Robben: You don’t win trophies by selling top stars

Posted Saturday, February 16, 2013 by The Sun

IT'LL BE TIGHT ... Arjen Robben says Bayern Munich are not taking win against Arsenal for granted

ARJEN ROBBEN has given his Arsenal verdict ahead of their Euro clash with Bayern Munich.

And it does not make pleasant reading for anyone who loves the Gunners.

Bayern’s Dutch superstar is a close pal of former Arsenal skipper Robin van Persie.

And as he summed up why the striker quit for Manchester United, he echoed the frustrations of long-suffering Gooners everywhere.

He said: “Yes, Robin was the captain. But that’s also how it goes in football. Players are leaving.

“In the end, of course, for the real Arsenal supporters it was a shame, it was very disappointing that he left the club.

“But on the other hand, if they think clearly, everybody understands his choice that he also wants to win titles and at Arsenal at the moment it’s going to be very difficult.”

So why is it difficult for Arsenal to win trophies?

Robben added: “I think you can see it. It’s not my opinion, it’s also a fact.

“The last eight years — no trophies. That says it all. If you look around at the moment there are some teams in England that are maybe stronger than Arsenal. I cannot speak for Robin. He made his decision.”

But are Arsenal paying the price for selling their best players every year?

Robben continued: “Again, I live in Germany, I don’t live in England, so it’s very difficult for me to really judge this situation at the club.

“But if you see there are always players leaving and when they leave, at that moment, they are the most important players or the best players and, if you keep losing these players, then every time you have to try to build up again.

“Mr Wenger has shown that he can do it.

“He’s a great manager, he’s shown that by improving young players, but the trophies are also important.”

So there you have it from someone who faced Arsenal with Chelsea when they were at their peak in the Arsene Wenger era.

Robben faced a team that boasted Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. When Robben went to Chelsea in 2004, Arsenal — the Invincibles — were THE team to beat.

And the difference with today’s Gunners, that Robben is about to face with Bayern?

Robben added: “You already said it. There’s a difference. I can understand it — the disappointment.

“Eight years without a trophy is a very, very long time.

“And if you look to the team who won the trophies and played such great football, with Henry and Bergkamp, they had a great team. They had Vieira as well and played brilliant football.

“The current side are still a team you can enjoy watching because they try to play some nice football. But I can also understand the fans being frustrated because they want some trophies.”

OLD PALS ACT ... Arsene Wenger with his former striker Robin van Persie

Robben has played for Chelsea and Real Madrid and knows the importance of having big-name players in the dressing room — the kind that add character and steel to a team. Unsurprisingly he was diplomatic about Arsenal’s current squad.

He said: “Of course you need that but I don’t know whether they have that at Arsenal.

“But in a team you need a good mix of personalities with good characters.

“When I was at Chelsea we had some great characters in the team and that’s something you learn from.

“At the time I was still very young and for my development it was a good experience to work there with such big characters.”

Yet Robben is not taking a Bayern win on Tuesday for granted against the Gunners, even though the bookies have the German giants as huge favourites.

Bayern may be the runaway leaders in the Bundesliga and have easily topped their qualifying group in the Champions League — but Robben remains cautious.

The Dutch flyer continued: “I know they lost their best player in Van Persie and they got some new players in, but they’re still a very dangerous team.

“People will say that we’re favourites but we can expect two very tough games. They have a young team with a great manager, who always improves his teams and can develop young players.

“We won’t under-estimate them. Maybe they’re struggling a bit but Champions League nights are always special and anything can happen.”

Robben admitted the pain of losing last year’s final at Bayern’s own Allianz Arena to Chelsea will drive his team on.

The German giants have lost two Champions League finals in the last three years, as they also went 2-0 down to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2010.

And Robben concluded: “It’s very strange how things can change so quickly in football.

“In the end Chelsea made it. If you look at the final again we should never have lost it — but we did. We’ve improved from last year, new good players coming in and everything is going well.

“We showed last season that we can be up there with the best teams in Europe so we want to be in the final at Wembley.”