If 23 goals in 2011 weren’t enough to make Robin van Persie an Arsenal hero, his latest comments to the Dutch press will endear him even further to the Gooner faithful.
In an interview with Sport 1 he castigated the West Londoners for their behaviour towards the officials, saying “Chelsea players are always bitching against the referees. I really cannot understand that. Just shut the f*ck up and focus on playing football”.
And it wasn’t just Roman’s rascals to feel the brunt of his ire. Speaking about the Spanish national team he said “They always go up to referees in an attempt to get an opponent booked. They are trying to screw colleagues! That kind of behaviour really annoys me”.
Described as a ‘football fantatic’ by Arsene Wenger the Dutchman feels the spectacle of football is being tainted by gamesmanship. “People who are watching the game on television and fans really do not want to see these kind of things”, he said. “If you want to witness a lot of complaints, you should just go the bakery or something. There’s always people nagging there as well”.
Arseblog News wonders what kind of bakeries Robin frequents but it is a fair point in general. Yet it’s a problem that exists across all leagues and all teams, even Arsenal. Just this week Jack Wilshere suggested Arsenal players needed to be more like Man United when it came to pressurising officials.
It would probably be fairer to suggest that Arsenal players should be more like Man United players when it comes to winning trophies rather than copying the more unseemly side of their nature.
Perhaps when Robin takes over the captaincy next season he can give Jack the same advice he gave Chelsea.
[…] The Dutchman was quoted as saying “Chelsea players are always bitching against the referees. I really cannot understand that. Just shut the f*ck up and focus on playing football”. […]