When it comes to missing out on players who have gone on to become superstars, not many football managers can match up to Arsenal coach Arsenal Wenger.
Wenger constantly regales people of how he has missed out on top players, surprisingly the revelations come after they have achieved stardom status at other clubs.
Interestingly the players that have been linked with Arsenal would have made a first 11 team if they had sealed the move.
Or, they would have made Arsenal a formidable prospect, not like they are a small team at the moment, but they probably would have been in the class of Bayern, Barcelona or even Real Madrid.
Some of these players at one point had trials with the Gunners and very close to inking a deal, with the plug pulled from the deal almost at the last minute .
The incident was brought to the fore this past week when Wenger moaned about his failure to sign Angel Di Maria due to work permit issues.
Many years after when they must have started doing exploits elsewhere, Wenger could only but rue the missed opportunities he had.
The list is quite a marquee one, and when examined properly, Arsenal fans can only salivate of what could have been if they had signed these players.
Below we have selected just seven players out of a bulging list that Wenger could have signed.
1) Lionel Messi:
Arsenal were very close to signing Messi from Barcelona, but like the other targets they went for, the Argentine didn’t come.
Wenger himself revealed that Messi was one of the players they earmarked from the La Masia academy alongside Cesc Fabregas, but ended up with the latter.
Even some reports claim that what stopped Arsenal from signing Messi then was a little matter of an apartment.
However Wenger admitted they were in for him: “It’s true, it’s just that he didn’t want to move,” Wenger told reporters. “In the end, he was comfortable at Barcelona.”
2) Angel Di Maria:
Another Argentine Wenger claims he almost signed Di Maria, who was believed to have been on the verge of joining Arsenal but complicated work permit rules saw him move to Benfica then.
From Benfica, he moved to Real Madrid and now in the Premier League with Manchester United.
“We had identified Di Maria when he was 17. We wanted him to come here but he goes to Portugal and from Portugal he goes to Spain. Why? Because he could not get a work permit. That means that he can only come to England once he’s worth a huge amount of money.
“What does it mean if, at the end of the day, he comes into the country anyway, with the only difference being it’s for a huge amount of money? And who do you pay that to? A club like Real Madrid, who don’t need the money.”
3) Zlatan Ibrahimovic:
Although he comes with a lot of wrapped packages, Zlatan is a striker you would want to have in your team.
The Sweden striker has been successful at the clubs he has been at, and very instrumental to their successes.
Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan and now PSG, it has been a success story for Zlatan.
The former Malmo FC player toured Arsenal’s training facilities and posed with the club’s jersey.
On what transpired between him and Arsenal, Zlatan put it this way: “Today, Wenger says it was a misunderstanding. But I didn’t like being asked to prove myself,” he told the Guardian.
“I know I’m good enough. I don’t need to show it to you. Either you know who I am or you don’t. I remember being in Wenger’s office and you could tell he was the boss. It was Wenger. But I don’t think I was so close [to signing]. I went to Ajax the next day.”
4) Didier Drogba:
Owing to the way that the Ivorian hurt Arsenal whenever he played against them, Arsenal’s failure to sign Drogba when they had the opportunity to sign him was a big mistake that haunted them for a long time.
It got to a point that Drogba always scored against Arsenal whenever he lined up against them.
Wenger has immense connections in the French Ligue 1 and ‘almost gets to players there’ before any other coach does.
And he admitted that they watched Drogba a couple of times but could not snap him up.
“We were interested in him when he played in the French Second Division with Le Mans, before he went to Guingamp,” the Frenchman noted. “We went to watch him when he played in Le Mans a couple of times. But it did not happen at the time.”
Drogba went on to Olympique Marseilles before joining Chelsea for a transfer fee of 24million Pounds.
And he found the net 13 times against Arsenal during his first stint at Chelsea, who says it might not be 14 when they clash at the Emirates this season.
5) Yaya Toure:
Many can argue that the reason why Arsenal defeated Manchester City in their last game was because Yaya Toure was away on international duty. Well it can be debated.
Yaya had trials at Arsenal but did not please the Arsenal staff at that time to sign him up, although Wenger refuted this.
With his elder brother, Kolo already playing for Arsenal, Yaya got the opportunity to trial with the Gunners.
And Wenger admitted that not being able to sign him remains one of his regrets on players he missed.
“It’s up at the top,” Wenger said on not being able to sign Toure. “But let’s not forget that Yaya Toure had an agreement with us and it’s not because we did not want to sign him that he went to Ukraine,” he added.
“We had to wait for his passport in Belgium. We have made mistakes, but this was not a mistake. He preferred to go to Metalurh Donetsk because he could go there without a passport.”
6) Juan Mata:
From Valencia to Chelsea and now at Manchester United, it is surprising that the Spaniard didn’t file out for Arsenal despite looking like a deal had been reached.
Mata was said to have reached an agreement with Arsenal, and also the Gunners having met Valencia’s valuation, but he didn’t sign the dotted lines.
Arsenal were a little bit hesitant in signing up Mata, until Chelsea came along and stumped up a few cash to usurp the deal.
What Chelsea offered Mata in wages was more than he had agreed with Arsenal and it was not surprising that he went to another part of London that is not North.
“I don’t have to give a reason,” an angry Wenger said on why nothing came out of the proposed deal for Mata.
7) Cristiano Ronaldo:
Who would have believed that Wenger was very close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo, but somehow it still slipped through them.
Ronaldo just like Drogba, always found a way past Arsenal’s defence and netted goals against them.
The Portuguese has won the Ballon D’Or award three times, imagine if he had done so playing for Arsenal.
Ronaldo was said to have even been presented with his very own Arsenal shirt before the influence of then assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Man United, the Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, made him change his mind. He even stayed with the Gunners for a week having his trials .
“He was very close to coming here,” Wenger said. “He has a number nine shirt with Ronaldo on the back from Arsenal Football Club.”
However, in a new twist why Ronaldo didn’t go to Arsenal, his agent Jorge Mendes in his new biography, claims that Arsenal missed out on Ronaldo because they failed to meet the asking price, and that the amount they could commit was compromised by their move from Highbury to the Emirates.
“There was a moment in which I really thought he was going to Arsenal. David Dein is a spectacular person but, with the construction of their stadium, they were left with very little money and it wasn’t possible,” Mendes said in his book.
Ronaldo on his part, recounted how he made the trip to Arsenal “We were travelling by car and Jorge was calling us constantly telling me to hide so no one would see me. We went to a service station and I had to hide my face. I remember back then that Jorge was going crazy, those were Jorge’s craziest days.”
Source: Nigerianbulletin
