By Chris Wright
The Daily Mirror have slapped their danglies on the table this morning and are rumour-rumouring that Sir Alex Ferguson has confided in his ‘footballing friends’ that he is confident Manchester United will cherry pick Robin van Persie from Arsenal in the coming weeks.
As the Gunners’ hopes of retaining their main man continue to fade, the Mirror muse that Fergie has designs on pairing Van Persie with Wayne Rooney up top to form a ‘formidable strike force’ and will pay £20 million for the pleasure – with a bid supposedly in the offing – beating both Manchester City and Juventus to the punch.
It’s fairly well established that both Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov are as good as gone, though United will still boast a fairly well-stocked forward line. Van Persie’s arrival would surely bump Danny Welbeck from the first-choice XI, keep Javier Hernandez on the fringes and/or mean that Shinji Kagawa wouldn’t be used in as advanced a role as he enjoyed fulfilling in Dortmund – still, Sir Alex probably has it a damn-sight more figured out than we do, assuming it’s not total balderdash of course.
What do the United-hued fans out there make of this palaver? Would you welcome Van Persie (who is increasingly beginning to look like the ‘before’ guy from a Just For Men advert) at Old Trafford, or could the money be spent more wisely elsewhere?
While we’re on the subject, Pies can also confirm that the Mirror also canvassed Arsene Wenger for a reaction to the RVP rumblings, but they were given what’s known in the trade as ‘short shrift’…