“I was 20 and he said, ‘Why are you not a top player yet?’ I said, ‘Because of this, this and this,'” Van Persie said. “He told me to think about it. Then, a couple of weeks later, he asked me, ‘Are you a top player?’ I said I didn’t think so and he told me to think about it.”
Wenger signed Van Persie from Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam in 2004 for a modest £2.75 million ($4.3 million). Van Persie was a highly-rated, but under-used talent (because of clashes with his coach) at the time and Wenger set out to mold him into a star.
The French tactician would have the young player diagnose his own weaknesses then work with him on correcting them.
“I started to realise and then he gave me a little bit of advice about certain actions that I did,” Van Persie continued. “For example, I made a couple of little mistakes in a game. He told me that a top player doesn’t do those actions.”
Van Persie joined the Gunners after the famous 2003-04 season that saw them go undefeated in English Premier League play. Wenger had planned a transition from the expensive, veteran-heavy team to youth movement with which the club is associated today. Van Persie was central to those plans.
“I started to think about the conversation,” he said. “It was a conversation that only lasted for five minutes, but it was a conversation that went on for a year because every couple of weeks he was referring back to it.
“He was showing me proof as well. I was taking it on and then it was up to me to find my answers. I was finding my own answers and that’s how he helped me big time.”
Wenger’s developmental tactic helped push Van Persie into the key man in the Arsenal attack by his third season in North London. The left-footed marksman has battled injuries throughout his Arsenal career, but 2011 has seen an unprecidented run of good health and form for the player.
Van Persie leads the English Premier League in goals this season with 11 in 11 games. He’s scored 34 goals in 39 games this calendar year and thinks Wenger was key to turning him into the free-scoring player he is today.
“I’m so thankful for having met him (Wenger) because he made a big difference in the way of seeing, looking at football,” Van Persie added.
“I’m so thankful for having met him because he made a big difference in the way of seeing, looking at football.”
