JUVE WANTED RVP

Juventus have admitted that they were left disappointed not to get the Arsenal striker Robin van Persie, with whom they were heavily linked during the summer. The 29-year-old Dutchman has been linked with a move to the Italian champions throughout the summer, but he decided to join the Premier league rivals Manchester United instead. Juventus came extremely close to securing the signature and were the front-runners at one stage. However, they simply baulked at the pricetag put up by Arsenal for the player according to the Chief Executive of the club, Giuseppe Marotta. Giuseppe Marotta has said that Robin van Persie’s value was extremely over the top at £ 24 million.

It is thought that Arsenal demanded around € 30 million for the player, which Juventus were unwilling to pay. Manchester United then seized to the opportunity to sign the player. Even more astonishing for Giuseppe Marotta is the fact that Manchester United have agreed to offer the player around £ 250,000 per week in wages, thus making the Dutchman one of the highest paid players in the world. Due to the fact that van Persie has only one season left on his deal, Giuseppe Marotta thought that the player could be signed for a lesser amount.

“I have regrets about Van Perise, but it would have been a bad choice for the club if we had paid €30million for a player who would have seen his contract expire next year. We are happy with the business we were able to carry out. We hit our targets with the acquisition of good, young players with reasonable salaries – (Kwadwo) Asamoah, (Mauricio) Isla and (Sebastian) Giovinco. There is another fact which must not be overlooked, the fact that we kept (Claudio) Marchisio and (Arturo) Vidal, who were wanted by Bayern Munich,” Marotta told Tuttosport.