Holland national manager Danny Blind has confirmed that Robin van Persie and Memphis Depay were involved in a training ground row before the Oranje took on Kazakhstan. Depay started the game, but Van Persie didn’t, although the latter came off the bench to earn his 100th cap. Blind however denied that the bust up was the reason for benching the former Man Utd forward and said that Van Persie’s lack of match fitness saw him miss out on a starting spot.
The Netherlands’ Euro hopes hang by a thread, with the Dutch needing to beat the Czech Republic tonight and hope that Turkey lose their game to Iceland.
It was a discussion during training about a ball that should have been given over. Things like that happen often. There are sometimes situations in training where players think differently. That’s what happened and then it was over
Van Persie is no stranger to arguments though, and this bears an eerie sense of deja vu with his earlier reported fights vs Pierre van Hoojdonk at Feyenoord, when the latter was an ageing veteran and RVP was an emerging star. The roles seem to have been reversed in the RVP Depay case.