Month: December 2012

The Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill has compared the Manchester United striker Robin van Persie to the Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi by saying that the Dutchman is as important to the Premier league club as the Argentine ace is to the Spanish club. Van Persie recently opened the scoring for United in the match against Sunderland. It enabled United to win the match 3-1 and maintain their six-point advantage at the top of the table. Martin O’Neill, who has endured a lot of pressure at the Stadium of Light due to his team’s poor performances the season, has praised the United striker van Persie by comparing him with Messi.

Messi recently scored his 90th goal of the calendar year, which has helped Barcelona open a nine-point advantage at the top of the table. However, Martin O’Neill has said that he is not sure whether Barcelona will be the same successful team without the presence of Messi. Due to this reason, he can be known as the talisman of Barcelona. It is the same case with the Dutchman van Persie, who has already scored 15 goals for United this season. His quality was quite clearly evident on the pitch according to O’Neill, who said that it is the same quality that persuaded United to play £ 24 million for a player who had no resell value.

“They are a very talented team, but without him, you don’t know because Messi is their talisman. Absolutely. United have paid close on £30m for a player [£24m] who had just one year left on his contract, so that might tell you how valuable they perceive him. But it’s not just the perception, the reality is that he has been fantastic,” said O’Neill. As a result of this defeat, Sunderland remain close to the relegation zone.