Van Persie to retire in the summer

Originally Posted by My Name is Keith

Find it v difficult to watch YouTube vids of our past great, and in Rvp’s case briefly great, players and then return to reality and think about that utter sack of shit we have playing upfront for us now.

Watched van nistlerooy highlights a week or so ago - £#%&!ing hell we were so blessed. Really depressing stuff tbh. He was easily one of the best finishers I’ve ever seen. Behind him you had rvp, Rooney, cole, ole, sparky even choccy etc.

How on earth have we ended up with someone as shit as Lukaku.

Don’t answer, it’s a statement.

https://twitter.com/R_o_M/status/1055545399077945345

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

One of my favourite goals. If I recall correctly we had played fairly shit in the game, as was often the case that season, then Giggs comes on at nearly 40, by far the oldest player on the pitch but well aware that he was the most talented by a similar distance. Oh we need a goal? I'll just effortlessly clip a perfect 40-yard ball on the bounce right onto RvP's foot. Then the first touch to destroy the defender

Sheer nonsense ability from both.

Imo United need to get back to having players with actual ability like that.

Thanks to RVP, in his relatively short time with us he gave us a few great memories, (and our last PL win) never knew why he went off the boil so quickly?
Good luck in to him in his retirement!

will always be welcomed back at utd will never be welcomed to arsenal

Originally Posted by Zorg

Imo United need to get back to having players with actual ability like that.

One of the few who has that type of passing ability in Pogba would have taken four more touches by the time RvP was finishing.

Originally Posted by Wellinever

never knew why he went off the boil so quickly?

because he felt £#%&!ed over by Sir Mother£#%&!er and thought David Moyes was a massive £#%&!ing @#%&!

HTH

Legs went. Could see it in the World Cup in 2014. Great for the first couple of games and then could barely run by the knockouts.

Left LvG well aware that once we were back in Europe in his second season he'd never be able to play regularly with two or three games per week. And as mentioned by others being a squad man wasn't RvP's cup of tea.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

One of the few who has that type of passing ability in Pogba would have taken four more touches by the time RvP was finishing.

I thought Sanchez was supposed to be the guy. Instead he's the Chilean Dean Windass.

Originally Posted by Zorg

I thought Sanchez was supposed to be the guy. Instead he's the Chilean Dean Windass.

Originally Posted by Buck

In terms of the United sides from the last decade I have a soft spot for Nani. I know he's not everyone's favorite with end product but he was absolutely fun to watch and that counts for a lot.

I agree, would rather watch a minute of Nani than a full season of the turds Young or Valencia.

The quality of the goals he scored were a £#%&!ing nonsense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aA7s_Doeyc

Originally Posted by sa7

I agree, would rather watch a minute of Nani than a full season of the turds Young or Valencia.

The quality of the goals he scored were a £#%&!ing nonsense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aA7s_Doeyc

Loved that lad. Never really seemed to get a fair crack of the whip.

Those 2 hamstring injuries under Fergie and Moyes did for him I think.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

One of my favourite goals. If I recall correctly we had played fairly shit in the game, as was often the case that season, then Giggs comes on at nearly 40, by far the oldest player on the pitch but well aware that he was the most talented by a similar distance. Oh we need a goal? I'll just effortlessly clip a perfect 40-yard ball on the bounce right onto RvP's foot. Then the first touch to destroy the defender

Sheer nonsense ability from both.

Giggs was truly a phenomenal talent wasn't he The amount of shit the fans gave him as well

Originally Posted by no fun

Great for us, and scorer of one of the best 3 goals I personally witnessed at OT

What were the other two, Dennis Viollet against Notts County and ‘Gentleman’ Jim Roberts against Accrington?

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

One of my favourite goals. If I recall correctly we had played fairly shit in the game, as was often the case that season, then Giggs comes on at nearly 40, by far the oldest player on the pitch but well aware that he was the most talented by a similar distance. Oh we need a goal? I'll just effortlessly clip a perfect 40-yard ball on the bounce right onto RvP's foot. Then the first touch to destroy the defender

Sheer nonsense ability from both.

Puts into context how much we lost in such an incredibly short period of time. Could any club have survived that? It wasn’t so much a transition as a full stop -start again from scratch.

Originally Posted by dunk

Giggs was truly a phenomenal talent wasn't he The amount of shit the fans gave him as well

Yes. Incredible talent, but talk to some of the younger fans these days and he gets badly undersold. Scholes has been deified in recent years while Giggs has gone in the opposite direction, hailed for his professionalism and longevity more than ability. Baffles me, Giggs is one of the most gifted players these Islands have ever produced.

Not a knock on Scholes by the way, wonderful player but the way some talk, putting him ahead of guys like Xavi and Zidane is going over the top.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Yes. Incredible talent, but talk to some of the younger fans these days and he gets badly undersold. Scholes has been deified in recent years while Giggs has gone in the opposite direction, hailed for his professionalism and longevity more than ability. Baffles me, Giggs is one of the most gifted players these Islands have ever produced.

Not a knock on Scholes by the way, wonderful player but the way some talk, putting him ahead of guys like Xavi and Zidane is going over the top.

My favourite player when I was a kid was Giggs. Absolutely loved him, there's a pic of me as a 6 year old wearing an England shirt with giggs on it somewhere

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Yes. Incredible talent, but talk to some of the younger fans these days and he gets badly undersold. Scholes has been deified in recent years while Giggs has gone in the opposite direction, hailed for his professionalism and longevity more than ability. Baffles me, Giggs is one of the most gifted players these Islands have ever produced.

Not a knock on Scholes by the way, wonderful player but the way some talk, putting him ahead of guys like Xavi and Zidane is going over the top.

Younger fans who got to see the last 6-7 years of their career coincide with Barcelona/Spain. When tiki-taka came into play it makes everyone think there is only one way to play central midfield and that is to be deep and distribute the ball around. What made Scholes great was he mastered that deeper role in his twilight years while being a fantastic all round player scoring goals and dictating play as a more mobile player beforehand. Younger fans didn't see the earlier Scholes.

That is something that irritates me about Keane's legacy. It's always the intangibles that spring to mind when people talk about him - the leadership, desire, will to win. He was also a damn fine footballer and some of his team mates (Rooney for one) say the best passer they played with.

As for Giggs similarly his lack of appreciation stems from being so good for so long that the mazy, rapid dribbler he was is like a separate player entirely. Plus the fact that modern wide men are expected to score 10-20 goals a season now and actually barely stay wide and attack the full back. Giggs scoring 7 goals a season was more of a threat and more of a player than Sterling getting 20 last season. Twenty years ago 20 goals a season in all competitions was considered a great return but now we have blokes hitting 20 by Christmas.

Originally Posted by Buck

Younger fans who got to see the last 6-7 years of their career coincide with Barcelona/Spain. When tiki-taka came into play it makes everyone think there is only one way to play central midfield and that is to be deep and distribute the ball around. What made Scholes great was he mastered that deeper role in his twilight years while being a fantastic all round player scoring goals and dictating play as a more mobile player beforehand. Younger fans didn't see the earlier Scholes.

That is something that irritates me about Keane's legacy. It's always the intangibles that spring to mind when people talk about him - the leadership, desire, will to win. He was also a damn fine footballer and some of his team mates (Rooney for one) say the best passer they played with.

As for Giggs similarly his lack of appreciation stems from being so good for so long that the mazy, rapid dribbler he was is like a separate player entirely. Plus the fact that modern wide men are expected to score 10-20 goals a season now and actually barely stay wide and attack the full back. Giggs scoring 7 goals a season was more of a threat and more of a player than Sterling getting 20 last season. Twenty years ago 20 goals a season in all competitions was considered a great return but now we have blokes hitting 20 by Christmas.

Giggs and Figo were both 1 in 5 guys and possibly the 2 best wingers of the 90's. I remember shock around Overmars getting 12 or something for Arsenal and also abuse for being a greedy bastard. The game has changed, strikers now play from the wing, traditional forwards are hard to find, thus Lukakau being one of the better options when 20 years ago he would have been bang average in that role.

You are right about Scholes, though sometimes people talk as if he combined all those different parts of his game together rather than being separate periods.

Keane, Scholes, Giggs, these guys knew how to win, and part of winning is sacrificing individual accolades for the betterment of the team, doing a job that isn't fun or always gets the best out of you because it is about winning rather than looking good. Some of our players could learn a lot from that.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Yes. Incredible talent, but talk to some of the younger fans these days and he gets badly undersold. Scholes has been deified in recent years while Giggs has gone in the opposite direction, hailed for his professionalism and longevity more than ability. Baffles me, Giggs is one of the most gifted players these Islands have ever produced.

Not a knock on Scholes by the way, wonderful player but the way some talk, putting him ahead of guys like Xavi and Zidane is going over the top.

Would kill to have a player to do to Juve what Giggs always used to do them now

Originally Posted by utd99

What were the other two, Dennis Viollet against Notts County and ‘Gentleman’ Jim Roberts against Accrington?

.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IFt2CitAR9w

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k1gBtuooNNI

I can only speak for myself but I think there's a little bit of revisionism going on.

There was a period in the naughties were o was £#%&!ed off with Giggs, couple of years or so. I may have been hearing things wrong but there were a few around me who thought similar. He changed a bit freggles started playing him a bit differently and things got loads better.

My guess is that there are people who came into the game/started learning how to speak on the internet as Giggs wasn't being lauded for what he was and then eventually morphed into...

Originally Posted by utd99

Puts into context how much we lost in such an incredibly short period of time. Could any club have survived that? It wasn’t so much a transition as a full stop -start again from scratch.

Absolutely.

No doubt a consequence of the budget approach to transfers and the lack of scouting when spending what we did have. You think in those summers 13-14 we lost three of the back four, as well as Giggs and Scholes, then the impending decline of Carrick, Rooney, RvP.

It's never as easy as just spending money when you have to replace the whole dressing room structure. Oh and Fergie left

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Not a knock on Scholes by the way, wonderful player but the way some talk, putting him ahead of guys like Xavi and Zidane is going over the top.

Though those two aren't exactly stinting in their praise for him.

Agree though, we almost came to take Giggs for granted. Apart from that dip around age 30, his record is incredible.