Arsene Wenger won three Premier League titles, one unbeaten league season and seven FA Cups during his Arsenal reign. Yet the Frenchman’s remarkable record might have been even greater had the club completed more of the high-profile deals that came close.
Here is a remarkable 4-2-3-1 made up of players who were reportedly nearly signed by Arsenal under Wenger.
Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon
The Italian great rejected Arsenal while still at Parma before joining Juventus for €52m in 2001.
“I remember when I was 20 years old in 1998 I had dinner once with Wenger from Arsenal,” Buffon told BT Sport in 2016.
Jens Lehmann and David Seaman served Arsenal well during that period, but supporters would still have loved to see Buffon at Highbury.
Defence: Gerard Pique, Raphael Varane, Vincent Kompany and Gareth Bale
Pique is not a conventional right-back, but Wenger said he wanted to sign the future Barcelona defender when he brought Cesc Fabregas to Highbury.
“We wanted to take [Cesc] Fabregas, [Lionel] Messi and Pique. It worked only for Fabregas,” Wenger told Sport.es.
Pique later joined Manchester United before returning to Barcelona after four years in England, where he went on to enjoy a highly successful second spell.
Wenger also identified Varane at Lens, although Arsenal failed to act.
“He was at Lens, and we might well have caught him there,” Wenger wrote for Eurosport. “Yet at the same time, when you are in charge of a club like Arsenal, you have to wonder why this player is not playing for us.”
Kompany was considered as a possible replacement for Sol Campbell in 2006, but Hamburg won the race for his signature. His agent, Jacques Lichtenstein, said Wenger had met him, as had officials from Real Madrid and Barcelona, but the defender eventually spent two years in Germany before moving to Manchester City, where he won four league titles.
Bale began as a left-back, but Arsenal decided against signing him because Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy were already at the club.
“We didn’t take him as we had Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy and didn’t want another left-back,” Wenger said. “I must confess it was a huge mistake.”
Midfield: Claude Makelele, Yaya Toure
Makelele nearly joined Arsenal in 1996, shortly after Patrick Vieira arrived from Nantes.
“Claude Makelele was close to signing for us, Samuel Eto’o too. I missed a few,” Wenger told the Independent in 2006.
Toure even had a trial with Arsenal and played in a pre-season friendly against Barnet, but the move did not happen. Wenger said it was one of his biggest regrets, although Toure preferred to join Metalurh Donetsk while Arsenal waited for his Belgian passport.
Toure later won three Premier League titles, two La Liga titles and the Champions League with Barcelona and Manchester City.
Attack: Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe
Wenger hoped to take Messi from La Masia, but Barcelona were unwilling to sell and the young Argentine was comfortable in his new home.
“I think in the end he was not so keen to move,” Wenger said in 2014. “It was not completely down to a flat in the end, it was down to the fact that Messi was comfortable at Barcelona.”
Ronaldinho was another near miss. Wenger met the Brazilian’s brother and agent before his move to Paris Saint-Germain, but work-permit rules prevented a transfer because he had not played enough games for Brazil.
Ronaldo visited Arsenal with his mother, but Manchester United intervened after he impressed against Sporting Lisbon.
“You could imagine at the time what it would have been like to have Thierry Henry and Ronaldo together,” Wenger said in 2018. “That would certainly have changed a little bit the history of my stay here as well.”
Wenger also tried to sign Mbappe for free from Monaco.
“He could have come to Arsenal for free,” Wenger told beIN Sports. “I would say every club is full of histories like that.”
Other players linked with Arsenal included Xabi Alonso, N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Eden Hazard, Angel Di Maria, Karim Benzema, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o and Luis Suarez.
