Arsenal’s new point man…

Robin van Persie is in Amsterdam, with Arsenal. In the coming days he will act in the Amsterdam Tournament, with Ajax as one of the opponents. After Henry’s transfer, Van Persie is declared the new face of the Gunners. “Understandable, but not justified,” he said about it himself.

But, Van Persie is a true believer of life after Henry. “It’s obvious that Henry’s departure leaves us with a gap. And for some, Arsenal has stopped being a title-candidate for next season. But I’m telling you, we’ve got a team that is very capable of competing for the championship.”

Van Persie understood the Frenchman’s move to Spain. “He played for Arsenal 8 years. He is the all time topscorer and won almost everything. He is 30 years old and Barcelona really wanted to sign him. What can you say? One day you start at a club, another day you leave.”
The left footed genius doesn’t expect Arsene Wenger to leave the Gunners. “But if he does, then life will change for me to. I mean, there will be a new coach to replace him and then you never know…”
The 24-year old ex-Feyenoord player understands why the media jump him, now Henry left for Catalunia. “The media always want to pick one player as the leader, but it’s not the way it is. Henry is a totally different player than I am. Henry scored 20 to 25 goals every season, for eight seasons in a row. Those averages don’t fit my profile. If I had that type of pressure, I’d choke.”

“After three seasons in London, I do feel I need to take more responsibility. But then again, I’m not a tennis player. Football is a teamsport. That’s what I like about it.”

And the current team has an average age of 25 years. “We’re not a group of young talented players. We’re more than that. And we are capable of playing at a constant level.”

Last weekend, his team played against Italian champs Inter Milan and some opponents asked some of Van Persie’s team mates on the pitch if they wouldn’t mind to take it down a nodge. “I heard that yeah…”, the Rotterdam-born player laughed. “I believe it were Adriano and Materazzi even. Not the least. Yeah, that’s the best compliment a team can get, eh?”

It was only a friendly game, though… “But that doesn’t matter. It’s our spirit and our intensity with which we frustrated them. They didn’t know where to look, I sensed that on the pitch. If one of them got the ball, three of our guys immediately went for it.”
Robin van Persie scored one goal in that match, that would signal his return to the highest level of football after a long foot-injury. But he isn’t 100% fit yet. “I think I’m 65 to 70% fit now. The foot is ok, altough I do have blisters and little wounds, but that’s fine. Those are normal injuries if you haven’t played for six months.”