Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

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Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby CrimsonGunner11 » Fri Feb 03, 2017 3:59 pm

The Arsenal XI that Arsene Wenger COULD have signed - featuring Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Arsene Wenger has revealed he could have signed N'Golo Kante - but the Chelsea ace is just one of many stars who ALMOST joined The Gunners

It's news that will have Arsenal fans shaking their heads, shrugging their shoulders and generally wondering why they bother.

Arsene Wenger had admitted that he looked into signing Leicester City's Premier League title winner N'Golo Kante last summer, only to be beaten to him by Chelsea.

Kante has gone on to be one of the players of this Premier League season, and a vital cog in Chelsea's engine room.

And speaking ahead of his side's trip to Stamford Bridge this weekend, the Arsenal boss confirmed that he has twice tried to sign his fellow countryman.

“Yes," said Wenger. "When he was in France, when he was at Leicester. Then again, I cannot explain everything but it's quite obvious when you look where he’s gone.

So, Arsenal could have had one of the Premier League's finest players on their books - but the boss missed out on him.

And if you think that might get that might outrage the Wenger Out Brigade, just wait until they see the below. An entire team of superstars who oh-so-NEARLY signed for the red half of North London… but didn't.

Gianluigi Buffon
The Italian legend was linked with a move to north London after declaring his desire to join the club if Juventus were to show him the door. A deal never materialised and the Gooners were stuck with Manuel Almunia.

Gerard Pique
It's reported the Barcelona defender was a failed work-permit away from joining the Gooners with fellow Spaniard Cesc Fabregas. Arsenal signed young defender Philippe Senderos instead. Smart.

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. FYI, Johan Djourou made 30 appearances that season.

Roberto Carlos
The Brazilian legend revealed that joining the Gooners would be a 'dream', claiming that he wanted a move to the Emirates once his contract at Real Madrid had expired - he signed for Turkish side Fenerbahçe instead. Fortunately, the Arsenal faithful were later treated to the man dubbed the 'new Roberto Carlos'. You remember Andre Santos, right?

Cristiano Ronaldo
The story goes a young Ronaldo was shown around London Colney and given an Arsenal jersey with his name on the back. A £4million deal with Sporting Lisbon was agreed, only for Sporting to host Manchester United in a friendly. Ronaldo tore the United defence apart, Sir Alex Ferguson was impressed… and Arsenal never got their man.

Yaya Toure
He was on the club's radar from a 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. As it has done many times against Man City in recent years.

Xabi Alonso
With Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez hoping to lure Gareth Barry to Merseyside, Alonso's feared his Liverpool career was over, Alonso headed to London hoping to secure a £15million transfer. The Barry move apparently fell through… and Mikel Arteta now plays for Arsenal.

Angel Di Maria
Arsenal fans knew their club could never have matched the £59.7m Man United spent on the Argentinian midfielder. Still, even 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. Pesky work permits, eh?

Lionel Messi
According to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, 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. Stop laughing, Spurs fans.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan was on the verge of a £3million move from Malmo, back when he was 19. All was going to plan until Wenger asked him to play in a trial match. The Swede replied with: "Zlatan doesn't do auditions.'' Arsenal signed current West Ham full-back Guy Demel instead - back in the days when he thought he was a striker.

Didier Drogba
Wenger claims that he could have signed the Ivorian for as little as £100,000 way back his Le Mans days. After watching the Chelsea hero on numerous occasions, the Arsenal manager didn't feel Drogba was ready for a club of Arsenal's stature. So that worked out well...

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Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/a ... ng-4455482
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby CrimsonGunner11 » Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:01 pm

On Wenger's quote about trying to sign Kante:
“Yes. When he was in France, when he was at Leicester. Then again, I cannot explain everything but it's quite obvious when you look where he’s gone."


I'm assuming the reason Wenger is referring to is money and if this is the case then Wenger and the club have no one to blame but themselves.

According to one report, Chelsea got Kante for 30 million at 110 per week. Assuming this is true and unless Chelsea were prepared to outbid every offer we put on the table, we should have easily been able to afford that.
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Havertz
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby rammixp » Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:10 pm

We always tried to sign the world class player! (kante really pisses me off)

f**k off! Why does he even talk! idiot!
Last edited by rammixp on Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Cripps » Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:11 pm

Why couldn't the likes of Giroud and Xhaka be on this list?

Would love it if we tried to sign them and failed
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Fri Feb 03, 2017 11:50 pm

Cripps wrote:Why couldn't the likes of Giroud and Xhaka be on this list?

Would love it if we tried to sign them and failed


No one else wanted them.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Cripps » Fri Feb 03, 2017 11:52 pm

Yup. Which says it all
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby MecurialGooner » Sat Feb 04, 2017 8:22 am

He's tried to sign damn near everybody...what a mark of failure.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby KG3 » Sat Feb 04, 2017 8:32 am

All of those players wouldn't have reached their full potential under Wenger.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Santi » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:28 am

having a young ronaldo when we still had the likes of henry n co knocking about would've been insane. United would've been shit without him and we'd have dominated the league for a few years.

plus the bastard wouldn't have knocked us out the CL
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Angelito » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:40 am

Mesüt wrote:having a young ronaldo when we still had the likes of henry n co knocking about would've been insane. United would've been shit without him and we'd have dominated the league for a few years.

plus the bastard wouldn't have knocked us out the CL


We'd have won the League in 2008, and probs the final would have been Arsenal vs Barca in 2009. We'd still have lost though.

And, we'd have sold Ronaldo for £50m to Real instead of the £80m that Real paid to get him. Or, even worse, we may have sold Ronaldo for £40m to Barca.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Nuggets » Sat Feb 04, 2017 3:21 pm

Thats why we are the nearly team.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby CrimsonGunner11 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:59 pm

Arsene Wenger reveals Luis Suarez “agreed” to join Arsenal in 2013 - and why they bid £40,000,001

Wenger has recalled one of the most famous transfer sagas in football history when Arsenal tried to sign Suarez from Liverpool in the summer of 2013

Arsene Wenger has revealed Luis Suarez “agreed” to join Arsenal - and why they bid £40,000,001.

Wenger has recalled one of the most famous transfer sagas in football history when Arsenal tried to sign Suarez from Liverpool in the summer of 2013.

Liverpool owner John Henry publicly mocked Arsenal for making the extraordinary offer with an extra £1 to activate a clause with his infamous tweet “What are they smoking over there at the Emirates?”

But Wenger, in an interview with beIN Sports, insists that Suarez wanted to move to Arsenal and a deal had been done and challenged anyone to ask Suarez who joined Barcelona a year later.

Wenger said: “He was very close (to signing for Arsenal). We had an agreement with the player. We had been wrongly advised that he had a clause, with a minimal clause, but we had an agreement with the player. You can ask him.

“I'm convinced he wanted to join us and then they sold him. They kept him one more year, improved his contract and promised to sell him the year later to a club abroad."

Wenger also praised Suarez’s behaviour in recent times after cleaning up his act following several high profile storms, including his biting shame.

When asked on his previous behaviour, Wenger added: “It's not normal. You cannot accept that. He had some behaviours that were shocking but I think as well you don't see them anymore since two, three years.

“He got rid of all the things that were a handicap for him and today you don't see that anymore. He's still on borderline with what the strikers do well, you know, go down in the penalty box but you want that from an intelligent striker.

“Overall I think he got rid of all the rest and rightly so and he deserved to be punished before and now you don't even expect it anymore from him."​


Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... z-10089995


Liverpool legend Xabi Alonso makes stunning Arsenal transfer claim

ARSENAL missed out on signing Xabi Alonso because they refused to stump up the extra £3m on their transfer offer.

That’s according to the man himself, who recently opened up over his Liverpool exit.

Despite his status at Anfield, then manager Rafa Benitez decided to try and bring in Gareth Barry at the expense of the Spaniard in the summer of 2008.

And although that deal fell through, Alonso ended up quitting Liverpool the year after and signing for Real Madrid, going on to win a second Champions League with the La Liga giants.

But he’s revealed he could have ended up staying in the Premier League.

And the Gunners could have been the club to secure his talents had they been willing to spend a little more.

“I was really close to Juventus and I was close to Arsenal”, he told the Liverpool Echo.

“But, it was just £3m. Liverpool were asking £18m and both offered £15m – so that’s why it didn’t happen”.

In the summer of 2008 Arsenal ended up splurging £27m on Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri rather than the £18m it would have taken to land Alonso and he ended up staying at Anfield for a final season.

And the move worked out well for Liverpool, as Alonso ended up signing for Madrid for £30m, £12m more than they originally asked for.


Source: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/footba ... or-Gunners
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Santi » Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:08 pm

so annoying some of these class players we've skimped out on to sign the likes of f***ing chambers and gervinho.
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby BayernManiac12 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 10:48 pm

When Hazard was at Lille my gooner friend was pretty much calling it a guarantee, there faces we're priceless![emoji23]
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Re: Players Arsenal Nearly Signed

Postby Arsenal Tone » Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:13 am

Wenger would probably have put drogba on the wing 'for his development', used Alonso as a CB 'to start build up play' and played Christiano Ronaldo as a lone striker. Hazard would probably have been used as a Santi type deep lying playmaker too! :grin:
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