van Persie interview, in Dutch:
BM: The question on everybody’s lips is: ‘What is he [RvP] going to do next year?’
RvP: Yes, we will see.
BM: Are you struggling with this?
RvP: No, not at all. I am doing fine, enjoying everything, training well, I am fit – knock on wood (he taps the microphone) – and all is going well.
BM: But what about people saying: ‘It’s a bit of a shame – Van Persie, who is head and shoulders above everything, playing in an Arsenal side which is not quite the very best of Arsenal sides ever’?
RvP: Well that’s funny, isn’t it? People consider this Tottenham team as the best ever and our team as the ‘worst’ (he makes a quotation mark with his fingers) ever, and we beat them 5-2: it is a bit crazy sometimes…
BM: Does that nag/hurt you a bit?
RvP: Sorry – what do you mean?
BM: Because I know why this is: everybody regards Arsenal as a higher-up team, and Tottenham, yeah – well, a bit lower-down, and when they are doing OK and Arsenal are doing less, well then people will say: oh how well Tottenham are doing, and Arsenal are performing less (below par).
RvP: Yeah, yeah, that is correct. Expectations are very high at Arsenal: we have a gigantic, beautiful, big stadium, a great number of fans, very beautiful history and people expect that we perform well right now – in the present.
BM: Do you think you [Arsenal] are performing well?
RvP: No, it can always be improved, we go for the highest achievable. In the last few years, as a club, we have not achieved that, so in that respect it has not been good enough.
BM: Are you somebody who will try his utmost with this club to still achieve success?
RvP: Well yes, I have been there eight years of course, and I am proud of that, and at the end of the season we will calmly sit down with the manager and the chairman and we will have a ‘nice cup of coffee’ (in Dutch: ‘dan gaan wij een bakkie doen’, which could not be more Dutch if you tried), all of us together, nice and cosy (in Dutch: ‘gezellig’ referring to a very friendly/informal sort of meeting/conversation).
BM: Because I feel you have become a ‘club player’ over there…
RvP: Yes, I am a real Gunner, which goes without saying, I have been there eight years, I love this club, that is no secret, and that will always stay like that.
BM: Therefore, would leaving now be ‘blasphemy’?
RvP: Well once again, at the end of the season, we are going to have a calm/relaxed talk about it, and then we are going to talk about a number of things, which I do regularly with the manager, and because of that occasion [contract talks] the chairman will be there as well.
BM: You are going to make the final decision then [at that meeting]?
RvP: Dan gaan we een bakkie doen: that is when we are going to have a nice cup of coffee.
