Has any player ever mastered the cut-in-on-the-left better than Arjen Robben did?
Looking back, it’s incredible how one player became so synonymous with such a commonly used piece of skill, yet defenders were rarely able to stop him doing the very thing they knew was coming.
In his peak, Robben could have walked into any of the world’s best sides, so it’s no surprise that he was in high demand throughout his career.
For a period of his career, it seemed like. a move to Manchester United was on the horizon, though as we now know, he opted to sign for rivals Chelsea instead.
During an Instagram Q&A, Ferdinand revealed the winger, who was at PSV at the time, actually visited United’s training ground but out of all things, didn’t like the smell.
“What a player. Robben was great. We should have signed him at Man United,” he continued.
“I think he came to the training ground. He walked around and didn’t like the smell and walked off and went Chelsea. I couldn’t believe it man. He would have been great for us.”
The strange story came to light when the United legend was asked to choose between Robben and Ryan Giggs – unsurprisingly, he sided with his old teammate.
“I’d have to go for Giggys you know. Robben was nasty though, oooh Robben.” he said on his official Instagram.
“You knew he was going to come back in on his left but the left-back couldn’t deal with it. He’d be saying, ‘I’m going to come in on my left, you’re not gonna stop me’. And they didn’t.”
The thought of Robben being part of that incredible team Ferguson assembled in the 2000s certainly would have been a frightening prospect. Built on explosive counter-attacking football, the attacker would have slotted in perfectly.
However it wasn’t to be and he didn’t do too badly after all, did he?
Featured image credit: Getty