Top 10 Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger had the chance to sign some great players,but due to some reasons best known to him,he didn’t sign them.So today we will have a look at ‘Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger’.
List of ‘Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger’ are
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10.Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Aged 19 at the time, Zlatan was on the very cusp of joining Arsenal from Malmo for £3 million in 2000, that was until Wenger had the temerity to ask him to play in one – singular – trial match for the club before signing professional papers. Zlatan’s response was “Zlatan doesn’t do auditions”.
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9.Juan Mata
During the summer of 2011, when every last double helix of Cesc Fabregas’ DNA was pulling him Barcelona-ward, it emerged that Arsenal were in a decent old position to bring in Juan Mata to help ease the pain of separation. Arsenal dithered for what seemed like months in their attempts to coax brassic Valencia into selling on the cheap and, sure enough, Chelsea were more than happy to stride in with a big fat cheque for £24 million.
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8.Vincent Kompany
The two-time Premier League winner was almost signed by Arsenal as a youngster from boyhood club Anderlecht. Wenger was keen to find a long-term replacement for Sol Campbell but wasn’t keen on the £5million transfer fee.
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7.Angel Di Maria
It was a timely revelation from the Frenchman, who missed out on Di Maria nine years ago because of work permit restrictions. The Gunners could have scraped together the price of the plane ticket that would have been needed to bring him to north London when he was 17.
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6.Yaya Toure
He was on the club’s radar from an early age only to be declined a work-permit in 2003. Despite featuring in a friendly against Barnet, securing a permit proved tricky work for Arsenal and Wenger’s patience eventually ran out.
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5.Didier Drogba
Wenger once revealed that he had the option of procuring Drogba for as little as £100,000 back in the early 2000s when Drogba was starting out in France with Le Mans: “We watched him carefully but we felt he might not be completely ready,” Wenger said, “It was a mistake to miss him but when you are in football, everyone can understand. Anyway, we had Thierry Henry.With the no. of goals he scored against Arsenal,he would be Wenger’s biggest regret among the ‘Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger’.
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4.Eden Hazard
Hazard was already hot property when he helped Lille clinch Ligue 1 in 2010/11, and followed up his success with 22 goals the following season. Wenger invited Hazard’s agent into his London pad that summer only for Chelsea – Champions League winners that year – to sabotage the deal by offering more money. “Yes, I wanted to take him,” Wenger told BeIN Sports. “I had his agent at my home but again the barrier was financial and Chelsea made an effort that I couldn’t make.”
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3.Cristiano Ronaldo
Perhaps most agonising of all for Gooners, the 3 times Ballon d’Or winner was 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, swayed Ronaldo’s decision. The young winger from Madeira bamboozled United’s defenders to such an extent during a pre-season friendly against Sporting that Gary Neville and co. badgered Fergie to sign him. “He was very close to coming here,” Wenger admitted. “He has a number nine shirt with Ronaldo on the back from Arsenal Football Club.”Its hard to believe that Ronaldo is part of the ‘Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger’ but were eventually not.
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2.Lionel Messi
Gunners scouts not only identified the 15 year-old Argentine alongside Barca rising stars Fabregas and Pique – they even offered him a contract. Needless to say, it didn’t pan out.”It’s true, it’s just that he didn’t want to move,” Wenger told reporters. “In the end, he was comfortable at Barcelona.”He is the biggest name in the list of ‘Players Nearly Signed By Arsene Wenger’.
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1.Samuel Eto
Having left Real Mallorca as their all-time top league goalscorer having only been there for three and a bit seasons, Eto’o was offered to Arsenal in 2004 by Wenger’s own admission.Eto’o had filled newspaper inches during a record-breaking, goal laden spell at Mallorca after being accused of physically assaulting his own agent.Wenger may have decided he was too much trouble, Arsenal eventually dropped out of the race.
Players who missed out on the list – Dimitri Payet,Claude Makelele,Xabi Alonso and many more.
Footballers That Could Have Been Great
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