Robin Van Persie chose to leave Arsenal and join Manchester United in 2012 and it was at Old Trafford that the Dutchman won his first and only Premier League title.
Van Persie made his debut for Arsenal during the 2004-05 season and he did manage to win three trophies with the Gunners. But the centre-forward always dreamed of winning the EPL title and this was one of the main reasons why Sir Alex Ferguson was able to convince him to join Man United.
At that time there was still a lot of bad blood between the two sides so Van Persie choosing to join one of their biggest rivals certainly did not go down too well with the Arsenal fans.
But now after so many years, the forward has finally opened up on why he chose to end his long relationship with Arsenal and join Man United.
He said on BT Sport: “You can compare [me being at Arsenal] to being married. Me and my wife – Arsenal – were married for eight years.
“After eight years, my wife possibly got a bit tired of me. Those are the facts.
“If Arsenal are not offering you a new deal… you can have different views on things but the fact is Arsenal never offered me a new deal.
“Then you have a look around. I was ambitious. I still wanted to win the league. That is life.
“I ended up having three options. One option abroad disappeared quickly. Then it was City or Manchester United.
“What people don’t know, during the transfer, loads of things are happening behind the scenes.
“You have to take a lot on and make a choice based on what your targets are but also deal with the facts.
“One of the main facts was that Arsenal got tired of me. That was the starting point – they didn’t offer me a new deal. We had loads of chats with Wenger, with [Ivan] Gazidis. They gave me no decision to make.”
