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Micah Richards says Arsene Wenger never should have sold ‘unbelievable’ player at Arsenal
Arsenal have had some transfer shockers over the years.
The Gunners have signed some terrible players and sold some of their stars at the wrong times, and perhaps the biggest mistake they ever made was around 10 years ago.
Indeed, selling Robin van Persie to Manchester United back in 2012 was a massive statement from both clubs as Arsenal continued to move in the wrong direction and United romped to their last league title under Alex Ferguson.
10 years on, Micah Richards has been discussing this move on the , and he maintains that it was the wrong decision for Arsene Wenger to sell the striker to his biggest rivals all those years ago.
Selling Van Persie was a mistake
Richards spoke about the striker during
“Van Persie was the better footballer, but Van Nistelrooy was the better goalscorer. I had him just above Van Persie and Van Persie left Arsenal for Man United. You can’t do that. Van Persie was unbelievable for Arsenal and then he goes to Man United., They won the league that year, you can’t do that,” Ricahrds said.
“I’m surprised that Wenger fell into that letting him go to Man United,” Lineker added.
“The wrong decision,” Richards said.
Difficult one
It’s all well and good to say this in hindsight, but, at the same time, it was an incredibly delicate situation at the time.
Van Persie was clear that he wanted to leave Arsenal in search of trophies at that point, and he was entering the final year of his contract.
Arsenal had to cash-in at that point otherwise they would’ve been in the lurch the next summer as the Dutchman left on a free.
This was a difficult situation to navigate, and even 10 years on, it’s hard to figure out whether the right decision was made.