Scroll far enough down the list of the players with a Premier League winner's medal and eventually you find him. He is below David May and Raimond van der Gouw, John Obi Mikel and Joleon Lescott, tied with Clayton Blackmore and Jiri Jarosik, Stefan Savic and Luke Chadwick.
But he is there. Robin van Persie was a champion in 2013. It is the only time he won the title and, as he heads for Fenerbahce, it will remain so. He was an FA Cup-winning substitute in 2005, too, but he only has two major honours to show for his 11 years in England. A man who long voiced his admiration for Ryan Giggs lacks a comparable medal collection.
Look at the leaderboard of Premier League goalscorers and he is inside the top 10. Yet if Alan Shearer's overall record falls, it will be to Wayne Rooney, not Van Persie. Rooney displaced him from the Manchester United team last season. Jermain Defoe could overtake him in the all-time scoring charts inside 18 months. A claim to greatness is being diminished.
And as Van Persie departs, it is with his status up for debate. Does he belong in the Premier League pantheon, alongside Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola and Didier Drogba among the iconic imports, the fearsome forwards who brought goals and class? Or is he in the next tier, with men such as Carlos Tevez, Nicolas Anelka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, those who may be deemed very good but not quite great?
A CV featuring too little silverware suggests the latter. Van Persie had the gift of timing when striking a football, but not in a broader sense.
The enfant terrible who matured into the elder statesman had an unfortunate capacity to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Arsenal emerged from austerity and started spending after Van Persie's sale. United plunged into transition and then turmoil a year after his arrival. Between them, they won 12 trophies in the last 11 years. Van Persie was at the wrong club to pick up 10 of those honours.
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