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If Arsene Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal can be summed up to one thing, it is his track record of signing relatively unknown players and turning them into world scouts.
There were players like Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira, both highly valued, but never at the level they reached with the French.
Thierry Henry was a struggling winger when he arrived at Arsenal, before becoming the deadliest striker in European football.
Then there are names like Cesc Fabregas, Emmaneul Adebayor, Kolo Touré; The list goes on and on.
During his 22 years at the club, Wenger won three Premier League titles, as well as a staggering seven FA Cup winner medals.
But it wasn’t just the players who ultimately signed for Arsenal, which showed Wenger’s foresight in the transfer market. There is a “who’s who” of generational talents who might have joined the Wenger revolution in North London.
Here, Mirror Sport looks at 10 of the best players who could have worn Arsenal’s red during Wenger’s stay …
Lionel messi
Arsenal made a big hit in the summer of 2003, hiring Cesc Fabregas from the famous La Masia academy in Barcelona. But it could have been an even more memorable summer, with Fabregas’ teammate Lionel Messi “tempted” by a move to England.
Wenger admitted that Arsenal were in talks with the diminutive young Argentine but opted to stay in Spain, and former Gunners scout Francis Cagiago revealed that work permit issues blocked the move.
“With Messi, the work permit problems ensured that we couldn’t get as close as we would have liked,” Cagiago explained. And that’s all I can say about it. Many escape, two, three, four a year, but I prefer to look at the ones we got. “
Cristiano Ronaldo
Any of Ronaldo’s three forwards, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp?
Well, it was almost back to 2003, in fact Wenger admitted that the Portuguese sensation even had the Arsenal jersey ready for a transfer.
“Perhaps the closest was Cristiano Ronaldo, when he signed for Man United,” Wenger said earlier this week.
“We had an agreement with Sporting and Man United took Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach, and they quickly surpassed us and took Ronaldo. But basically we had an agreement.
“He had the Arsenal jersey on, I had lunch with him and his mother in training ground!
In the end, he would choose to join Man United … it seemed to work, for everyone but Arsenal.
Gerard Piqué
Like his Barcelona teammates Messi and Fabregas, a young Piqué was in talks about a move to North London in 2003.
Like Messi’s play, it broke down, and the central defender chose to join Manchester United.
It would not be very good for him to return to the Camp Nou in 2008, where he would win all the trophies he had at his disposal.
In a period where Arsenal struggled to recreate their miserable ’90s defense, Piqué is one that still hurts.
Juan Mata |
Arsenal had two bites on the cherry to sign Juan Mata and failed both times.
First, as a young man, Cagiago revealed that they were “very, very close” to signing the Spanish international.
And then when Cesc Fabregas left the club in 2011, Arsenal’s chief negotiator was sent to Spain to close a deal for the then Valencia star.
“Juan definitely wanted to come to Arsenal, there was no doubt about that,” Law explained.
The Gunners would eventually resist his £ 37 million fee, leaving the door open for Chelsea to hire him.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Another player who had the Arsenal jersey, only to not become an Arsenal player.
In fairness to Wenger, the precocious Ibrahimovic was right at the beginning of his career and it would be another three years before he really burst onto the scene with Ajax.
A 17-year-old Zlatan had a trial with the Gunners before failing to sign, but it’s a decision that doesn’t keep Wenger up at night.
When asked if he had any regrets, he said: “Actually, no, because I was a 17-year-old boy who played in Malmo in the second Swedish league. And nobody knew him. We tested many players at 17, it was absolutely normal before making a decision. “
Yaya Touré
Since Patrick Vieira decided to end his illustrious stint at the club, every central midfielder signed since then has been dubbed the “new Vieira.”
But two years before his departure, Arsenal had the opportunity to sign a player who could almost certainly have filled the void.
At just 20 years old, the Ivorian had a test for the Gunners, even playing in a preseason friendly.
Wenger revealed that the club had an agreement with the player, only for him to join Metalurh Donetsk.
N’Golo Kante
Another possible heir to Vieira’s throne, Wenger admitted that he was unable to sign the Frenchman twice, opting instead to bring in Granit Xhaka when Kante traded Leicester for Chelsea.
When asked if he tried to sign him, Wenger replied: “Yes. When I was in France, when I was in Leicester. Then again, I can’t explain everything, but it’s pretty obvious when you look at where it has gone. “
Gianluigi Buffon
Before Buffon moved to Juventus to become the best goalkeeper in the world, the Italian admitted that Arsenal reached out to sign him.
The move came at the end of David Seaman’s historic career with the club and Wenger was unaware of the difficulties he would have in replacing him.
In the years after Seaman’s departure, Jens Lehmann, Manuel Lamunia, Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone, Wojchech Szcezsny, and David Ospina were tried before Petr Cech’s arrival in 2015.
Had they come to terms with young Buffon, it could have made the transition a lot easier.
Vincent Kompany
Arsenal tried to sign the Belgian in 2006, while he was with Anderlecht, only for his agent Jacques Lichtenstein to advise his client not to move.
Lichtenstein said: “I had meetings with Emilio Butragueño at Real Madrid, the club leaders in Barcelona and with Arsene Wenger himself at Arsenal.
“But heading to an absolutely superior club right away was not the right solution because Vincent is someone who feels lonely in an environment where he is not properly valued. Vincent is not a third or fourth option. “
Just two years later, he began an 11-year stint in the Premier League, winning the biggest award four different times.
Didier Drogba
A true sliding door moment for both Arsenal and Wenger. In the youth of Côte d’Ivoire, he had the opportunity to sign the forward for just £ 100,000, he chose not to do so at the time, only to remember his mistake on a regular basis.
“I would have loved to have managed Didier Drogba, for two reasons,” Wenger said.
“One, I missed him when he played at Le Mans in France, not even in the top league. I knew there was a good player there and I missed him.
“And secondly, because he hurt us so much in the big games that all this pain wouldn’t have happened.”
Drogba scored a staggering 13 times in 15 games against Arsenal, and it could have been so different.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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