Fergie sees shades of ’99 in strikeforce
Van Persie, who is poised to face his former club Arsenal for the first time since his £24 million summer move this weekend, has made a fine start to his Old Trafford career.
The 29-year-old has scored nine goals in 12 appearances and also linked well with his fellow forwards Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck.
Together they give Ferguson strong attacking options and the Scot feels they warrant comparison with his 1999-2000 quartet of Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who helped United muster 97 league goals.
Ferguson said: “That was a phenomenal strikeforce. Every time they came on the pitch they made contributions.
“At the moment with the present squad, and the strikers we have available, I can see similarities in terms of goal threat.
“I am not saying we are going to get to 90-odd goals but we are providing a good goal threat.”
Ferguson expects van Persie to receive a good reception from visiting supporters as United host Arsenal in today’s Premier League lunchtime kick-off.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has already said he feels the player deserves that after eight years in north London, culminating with last season’s outstanding 37-goal campaign.
Ferguson said: “I think Arsene has laid his seed for his supporters in terms of respecting him.
“If you think about all the former players who have come back to Old Trafford, they always get a warm applause. I don’t think he’ll have a problem tomorrow. I think the fans will recognise the eight years he gave them and I think that will be nice.”
Ferguson is pleased van Persie has hit the ground running since his arrival but had expected nothing less from a player he knew was already the finished article.
He said: “He has settled in well. He is a mature player and his start to the season has been fantastic. I can’t say it is better than I thought it would be because that is why we bought him. But his goals last season were tremendous and hopefully that continues.
“I have said time and time again, if you get a couple of strikers that get you about 25 goals, I think you are in the ballpark for winning something.”
With those threatening players comes the dilemma of how to best juggle the resources. With Rooney a mainstay of the team and Hernandez also playing well, it is a conundrum Ferguson has to deal with.
He said: “I think with Chicharito’s (Hernandez) form, I am trying to think of all sorts of ways I can use the three of them together, and Danny Welbeck. That is an issue for me. We did it at Newcastle but you won’t be able to do that every game. It is a fantastic problem for me.”
United watched van Persie when he was a teenager with Feyenoord but did not pursue their interest and Ferguson thought his chance to sign the player had gone once he joined Arsenal.
Ferguson said: “He was a kid, he was only 16, 17 at the time.
“We sent Jim Ryan to see him play for Feyenoord and he was sent off in the game.
“Jim said he was a fantastic talent but he’s a little immature. But at 16 they are all immature. We didn’t progress it and then he got to Arsenal. I never thought we’d get him until he came out and said he wasn’t signing a contract for Arsenal.
“Then it was a matter of working hard with Arsene and myself. I phoned him quite a few times and eventually we got an agreement.
“It was very amicable. Arsene made his case for the player. He worked hard to try to get him to stay.
“Once he accepted he was going to go he made sure we paid them plenty of money, but if he had been under contract for more than a year we would never have got him.”
Van Persie was on target for Arsenal on their forgettable last visit to Old Trafford in August last year, when they were hammered 8-2.
Ferguson is certainly not expecting a repeat of that extraordinary scoreline.
He said: “It won’t happen tomorrow, that’s for sure.
“There is no point living in the past, we have just got to look forward to tomorrow.
“It could be a way of motivating Arsenal, that is possible, but I think we have got to have the motivation to make sure we win the match.”
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