Ashley Cole, the only man to defend van Persie after the red mist came down on the south coast, threaded an inch-perfect pass through to the Dutchman, who spun majestically away from his man and snuck around Brad Friedel to tap home. Only the woodwork could deny him a second goal after the American goalkeeper was unable to get anywhere near an absolute peach of a left-footed curler. Playing in a young side shorn of four of the club’s biggest names, van Persie went some way towards paying back his boss for that howler at Southampton.

This was an unexpected boost for Wenger who must have feared the worst before kickoff. He purred to the Sky cameras afterwards: ‘It was a positive game and overall I feel we created the best chances. Van Persie was not due to start but he’s shown that he can play and he took his chance well today. We have experienced players in our side but if you look at how we were today with the young side, when they all come back together it will be an interesting squad.’

Van Persie was over the moon that his first goal in months had taken Arsenal back up to second place in the table. Clearly in a jubilant mood, he told Sky shortly after the game: ‘I am very happy because we have won and got second place and I scored, my last goal came two months ago. It was a hard time for me after Southampton because I got a red card and it was stupid. But that was then and it’s been a great day for me. It was a hard month and I’ve trained hard and I’m happy today. We were an unbelievably young side but I think we played very well. Mentally this win will help us for the FA Cup [semi-final].’

It was all well and good for him to come out after the Southampton shambles and say he had been stupid but it was clear the Dutch ace thought this put water between himself and that incident. In scoring an important goal when his teammates looked out of ideas, he had gone some way to appease Wenger and the Highbury faithful.

The post-match comment showed that although he was still having those hot-head moments, he was starting to grow up.

That FA Cup semi-final was massive for Arsenal because it was their only chance to get their hands on some silverware that season as they were already out of the running to retain their Premier League crown. After some of the older members of that ‘Invincibles’ squad had been put out to graze, the new kids who came in had not been up to the same high standard. Van Persie was still very much seen as ‘one for the future’ but winning the world’s most famous domestic cup competition would not be a bad way to get the ball rolling.

Traditionally the FA Cup final was always played at Wembley Stadium, with the semi-finals at large club grounds such as Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough and Aston Villa’s Villa Park. With London’s ‘venue of legends’ being rebuilt, the Football Association was in a state of flux at the start of the century. Finals were switched to the Football Association of Wales’s impressive Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and in 2005 both semi-finals were also played in the Welsh capital.

Arsenal had cruised to a 3-0 win at Blackburn in August and van Persie’s goal had given them a 1-0 win in the return fixture at Ewood Park so it came as little surprise that the Gunners were seen as firm favourites to make the final.

Mark Hughes had the Lancashire club playing a brand of effective, if mean, football that made them a potential banana skin for this notoriously delicate Arsenal side. As Thierry Henry missed the game through injury, this was José Antonio Reyes’s chance to cement a place in the side as van Persie could only look on from the substitutes’ bench.

Robert Pires’ first-half strike looked to have a win in the bag but things remained edgy as this icy encounter drew to a close. The Frenchman netted from close range in a largely disappointing semi-final. The stadium was below capacity and Blackburn flooded the midfield to stop Arsenal from going about things in their usual attractive manner. Referee Steve Dunn booked three Rovers’ men in a brutal first half. It had been a frustrating afternoon of thumb-twiddling for van Persie, who finally found his way onto the pitch when he replaced Bergkamp after 82 minutes. He only had a few minutes to make his mark but within four of them van Persie had made the game safe for his side with a stunning solo goal.

Lucas Neill was left in no-man’s-land by a trademark Dutch turn as he spun away from the Australian before charging towards the Blackburn goal. He knew exactly what to do as the big American goalkeeper Brad Friedel charged off his line in an attempt to close the angle – van Persie got a shot away early before anybody had a moment to intervene. He beautifully stroked the ball past Friedel and into the bottom-right-hand corner of the net. Pires ran over to embrace the goal hero as he raised his arms aloft in front of the Arsenal faithful, who went wild with celebration after such a brilliant score. Game over? Not quite yet.

It got even better for Robin in the 90th minute after Pires had broken away into space down the left-hand side of the expansive Millennium Stadium pitch. He did well to pick out the centre-forward who swept home with a first-time effort. The ball crept just inside the post to make this a much more emphatic victory than it could have been and van Persie had really proved himself.

He may have only been on the pitch for eight minutes but van Persie somehow managed to steal the show. In just seven short weeks after his red card at Southampton van Persie had gone from zero to hero.

But in typical van Persie fashion, the day was not to end smoothly. Seconds after his second goal touched the back of the net, Blackburn hard man Andy Todd ‘accidentally’ ran into the scorer, who suffered a bloodied lip as a result. He wasn’t seriously injured but it was just typical that something had to go wrong – Todd’s flailing elbow the only downside of a fantastic afternoon’s work for the Dutchman.

After the game there was an outcry over Todd’s elbow and for a while he became Public Enemy Number One. His reputation took a dive as hacks labelled him ‘The Butcher of Blackburn’, yet following a thorough investigation, the FA cleared him of violent conduct and said the collision had been an accident.

Todd was a family man who shied away from the public eye but in the months that followed, he was so harshly criticised that the big defender saw fit to clear his name. He told the Daily Mirror: ‘As you can see, it was a pure accident. When you freeze it at the moment of impact, look where my arm is. I turned to go back to the centre circle and he ran into my shoulder. Robin’s looking at the ball and I’m looking at the ball. He ran into me. I apologised to the Arsenal players straight away. Some accepted my apology and others didn’t.

‘I looked in the papers the next day and the pictures looked awful. They chose the worst ones. I even started doubting myself. I thought, “Have I done it?” But, as you can see, there was no forearm smash or even elbow. It was an accident.’

Arsène Wenger remarked to The Sun after the game: ‘Van Persie’s sending-off at Southampton was the turning point. Until then, he was going nowhere in the way he approached the game. Since then he has changed – I hope for ever. There has never been any doubt about his talent but he was flashy and that got him sent off against Southampton.

‘How has he changed? The great players respect the game and do what the game wants. He wasn’t always doing that. Sometimes it’s more difficult to do that when you have a big talent. You know you can do the little trick that is not necessarily needed. But now, for him, the game comes first and van Persie second.’

This was classic post-match twaddle from Wenger – van Persie had come on and scored two goals in eight minutes and apparently he only cares about the game and not himself? Surely the aim of every striker is to kick the football into the goal as many times as possible. Wenger once again likened him to a young Dennis Bergkamp – the man he replaced and managed to outshine in just eight minutes.

They were never going to catch Chelsea in the title race but Arsenal finished strongly under pressure from Manchester United, going on to score 14 more goals before the end of the season.

Van Persie put in an unremarkable performance as Arsenal beat Tottenham 1-0 to complete a Premier League double over their bitter rivals. When relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion made the trip to Highbury with just two more games remaining to scramble for Premier League survival, they found van Persie back to his menacing best. Wenger fielded a relatively youthful Arsenal side but it was certainly one capable of delivering the goods.

After Zoltan Gera had threatened for the visitors, van Persie flexed his muscles with a ferocious volley just before the break which was only just kept out by an excellent Russell Hoult save. The goalkeeper could do nothing in the 66th minute when José Antonio Reyes played an inviting ball for van Persie, who cut inside defender Neil Clement to bury with that left foot. West Brom brought on three strikers – including former Gunner Nwankwo Kanu – in a desperate attempt to salvage something from the game but Arsenal exploited the gaps left to make it 2-0. Edu converted Dennis Bergkamp’s pass to ensure West Brom – who would eventually stay up on a dramatic final day of the season – went home empty-handed.

Arsenal warmed up for that FA Cup final appearance in fine style with a 7-0 demolition of Everton in their final home game of the season. The Merseysiders went into the game with a goal difference of plus seven but that was completely wiped out as they were steamrollered at Highbury. Van Persie got the ball rolling with less than 10 minutes gone before Robert Pires (2), Patrick Vieira, Edu, Dennis Bergkamp and Mathieu Flamini all joined in the fun.

It was a defence-splitting pass from Bergkamp – rumoured to be leaving the club and his young apprentice behind at the end of the season – that set up van Persie to kick off proceedings. The 36-year-old played a ball right through the middle of David Weir and Joseph Yobo and his countryman gratefully put his chance away.

Arsenal were apparently reluctant to offer Bergkamp – out of contract at the end of the season – a year’s extension. He played his socks off and the supporters housed in the Clock End shared their thoughts on the matter with chants of ‘one more year!’ Bergkamp leaving the club at this stage would have had a detrimental effect on van Persie – he would be better served by learning from the master for a few more seasons before emerging from his shadows just yet.

To the relief of player and supporters alike, it was announced Bergkamp was to stay for another year in the lead-up to the FA Cup final. The Dutch duo would be together for another season at least. Patrick Vieira knew how important it was for van Persie’s future that Bergkamp was to stay for another season. After the FA Cup final he said: ‘It is very important for us because with Dennis’ experience all the young players coming through – Reyes, van Persie and the others – can learn from him.’

When it was announced that the talismanic Thierry Henry was to miss the final, the stage looked set for van Persie to start in his place. This would have been a massive opportunity for him to shine and he must have been gutted when it was announced that José Antonio Reyes was to start instead. He managed to steal the show in just eight minutes in the semi-final but Manchester United were in no mood to allow him to do the same when van Persie was brought on for Cesc Fabregas with 86 minutes played. Paul Scholes had gone close with a header and Arsenal stopper Jens Lehman had to be smart to block Wayne Rooney’s drive as United ran the show for most of the game. Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy both rattled the woodwork late in the second half as United pushed for what would have been a deserved victory.

If Arsenal were having a few technical difficulties it was nothing compared to the Millennium Stadium roof, which was designed to close out adverse weather conditions but was stuck open and could not stop the rain from hammering down onto the greasy pitch.

Arsenal looked as flat as a pancake and nothing could separate the two sides so the game headed into 30 minutes of extra time. It summed up how poorly his side were playing that when van Persie drew a smart save from Roy Carroll with a free-kick at the start of extra time, he had registered his side’s first shot on target in the entire game. The menacing figure of van Persie triggered a state of panic in the United defence – Mikael Silvestre lunging horribly for the ball to give away that free-kick. The substitute was desperate to recreate his semi-final heroics but the Northern Irish goalkeeper was equal to another van Persie effort as time ticked away.

Reyes had a moment of madness and was sent off at the end of the 30 minutes for elbowing Cristiano Ronaldo. It seemed a strange decision not to start van Persie and after an ineffective game, Reyes thanked his manager by drawing that red card. Those fresh legs couldn’t make a difference and the two famous rivals could not be separated by 120 minutes of football. For the first time in the competition’s history it was to go down to a penalty shoot-out to decide who would take the cup home. The pressure was on with English players having a well-documented history of failure when games were to be decided this way – the national side had been sent out of World Cups and European Championships on penalty kicks.

This situation was exactly the kind that van Persie dealt well with – the pressure was piled on every man stepping up to take a kick and the eyes of the world were on him. No problems as he smashed the ball into the top left-hand corner to keep Arsenal’s noses in front after Lehmann had blocked Paul Scholes’s effort. All the other penalties went in, meaning Arsenal had won the FA Cup 5-4 on penalties. His toil on the pitch during open play might not have resulted in a goal but van Persie’s spot kick had helped ensure the cup went back to Highbury and the side won a trophy in his debut season.

Brazilian star Edu had been set to take one of the penalties but backed out at the last minute to give van Persie the chance to step up. He might not have taken a penalty for Arsenal before but the 20-year-old was the kind of player who would swim rather than sink when faced with such a challenge. The way he speedily volunteered to step into the breach showed Wenger just how keen van Persie was to prove himself and be of worth to Arsenal.

He told the Birmingham Evening Mail: ‘Edu went to the coach and said he was not confident about taking his penalty and I said, ‘I am, I want to take it.’ The boss said ‘Okay you can.’ I may not have looked nervous but I really was, my legs were shaking.’

Those legs may have been shaking but he left Roy Carroll no chance with a spot-kick high into the corner of the net. It was a fantastic moment for van Persie to keep his nerve and show that Steve Rowley had made the correct call as the Dutchman clearly thrived in high-pressure situations. Patrick Vieira, the man so often involved in controversies between the sides in recent seasons, scored the winning spot-kick and said it took mental strength to win on penalties.

There were scenes of jubilation from the lucky Arsenal players, who must have counted themselves extremely fortunate to have been taking the cup home after being dominated from start to finish by the Old Trafford side.

Wenger also hailed the mentality of the players, who he admitted had not been the better side in the 120 minutes. He said: ‘United created four great chances and they played well. We won it with our mental strength and resilience rather than the usual style. It’s important to go back with the trophy even though we could have played better.’

This is where the addition of van Persie had been so positive for the Gunners. That history of growing up playing Rotterdam street football and surviving bitter encounters with rivals Ajax had produced a man who would not be trembling at the thought of a high-pressure spot-kick. The fact that Reyes had dealt with the pressure by getting himself sent off in the 120th minute could only benefit van Persie and put him ahead of the Spaniard in Wenger’s eyes when the next season came around.

Despite his Dutch heritage van Persie said that the FA Cup win meant a lot to him. Looking back on the win, he said: ‘We won the FA Cup last season and that was big for me as well because everyone in Holland knows how great a competition it is. But the Premiership is big as well and I want to win it. There is a big belief among the players that we can catch Chelsea and win it.’

His first season in English football had certainly been a memorable one in which van Persie’s name had been on the lips of pundits and supporters… if not always for the right reasons. The peaks of that Cup win and scoring in the Highbury record Champions League win would be balanced out by the troughs of the St Mary’s red card and the M25 car smash. He had achieved a lot and was clearly hungry to progress further in the Champions League and lift the Premier League trophy.

It was far from perfect but at such a tender age, it would have been unrealistic to expect him to be the finished product yet. Van Persie was still very much a player in development and there was nowhere better to do that than Arsenal, with Arsène Wenger clearly having his sights set on the long term rather than chasing instant results at any cost. The Gunners knew what they were taking on when they rescued him from Rotterdam – a rough diamond to be polished and incorporated into their crown of a squad.

By the dizzyingly-high standards that had been set the previous season, this had not been a brilliant campaign for the Gunners but van Persie had still managed to get his hands on one of the most famous cups in world football. Without his two vital goals in that heart-in-mouth semi-final victory over Blackburn, club captain Patrick Vieira might not have lifted the famous trophy in Cardiff.

Arsenal went to great lengths to make sure their foreign imports were properly settled in their newly-adopted country and that ‘after-care’ service certainly played its part as van Persie quickly found his feet in England. The lives of players at other clubs were mostly attended to by their agents but when they took the initiative themselves, Arsenal were stealing a march and their new recruits would deliver the goods sooner than perhaps they would at other clubs. Cesc Fabregas certainly looked nicely settled after joining a few months before van Persie – he made useful contributions to the side and delivered performances way beyond his eighteen years.

It was turning out to be quite a year for van Persie as he made his debut for the full Netherlands squad at the start of June. The national coach was former AC Milan and Ajax star Marco van Basten – somebody who was not exactly a stranger to van Persie.

After picking the Arsenal star, van Basten hailed Arsène Wenger for salvaging van Persie from the Feyenoord scrapheap and breathing new life into his nation’s wayward talent. He had been almost forgotten in his year away from the Netherlands after he had once been tipped as the nation’s hottest emerging talent. This was to be the start of a long-running love-in between van Persie’s two managers, who would keep each other updated with the odd text message about what van Persie had been up to.

Johan Cruyff was easily the country’s most famous footballer after he starred in the Netherlands’ awesome ‘Total Football’ side in the 1970s. The word of Cruyff was never questioned and he had said van Persie was the hottest young talent when he emerged at Feyenoord. That early promise had been forgotten by many in the Netherlands but van Basten had kept tabs on the fallen prince.

Ahead of van Persie’s debut, van Basten said: ‘Robin has been brilliant and amazing in training and is completely changed from how he was. You can see the difference from how he was last year and he has benefitted from being at Arsenal. He has learned a lot under Arsène Wenger and playing with exceptional players.

‘He had a bad reputation in Holland with Feyenoord because his attitude was too casual, but he is now showing he has exceptional qualities and is going to be a great player. He realised at Arsenal that if he is not professional, he will be on the sidelines and it will be the end of his career. He has picked up the message. He is very good and will be an asset for the Dutch team. I am happy with his progress and I am very positive.’

The professionalism instilled in the Arsenal players by Wenger had obviously impressed van Basten. This was a culture change for van Persie and it was one that had certainly had a positive effect on his career. He would pick and choose who to respect and Wenger was certainly a man who gave and received respect. Young players can prosper when a father figure is present and Wenger performed that role with van Persie. Tough love had often been the order of the day but sometimes that is the most effective way for a father to act.

Robin van Persie’s international debut came on 4 June 2005 when he came off the bench with the side cruising to a 2-0 World Cup qualifiers win over Romania. He came on for Ruud van Nistelrooy just after the hour mark and looked to make an impression with the half hour he was given. It was nearly a debut to remember when Arjen Robben set him up perfectly but van Persie’s effort skidded wide of the post with the goalkeeper scrambling. It was hard to make a mark with the win already in the bag and minds already drifting to Wednesday’s trip to Finland.

It would have been understandable for van Persie to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder playing alongside Robben for the national team. When the pair were teenagers, Johan Cruyff had singled out van Persie as the better of the two and later labelled him the country’s ‘best youngster in a generation’. But after that falling-out with van Marwijk, van Persie was only able to command a transfer fee of £2.75 million whereas Robben was sold by his club PSV Eindhoven for £12 million. After the way things had worked out at Feyenoord, van Persie was made to look like an inferior player and could have gone out wanting to prove a point to his ‘more valuable’ countryman.

Four days later he was given an even shorter window of opportunity when brought on for van Nistelrooy with 75 minutes played as the Netherlands led 1-0 in Finland. His horse-faced Manchester United nemesis had put the Dutch ahead with a close-range effort but it was only with the introduction of van Persie that the Netherlands really got going.

After combining well with Robben, the new man in the team cleverly presented Dirk Kuyt with an open goal and the lead had been doubled. Van Persie was actually bearing down on the goal himself but chose to lay the ball back with the goalkeeper haring off his line. He had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes but things got even better shortly afterwards. Van Persie did brilliantly to keep the ball from crossing the touchline and the Finns had no answer to his mesmerising stepovers. Before anybody could get a foot on the ball he had crossed for Phillip Cocu to prod home a third.

This emphatic introduction to the international scene was complete when he thundered through the ragged Finland defence to sweep home his first goal for the Netherlands. After nodding a header into the path of Kuyt, van Persie received the ball back instantly and his pace was too much for the tired Finns as he lashed the ball into the far corner of the net. It was a fantastic night for van Persie, who had become something of a hate figure towards the end of his Feyenoord days but showed the Dutch public what he was all about in an outstanding 15-minute cameo appearance.

He gleefully ran to the Orange army housed to the side of the pitch with arms aloft before turning around and pointing at the name on the back of his shirt. He was mobbed by teammates and coach Marco van Basten applauded from the technical area. Supporters chanted his name as the final whistle blew – not many players have had such a big impact in their second game for their country and most would be trialled in friendly matches before being trusted with competitive games. Van Persie had done brilliantly when thrown in at the deep end and put himself in with a shot of the squad for the World Cup in Germany the next summer – if he could help the Netherlands get there first, that is.

Van Basten did not heap too much praise on his new recruit in the post-match press conference; instead fellow substitute Hedwiges Maduro was talked up and the coach said his team had been better than Finland. He did later say van Persie had matured in his first Premier League season, having left the Eredivisie under something of a cloud.

Understandably, van Persie was beaming after an incredible 15-minute appearance. He said: ‘I feel fantastic, I played 15 minutes and got two assists and a goal. I’m very happy; now we can prepare for the tournament in Germany.’

It was a time for van Persie to reflect on the season that had begun in troubled fashion but ended victoriously in Cardiff and Helsinki. He might not have had as clean a run in a side in his professional career as he may have wanted, but van Persie had still managed to collect UEFA Cup and FA Cup winners’ medals in that time. He had gatecrashed the Netherlands side and might have even muscled his way into their World Cup finals squad with an impressive start on the international scene.

Arsenal fell away in the title race after being so dominant the previous season and it was clear that Wenger had some wheeling and dealing to be getting on with that summer. It was hard to tell how these changes would work out for van Persie – would he be playing as part of a more successful team or would he be forced out of the picture by a fresh face? He had already faced stiff competition from José Antonio Reyes but the cup final (Reyes’s red and van Persie’s penalty) might have sealed his place as third choice behind Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. A good 2005/2006 season could see him take over the mantle from Bergkamp and become a regular starter for the Gunners.

Things were going well so it was inevitable that he would want to remain at Highbury for as long as possible. He told The People that time away from the club had made him realise how brilliantly things had gone in that first season: ‘Marco van Basten was right to say I have developed as a player. I am very happy with myself and my position at Arsenal and Holland. I can see myself staying at Arsenal for many years. My contract has another three years to run and of course we will have to see about it. I can learn a lot from Dennis Bergkamp and it is great he has signed a new contract. He is a fantastic player. It’s very important for a young player to play regularly. The last two or three months I played a lot for Arsenal.’