Arsenal's former chief transfer negotiator Dick Law has revealed the club had to sell Robin van Persie to Manchester United given the player's contract situation at the Emirates.
Van Persie's deal at Arsenal had just one year left to run when he joined United for £24million in the summer of 2012.
The Dutch striker went on to score 30 goals in his debut season for the Reds as Sir Alex Ferguson signed off with a 13th Premier League title.
Explaining why Arsenal offloaded Van Persie to United, much to the annoyance of Gunners supporters, Law told Goal: “We did everything we could to keep Robin. He was 29 when he moved, he had a year left and wanted to do his very best in arguably his next-to-last contact – or even his last contract.
“In every case where we attempted in good faith to negotiate with players, we just couldn’t control all the factors. We knew how it looked selling to rivals but getting £24m for a 29-year-old was an important piece of business, it set us both up.
“It let Robin pursue a dream that he wanted and he was right, by going to United he won the title that season – but I think by the end of the next season, Sir Alex had left and that was the end of Robin at United.
“You would have to ask him if his calculation worked out. Financially, it worked out for sure, but he ended up moving to Turkey and then back to Feyenoord.
“If he had stayed at Arsenal I’m reasonably sure he would have gone down in history as one of the greats.”
