Robin Van Persie tells the truth on Arsenal & Man Utd Exits | High Performance Podcast

hi there I'm Jake comfrey you're listening to high-performance the podcast that delves into the minds of some of the most successful athletes visionaries entrepreneurs and artists on the planet and aims to unlock the very secrets to their success everyone needs a professor in their life and mine is also an author and an expert in the success of sports teams it's Damien Hughes that Damien as a Man United fan I imagine you're looking forward to this very much looking forward to it this is somebody that was a catalyst when they came into one Chester United so I'm intrigued to find out a little bit more about the mentality of a catalyst okay well let's get going in and welcome a footballer who is I can be one of the greatest strikers to win the Premier League a cult hero Arsenal he controversially left to join their arch rivals at the time Manchester United and immediately achieved his aim of winning the title these days the former Dutch international spends his time working as a pundit for BT sport but it's his career as a top level athlete that we are really interested in robin van persie welcome to her performance thank you very much thanks for having me nice to be with you right let's get straight into it then in your mind mm-hmm what is high-performance high performance as well it's performing at the highest level you know and that's always difficult because the highest level you have to compete with opponents who are on a similar level but you still want to be better than them so how do you do that you know and that's a thin line it's tricky but you know if you succeed then it makes it more interesting and more satisfying I think but that process is a long process to reach that goal you know to be on that level thanks Kim to be honorable coffee's arrived they ought to be on that level which is satisfying for yourself you know because that's a long process so when did you think that you achieved high performance I'm Robin well in my mind when I was at my highest level I was about 27 28 personally so that's a very long road until that moment and that starts basically from very young from five six years old you start that process without realizing it but I was at my peak personally mentally physically around that age so how would you have defined yourself so when you were performing when you were delivering high performance at our age beyond the physical attributes are being fast and fair and strong what were the sort of behaviors that you would describe you were demonstrating during that time of high performance you know period everything came together it's like physically mentally more imbalance I was quite impulsive when I was younger yeah my reactions the way I was talking the way I was behaving the way I was playing and that slowly changed over the years because just by basically [Music] listening looking learning and improving myself as a person at the start and then I brought that back into football because at one point I realized that every game was such a struggle and I didn't really want that and didn't want to have a constant struggle in my wife is a struggle it's like because the opponent's found out that you know if they triggered me if they talked to me in a certain way or if they yeah did all those things they could get me sent off what would wound you up now if there were but it was going both ways because if the opponent was like stepping on my toes and sort of trying to bully me I was going really hard and I was going against it but in the end after a couple of after period I started to think about that and then it made sense to me I was like okay the reaction I have I shouldn't have that reaction I shouldn't go against it I should stand above it so that is it like a process of a couple of years because if I go against it and it would then it's such a struggle it was I was just like mentally physically I was drained after every match for quite long time from the age of 23 to 26 roughly there I was just knackered after every game was there a particular light bulb moment when something came out and you thought I need to be doing something different than her or was it just a gradual process yeah there was just I was talking to my wife actually about it I was like I was telling I like that it that it cost me so much energy like every game and then she said okay but you have to find a way to to make that less because then becomes more enjoyable everything and I said here about how and then we spoke about that and then I realized that I was like constantly fighting you know and then she she made one comment like yeah but you have to choose your battle I was like yeah you know I don't want to fight these small battles I'm gonna go for bigger ones you know so then I said ok what if I and as well I was if I missed a chance for example that it's a process as well I was very emotional after mr. chance I was like constantly ah no showing the world how disappointed I was then at one point I was like yeah but that's weakness somewhere you know then because then the opponent sees that I'm disappointed and I'm not happy with myself so I slowly start to change that and I was like okay you know if I don't show my weakness then they don't have like if I don't react on them bullying if I don't react if I miss a chance then I become stronger and better and once I started to do that I talked with awesome thing about this around and then everything became lighter you know it was so heavy it was for all those years it was heavy but I was making it heavy yeah it is I just needed a couple of years to realize that but what I find interesting on that problem is that I think that's a it's real courage to have that reflection because what you'd been doing it obviously works for you you know that when you look back at the start of your career of leaving X Chelsea oh and then the brilliance that it had with the coach at Feyenoord yeah that you'd obviously been fighting and and resisting it and you'd still been achieving success yeah but that was because of the love of the game because I truly loved football from the bottom of my heart I love it and that is what also saved me in a way because I made some stupid mistakes over the years you know some silly one so what sort of things did you from arguing to with all the players you know it's it's like you have to know your place as well in football it's like when you're young that's your place you have to earn the right basically and I wasn't doing that I was I was very impulsive I was very against the rules somehow and so why was I doing that why was I against Batista I wonder whether you almost felt you needed to be like that to show you cared and to show you wanted to be the best you know you didn't want to just cruise into training and cruise through training and cruise through a game you almost felt you needed to have a battle every game to show your teammates on yourself yes I was going too far it was going too far and was becoming a problem because I wasn't creating nice stuff I was making problems for myself you know I was I had arguments with coaches where I look back at it nothing better and a big like like an important thing in that is communicating you know I wasn't I wasn't really expressing myself good enough just to solve the problem because most problems started with communication if you just talk about it in a normal way you can solve a lot of possible problems and so over the years I kept asking questions and I even wrote stuff down to myself so at one point at Arsenal after two years I wasn't satisfied I wasn't happy it was going okay but not good enough so I started to write letter to myself I was like okay what are my positives and what are my negatives and I was like writing them down and then I noticed that I was lying to myself I was way I was making myself look for feel better yeah by reading it back a signal yeah I was talking with my wife route and with my friends and then that is something as well friends but we can talk about that later friends have influenced everyone in your life has influenced and you need to at one point you need to be very honest to yourself if those people in your life whoever it is if it's your wife or your friends or your family I have a positive impact on your life and I think if you aim for to be the best in your sport in this case you have to be ruthless at one certain point you have to cut out the people who bring negativity and that is very hard how did you do it because there will be people listening to this podcast and they're not professional athletes yes but they find their life is made more difficult by the people around them ah yes I trained them what process did you go through to decide quite ruthlessly who could no longer be part of your life yeah and there was that this if you just look back at the periods before so at one point I was ending up in situations where I just didn't want to end up in and it wasn't my fault it was the fault of the people I was around with I thinking okay this is not bringing me further you know I have a dream I want to live my dream and so just by looking and because I had this romantic idea of my childhood friends they should always stay with me they should always stay connected and I want them in my life forever but okay we have a different life so at one point I just made an roundup of what they bring what they offer me because I'm giving them time in some cases I gave them money I tried to help them but what do they gave me that they have to at one point they have to accept what what what the situation is of their life and my life and they have to sort of somehow live by those unwritten rules and some of my childhood friends didn't do that and so they could not follow they could not follow me because I was going fast in my life I was I had my dreams I was following them and so the only thing they they brought in the end so I just rounded it up and I said okay what does this person offer me and no it had nothing to do with money you just do they bring something positive in my life anything even if it's something small it's fine but they rent at one certain point and then I just invited them and I said to two of my childhood friends I said guys I said I love you I respect you but I have different dreams than you guys so it was up yeah Wow it was tough how old were you when you have in this conversation 24 25 Wow yeah and these guys are new from a young age I said because you have you make different choices you have different priorities than me and I can't have that I can't have no negativity in my life because you know this is where I want to go to and if I have to constantly lose energy on you guys it's not gonna help me that's ruthless that's hard but I felt that I needed to do that there's a really nice way of describing that it's often did we talk about the people that come with us are with us for seasons reasons or lifetimes mm-hmm so some people are that because it's just the time of your life yeah childhood friends or what that means you work together and then some people are there with you right the way for you on the whole journey yeah you know and I think to recognize out such a young age is yeah you have periods your faces with with people in your life but in my case because I'm quite intense I'm all or nothing and so I had to bring that level down of myself as well I had to take it a little bit softer there was a process of many years as well to realize like okay you know it doesn't need to be that intense you know with certain people it can be lighter so I in my private life I started to have friendships which were lighter not so intense and that costs less energy you know so I could focus more on football so but it was a long process though you know over the years but in the end I think I managed it quite well but it was like a constant learning curve but the main thing I think for everyone was listening as well is that keep asking yourself even stupid questions you know keep asking them to yourself and write letters to yourself of how it's going remember what was in the letters yeah it was like but that letter I wrote to myself was more about about me as a player what I liked about myself what I could improve what from memory what could you improve what is you write down in the goals I should score more goals it was I should make more runs in behind because I was back in the day I was dribbling and I wanted the power in my feet and then by talking to Saul Campbell Jerry Burke and Perez all these guys so told me once he said Robin he said the way you play it's a dream for a defender like me I said why tell me why he said because you want everyone on your feet I can just stay there relax sit back and enjoy the game more training he said so you have to force me to make me I make a choice you know to to to close you down or to follow you you have to make runs in behind okay hang on so then I asked myself the question do I make enough runs in behind then I came up with the rule okay out of three actions at least one of them needs to be in behind because I have to hurt the defenders because so Ocampo told me doesn't like it yeah so I was like constantly asking myself questions and listening listening to players who were better than me there's a really nice piece of research there's a story on this is called what you're describing is something that is sometimes referred to as the Sunda letter and it's named after there's a conductor in Boston called Benjamin Zander and when he was teaching some appreciation of music and learn the arts and things are one of the things he found with his students was that they got too caught up in the result that they would get in yeah other than learning about the processor appreciating music so he used to get them to write a letter to themselves but basic 12 months in the future and talk about all the things they were going to achieve and all the things they were going to learn to love about music yeah and then as long as they wrote that letter he would always give them an A yeah because the point was he said you will now achieve all of that stuff because you're focused on what you do the process isn't the big trophy yeah yeah yeah I had a chat with the colleague of mine I wondered named his name because he's still playing but you had this he came up with this idea I was listening to him for an hour getting bored he's like yeah I will buy 50 apartments and I will get a grand per apartment and this is how I make my money and he was playing in a Premier League back there and then after when how he asked me what my opinion was I said do you really want to know I said I said yeah of course I said okay honestly you know if your idea is to make money it's fine you know but yeah you know if that is your reason to play or to work or whatever perfect it's your choice I said but if you want to make money you should work on your first touch and your header you know I said this is what you should work on because if you do that he will make 10 times more than this grand per apartment you're joking Robin you're joking I said no I'm not joking I'm serious I said if you fix that you will be a world-class player I didn't listen but to be fair and we had a good career he had okay career but could be better should be ready because it sounds to me that the example you give enough lights or combo giving you this advice yes and a new passing on this advice to others is a great example of what a healthy culture sounds like and I'm interested in terms of how would you describe a healthy culture you've given some examples of it but yeah if you're if you're open to share your knowledge or what you think is right you know I think I've always been like that I always I'm never shy to keep my secret for myself or whatever because you know I think if you share you care and you you know and if people want to take a certain percentage of your knowledge you know here you're more than welcome to share I think you think it helps you grow as well I've always believed if you give away everything you know you have to look elsewhere to know more than everyone else again and so then you have to push yourself you know exactly and but over the years I've learned this particular situation is if it marker from Boston told me once I was trying to be clever back then I was working with Marco van Basten for four or three years of my case from the age of 21 to 24 ish and then I I was really in that period of trying to improve as a person and getting better and everything and then we had a chat and then I said yeah you know because if I helped you know if I helped then I will get better of it he says yeah but Robin you should not help to get paid over you should give to give from your heart you know what I mean he said makes no sense but you're saying so I was right in that period of like adjusting everything and putting everything in place and then he gave me the answer to split one comment one sentence like it should give because you want to give and not to get something back okay and this is very interesting I will keep that in mind so along the way just by talking to people you know sometimes even saying stupid things you know make me better no way and I think you should always ask 50c any questions ask them just throw them out you know you might gain something there but especially the giving bit share share whatever you have now as well even though my time with final people tell me you should not give all your knowledge because I don't have a position at Phi naught and I've been of the past two years final is my first club I'm a fan of I nod I've been talking to the president the directors to the kidman to the players to the youth coaches to every single one and I keep telling them exactly the same in other words obviously and people close by it yeah but then people will go away with your knowledge and with your story I said yes that's the whole point you know and I know that they will not copy me there but they will not take 100% on board they would take maybe the you've coached will take 5% maybe the the president would take 15% but this is what I believe and this is what I think will bring the club forward so I share and I put it on the table and it's there this is what I believe is my truth and then you can take what everyone this is like a meal eat what you want it and I don't want anything back I don't want money back I don't want a position at final because I have other things to do I'm in a different period of my life I don't want any much job I'm totally independent in that way and that feels really good and I know it scares some people being that being like that because people want notice that people tend to lean towards each other and create a group of people and to do it together you know sometimes in a dodgy way and if you're independent then you know it does scare Jake I think you know if that's care if you if your mind is free if you don't have any second second agenda correct I wonder how different that that robin van persie is to the robin van persie he was a petulant youth team player causing problems I think the optimum of you will first start out whatever their career and this isn't just about football everyone starts out selfish because it's me achieving my aims and my ambitions from my life and I think it takes time to get to a point where and that we would both agree you know we're all in our you're not quite in your forties yet but we'll have forties and it life becomes about building other people up and it's one of the best feel it's of almost a better feeling yeah achieving yourself is yeah helping other people to thrive but you it's hard to do that when you're 15 16 no it's it's this is a very deep one because will you get to this stage without being selfish earliest earliest ages so you have to be selfish in the beginning to get the success to then be selfless and pass it on yeah I think so to actually achieve what you want to achieve to be able to give back you have to be selfish and that's with football as well this is like everyone is always talking about football is a team sport you should do it together yes true but you are defending your position in that team and if you don't do what you have to do you're out then footballs roofless and at any business it's like that so you have to be selfish and you have to come up for yourself you have to in a team in any team and any business you have to make sure that your position is there safe because otherwise you get eaten yep but do you find that in poor cultures that kind of selfishness sort of really seeps into the behaviors of everyone around us whoever's I'd be interested in if you have going into a healthy culture where the visit of balance between looking after the role interest poor helping others as well hmm yeah difficult difficult to a good question well I'm interested in say like your experience of going into Manchester now and so you've been through a period of Arsenal where you haven't been winning a lot and it almost felt like there was a certain drift yeah a malaise and then you went into an environment where you expected to win the tights or you came here there was a it seems to me like a very different culture what was your experience of that yeah it was a different world if you compare Arsenal witnesses tonight it but I was I was ready for that world you know it was it was a you know as a player as a young player it was it was much easier to get into the Arsenal team into the Arsenal philosophy with the coach like I said and my session ID it is like a like a like a beast you know you have to you have to perform back in a day so there was there was different experience for me but I was ready for that you know and like all those years of like asking questions and becoming better and all levels did help me to be ready for challenge like that what would you say was the the biggest difference than that you noticed when he went into Manchester United mmm the biggest difference was that if you're winning everything is beautiful no no because the the impact of my sister night it was bigger in terms of worldwide and amount of friends etc the size of the club but if you look at when it doesn't go well you know I'd ask snow if it doesn't go well you have your coach who protects you a few players who protect you the media finds reasons why things didn't really work etc at Manchester United on yourself you're alone you can no one protect you and that healthy yep well that it's it's tougher its ruthless and I've experienced that in my second year when things weren't going well I was still scoring 18 goals that second year scoring 12 for the national team so it's not a bad season or something but people were ruthless not good enough paying and then you're on on your own and that was sort of like a period where I was thinking I'm not that bad you know I'm not that bad of a play I mean we're still scoring okay maybe I'm not like last season or whatever but it was just ruthless heart and then I had to in my last season at this chat we do it for Africa tell you about the check where I had two very good season with the national team then I worked okay that the season his first season my last season at Manchester was not great and then I had this chat with Louie fanger and then he told me okay Robin our ways well part I'm the coach you are the player and you have to go your time is up I was like yeah but I still have a contract I said yeah I don't care he said well did you say clueless well yeah it was the end of it I saw something coming but not this roofless and the way he said it as well and then like a lot of things go through your mind you know when you get a message like that because I still have a contract my family was happy was my 11th year in England we love living in England what's next you know my kids going to school they have their friends and everything so in like a split second all these things come across and how do you react to that you know and I am I said okay I said we will see what happens I said that's your opinion I said but I have a contract and I'm happy in England and at Magesty night and my family is as well so we will see what happens and I just shook his hand stood up I was at the golf club in May she stood up and left it and how quickly did you decide that on the training picture in games you would you would attempt to change his mind and proved him that he's made a mistake yeah and then well on the way back home I was thinking okay this is stuff you know this is how do you react to messes like that you know that roof is that hard that direct and then loads of things came through my mind and we started pre-season then I wasn't allowed to play in the 11 against 11 I got a bow and do your own stuff first like okay so you try to sort of stay calm stay cool you know what I mean but it doesn't there's like loads of thing happening you you're playing the macho Karthik okay doesn't affect me it doesn't do this but it does affect me and my family and in my career yeah shake time but but I try to stay cool but you know maybe at that point it was cool for me to talk to someone outside my inner circle but I was too stubborn as well to do that now if I look back at it there were maybe a couple of points in my career where I should have done that but I was always with this kind of people who just want to help obviously I had that feeling like like a life coach or mentor trainer hours I think yeah but these people will create problems instead of solving them so I kept them at distance and up until today I never had a session with anyone in that way but now I'm open to it and maybe it's partly aged experience but if I look back at my career could have been a good case if I would have talked to someone like that at this particular module but it's often said that like the best managers are the best psychologists as well so who would you say was the best coach you had to got the best out of you as an individual well I was lucky to have such great coaches but I sin I sin was so intelligent it was you could talk to him about anything and what I learned from him as well and this is like I don't think he even realizes that this is when you talk to us and he's not answering straight away maybe he's always like you know it's okay he's letting the question in first then he checks you out when you have a normal conversation he checks you from the front from the left right then he answers so I was like I'm Way too soon with my answers you know sometimes I think my ass is too fast you know I should have thought about it a bit longer and then I saw him doing that in interviews and just by chatting to him I think okay I will pick that up for him you know that's that's clever you were learning more than just football from us and Penge yes very much and yeah he's a professor in maths in German English such a clever guy and just to I was learning as well off the page by looking at Bergkamp even how they had their lunch you know early days I had my lunch like quick quick quick bang in out always on on the go then I saw these guys they were putting that jacket on the seat and they were talking before they were eating they were making jokes then they enjoyed their lunch then they had a nice cup of coffee it was just so funky look so relaxed you know and I was I was so everything except relaxed I was all over the place I read a story a rights hoped that when he shared with Dennis Bergkamp and he saw him wearing pajamas and I said that he started to wear pajamas because Dennis Bergkamp dead oh really the weight rips oh yeah you're in good company in terms of copying him yeah yeah oh of course yeah Dennis Dennis was a very interesting person character player is like off camera is one of the one of the funniest guys you will ever see especially in English so funny so dry it's ridiculous it's just when the camera when the lights go on he is I you know almost but very clever clever guy and I learned a lot but just looking at him yeah so when you've spent your formative football years with us and Venga and he's taught you so much more than just veral almost like a father figure lots of players talk about him like that how difficult was the conversation the day when you went to him to explain what had to change Arsenal for you today yeah well there was actually before our like last decisive chat and there was an Austrian training camp before that we were changing our philosophies of how the outer bring the club forward but it was not only between me and asana because it was like I told you before there was more happening with with Ivan of course and then the way he behaved and he handled the whole situation well talk about that well yeah maybe one thing which because we talked about it before the Arsenal game and if I look back at that whole situation is that you know in that situation I have to look at myself as well where I could have done better or could have done something differently and if I look back at that that open letter I didn't mention it during our show with pity that open letter I shouldn't have done that you know if you look back at that it is impossible to in such a delicate difficult situation of making a transfer after spending so much time with us no to make a decision to write an open letter to tell my truth in two pages it's impossible oh why did you do that I repaid what was the letter that was because of Ivan's behavior yeah it was I was a point oh he did it once the newspapers today oh that's yeah back then I went to the newspaper because there was no yeah so I did that and there was because I was disappointed with Ivan with his behavior but I could not go into detail but what exactly then you know because he is just impossible to tell the whole story behind it and partly was the fact that Astin didn't offer me a deal okay but so there was there was um if I look back at that I should have done that better because the difficult thing for us no fans even now yeah is you know we talked about the fact I didn't offer you a deal but then when you release that statement at the papers you said you've decided not to stay yeah and it's not exactly for Arsenal fans it's still a difficult yeah but I still don't quite understand the others I can promise you on my kids if everyone if if someone comes with proof that offered me a deal I will give you a million now yeah but did you make it almost impossible to of you deal because you were so demanding because you were so desperate to win the preneur it was it was asked on the oznas decision not to offer me a deal and that is up to them you know after many conversations it came clear that we had different ideas of what you think was lucky like what what did you need from us on at that time take a vision I had I had seven points where I thought Arsenal could improve and in my opinion they those seven points they should start with dealing with them straight away to be able to compete with the best teams old what they were yeah but you know it doesn't really matter what points about that what matters is that I haven't decided that he didn't agree on one single point if those seven points Wow which is fair enough so taking that information on board so arson doesn't offer me do they didn't agree with my views you know I'm I've used by only to help no it was like honors views of how a club should move forward that is a very clear message you know so maybe that's why people into patear it in their own way but you know for me it is not the issue anymore I'm now talking with you about it for the second time and that is fine it is not the issue for me it's That's Life that's life at the top nope clubs businesses make decisions you know and place as well in this case do as well and you know it is this I'm perfectly happy how I would ended up now I went to miss United I we won the league you know so it's perfectly fine for me and I'm not angry with Ivan you know and I'm grateful to have worked with us and for 80 years he played such a crucial part in my career I can honestly say that without his influence I would not be the player I and ended up with in the end so I'm thankful I'm happy and thankful it's just that you know a certain facts you can't look away from you know it's just how it was and it's hard when you can't talk because you you know you played through injuries you dedicate yourself every day you train hard you love the club love the fans love the manager yeah and then when when it all when the fallout happens you know you just have to kind of it accept it and I always you know whether it's football or something else I think that's a very difficult position for a human being to be where you're like hold on there does your you've seen 10% of the truth and you've made the other 90 you know yeah but I do sort of realized that that that people have that judgment ready based on 10% like I said and that is how it is but honestly I can you know I'm grateful for us know for years I've played therefore I Sen who Ivan and me didn't really click that can happen as well but you know it's a big man's world in that there is a moment where you have to move on you know and like I said as well with sometimes in the top can be ruthless you know sometimes in your favor sometimes against you but but to come back and this topic is how do you deal with with that you know how do you deal with such things who have such a big impact on your life you know and yet to come back to that you know I think key to that is communicating keep talking and be although some situations can be very difficult stay open for others because I know a lot of colleagues of mine as well who tend to close up you know when things become difficult they close up and they stop to talk to anyone yeah but that is not the solution you should should stay yourself stay open keep asking questions and stay friendly you know and so you made a comment earlier about him I spoke about when he first as a young player you have to know your place in terms of what yes I am what you got challenged when did you feel the it was your place to go and make these seven points and challenge the culture and what you saw the clock needed today there was my period when I was the captain top scorer there was the period where I felt that you know my views would count right and as a 20 year old kid your views of how the club should move forward don't really count you know then you have to fight for your place be quiet and learn and be a better player try to be a better player every day but I was 28 but actually 9 you know I felt you know that it was my right to give my honest opinion sure so this is a lovely phrase Sven Goran Eriksson used to employ a guy called the Willie reloj and then work with him as a psychologist then it was Willie ray Lowe's phrase of cultural architects within a dressing room hmm the guys that really shaped the culture and influence it yeah and I'm interested in terms of that period that you were obviously a cultural architects because of your credibility of being captain and top scorer and the experience how else did you recruit architects to come with you to try and change what you saw obviously needed to be done what do you mean exactly Bernard well so it sounds like you were isolated on your own in terms of that the club decided to reject you from the from the on my inhalation whereas do you feel you could have recruited other characters within that dressing room that had equal way or equal credibility to enhance your argument yeah a good point for example some colleagues did came up and did wanted to support me in this matter but I said no because for one reason is that I didn't want to put them in a difficult place I didn't want to put them in my place because it was my right to speak out and I was the captain now of that team so in my opinion if I would bring two or three other guys who shared my opinion it would put them in a difficult place and I said it's really nice of you and I will not name them now but these these guys we have sort of believed in what what I thought should be done to improve as well but I said I will I will not do that because you know I will take the blame I will live live with the consequences whatever they are but I don't want to put you you guys into this position say I think it what's interesting and you've seen this from you so I'm spending with football clubs is that you have you know a director of football or a chairman and a manager it's not an easy thing is it for a football club to say actually that football or that individual player can help to change the culture of of this for book club but maybe that's the healthiest thing the healthiest thing to do at a football club is to take the input from an experienced pro and 19 you want who can tell you what the pathway is like from the Academy from the person that serves the lunch everyone I think not just in football but in life everyone should be able to add to a culture I think certainly off point say if you're in the most senior you're your role in an organization the more you become like the queen where you assume the world smells of fresh paint everywhere you go yeah because when you walk in everybody makes it Clive Woodward used to talk about it that the trouble is when you're a head coach everyone tries harder in the gym and form runs a bit faster yeah so you never see what is happening when you're not in the gym it's very good point it's a very good point but the at clubs they tend to have sort of created feeling like okay you're a football player you should stick to playing football well I am more of the type of guy you know even the Kidman is his opinion I would like to know you know especially him because he's right in the middle of that team and what is the reason why this some presidents or people in higher functions behave like that and the only reason I can come up with is that they trying to protect their own position and is that it's a big is that a big way of thing no of course not you know and that should change in my opinion you should listen because you're all in it together and in a smaller version I like was mid-20s I just realized because I early days I was like okay this is my position I have to try to play and I don't really talk to the manager and then at one point I was talking to I sin but first I was scared to talk to him at one point I realized like no hang on so we are this team we have the coach he has his stuff if the medical staff if mr. Dean in the first couple of years around I said we should all work together so I should really start opening up to the college because we have to we are pulling the same so we are working together on the same target so why there's no reason for me to be scared of the coach why should it be scared of him so that was the moment where I realized like okay and on you know I would just ask him questions I would just talk to him like it's almost like you realized that your job is more than just doing your job exactly it's still it is actually a common thing I think with the conversation we have without live Robin whether it's writing down notes whether it is going and seeing arson Bhangra about the future of the football club whether it is taking on board criticism from Louie van Gaal that you're going to leave man United and try to retain your place there the recurring theme I think is that there's a there was a moment in your career where you realized you have to take the responsibility no one else is gonna run your career for you yes yeah and that is what I did when I was about 2425 halfway I realized like okay and I actually had this chat last week funny enough seriously with my son so my son plays a fine note he played against I ox on the 14 he was on the bench he didn't play so in the car on the way back it was like a bit Moody disappointed complaining a little bit but others about the coach etc and then I said yeah I said but chicken I said you sound like a loser you know if you talk like this in a way you sound like you lost I said you are blaming him you're blaming her you're blaming this you blaming everything I said but I don't need a one single thing about yourself I said witness I said they take control and they blame yourself and they look where they can improve yeah and [Music] this is what you should be thinking about so I didn't tell him what he should think about you should ask yourself the question are you loser or are you a winner I said for me there's a matter I said I said because I am your dad I said the only job I have and your mom has is when you're 20 that you're a good boy that you're ready for life you know you can make your mistakes you can do what you want I love you for the same amount it doesn't matter for me if you make it as a football player or not I said but you say that this that this is your passion so you should take control of your life and stop complaining because it sounds like a loser I said then I don't mind if you want to be a loser be a loser I still love you as much that's it I said it doesn't matter for me I said but if you want to be a winner take control of your life and stop complaining about others and then I watched him train the next morning my wife said where you going us now I'm gonna watch this session two days later actually because they played on Saturday on Monday morning so I'm there sitting cold hoodie on I'm looking and I see this tiger training running working I was like okay okay he'd realized he has to take control of his life he did never have that conversation with you well in in like bits and pieces I said yeah over the years and what I liked about for example I said is that he never really judged me you know it was almost like like a parent in a way because my son I can it doesn't help if you judge people constantly if you tell them off and if you say you have to do this it doesn't work like that you know it's their process you have to be able to respect the process of your kids or your friends and you can advise them you can you can guide them for certain way but in the end they have to make the mistakes they will make their mistakes let them make it and then they decide what they do with it you know but sometimes it's good to give them a guideline but asanas wrong I sense it why are you not the top player do you still not a top player I said okay tell me why I'm not the top player no I'm not telling you so had conversations like that he said you have to have the right girl that the right questions he said he said look around you he said he saw all these top players but you're not one of them TV yeah and you reaction can go two ways then you can either deal with that and make yourself a top player or that can that can break some people yeah and then I started to look at Perez how he played look at young boy how he made his runs look at Dennis look at Jerry look at Vieira I'm so far off you know these guys are on such a level that's where I want to go but he was not forcing me into it you know you had to find you know I had to find the answers myself and there's a link coaching isn't that they are of great coaching I think so 12 is a question and then like he wants yeah exactly but that is a perfect way because you have to feel it you know if you see though if you hear it okay it's sometimes it can be enough but most times it's not enough you have to feel it you have to find out yourself you know and along the way you can make mistakes you can struggle you can but in the end you decide if you want to be a winner or loser it's your decision you know love it right we're gonna finish with some quickfire questions okay what is the absolutely unacceptable behavior that you just don't tolerate what's the one thing that really ones you up for my kids you mean or in life well I think as a person it defines you of who you are how you behave towards people you don't think you need you know I think that is what what what they find that this is the status of a person in my opinion so for example if you're in a restaurant and you're arrogant towards the waitress for example to do the people help you and you're one of them I think you you're not in a right then I don't think you're a good person you know especially towards the people we don't tend to need you know if you're good guy just be good because you're good not because you think you might need someone or yeah good so what would you say Rob another three non-negotiable behaviors that you and people around you have to by answer yeah and well I think as well you have to be polite polite nice same laughter - mm-hmm and that is what I tell my kids as well much this is quickfire it's not really going well okay politeness - and yeah desire to achieve something very good what advice would you give to a teenage robin van persie just starting his career I just relax just relax have a breather to have it enjoy enjoy the ride how important is like I say to you yeah important important because I like the idea that I had an influence on some people along the way like a positive influence so that is some sort of legacy and not just related to football but this is related to life okay what is your one golden rule to living a high-performance life try to live in one world that is very difficult especially nowadays distractions all over the place but try to live that world what you choose for then you are able to compete at the highest level you know because you tend to to mix it up and to be the best for example player you you can be and then yeah but there's a nice body there as well and let's go to the body and let's do this and let's do that you try to live in five six worlds to try to especially during your prime time during a career try to live in one comes better taking responsibility doesn't it yeah exactly have you worked out your greatest failure yet maybe I just didn't have one man oh let's imagine your son fails yeah yeah what would you say to him once he's failed at something what's the best way to react to that moment because I'm a real firm believer that failure is held the failures good thing yeah and failure you should make mistakes use that I'm telling my kids as well and we are trying to raise them very openly and we're trying to sort of send them the message that they can make mistakes can fail but that you know but whatever they do and my daughter she rides a horse now five times a week and she's really serious about it I said okay I said you can fail you can even fell off the horse you can fall off it's fine but you know once you found your passion do your best do you do your best your maximum give you a maximum whatever that is then then it's always fine you know and then you can fill or you can follow up as many times as you want but do your best protein you know what that conversation is exactly what I hoped it would be so many lovely little bits information right thank you there's no thank you guys I really like I think top my thanks mate

Channel: The High Performance Podcast

Views: 224,895

Rating: 4.8775043 out of 5

Keywords: RVP, Robin Van Persie, Manchester United, Arsenal, Van Gaal, Arsene Wenger, Bergkamp, High Performance Podcast, Jake Humphrey, Damian Hughes

Id: filJJC5SUNY

Length: 54min 9sec (3249 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Anybody with the text?

[u/Jhix]

Would be very interested to hear about him leaving us given how we didn't even announce it on twitter or anything. Very shady