'Sir Alex Ferguson said Robin van Persie was too old for Man Utd - he didn't want him'

Van Persie made the shock move to United in the summer of 2012 from rivals Arsenal after he made it clear he would not sign a new deal with the Gunners. He swapped the Emirates Stadium for Old Trafford for an overall £24m transfer fee.

The transfer proved to be a masterstroke as the Dutchman went on to score 30 goals in all competitions in his first season at Old Trafford. United won the Premier League title by 11 points, with Van Persie helping to seal it with a hat-trick in a 3-0 win against Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Van Persie admitted when he joined United that the child in him was "screaming" for a move to Old Trafford. Meulensteen, who was part of Ferguson's coaching staff at Old Trafford at the time, has now shed light on how the genesis of the transfer came to being.

In January 2012, Meulensteen received a call from Van Persie's agent confirming the forward would not be extending his Arsenal contract and wanted to move to United and play under Ferguson. But Meulensteen revealed that when he put this to the then-United boss, he was not initially enthusiastic about the potential move owing to Van Persie's age and injury record.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Meulensteen said: "I think it was in January and I got a call from Robin's agent, which I knew, and he just said 'listen Rene, things at Arsenal are stalling with Robin. Robin has got certain expectations of the club, he wants to take the club forward and they're not seeing the right investments coming in, so he's not really happy and he's not going to extend his contract'.

"He likes to stay in England and the Premier League and predominantly there's only one club he wants to play for. He wants to play for Manchester United and also he wants to play for Sir Alex Ferguson.

"That's a bit of a statement and I said the only thing I can do is ask Sir Alex and see what he thinks.

"I walked in his [Ferguson's] office and I said 'I've got this phone call and Robin van Persie is interested in joining us, what do you think?'

"He said 'Nah, too old'. He was 27 at the time, a bit of an injury record and I said 'we'll look into it.'

"I said 'I wouldn't dismiss it straight away but discuss it with David Gill and see what you think. I will speak a little bit more to see how genuine it is.'

"Sometimes players throw things up like that to strengthen their position for a new contract, so we didn't want that. We found out that it was very, very genuine, and we knew it was not going to be easy because of Arsenal and Wenger being there and losing maybe one of his best players."

Talks progressed within United and Meulensteen even took it upon himself to gauge the feeling in the squad of the prospect of Van Persie becoming a Reds player. While not naming names, Meulensteen was told by senior members of the squad that Van Persie was the one who would make a difference to the team.