Arsene Wenger has revealed his thoughts on one current Arsenal player when he first saw him many years ago.
The legendary Frenchman had an eye for talent like no other. He revolutionised the Premier League with elite foreign signings when he first arrived, and he developed many great players over the years.
Wenger didn’t get too many opportunities to sign young players out of nowhere and turn them into superstars in his final years as Arsenal‘s manager.
However, he did try really hard to sign one current Gunners star before Mikel Arteta even got into management, but no move materialised then.
Arsene Wenger names the Arsenal player who reminded him of Cesc Fabregas
Mikel Arteta has built a terrific squad at Arsenal, hasn’t he?
The Gunners have world-class players in multiple areas of the pitch, and we’re sure Arsene Wenger would’ve loved to manage this group.
The Frenchman had a chance to sign one of our current players many years ago. Wenger has revealed now that he fought ‘like mad’ to get him, but the move failed.
That player was none other than our current captain, Martin Odegaard.
Wenger has revealed that he had the Norwegian at London Colney for training and was really impressed by him, so much so that he reminded him of former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.
Speaking to Freddie Ljungberg on his podcast, Wenger said: “Yeah, (I remember him) very well. We did fight like mad to get him.
“When I got him in a training session, I remember it was Steve Morrow who brought him into training with his father, and he reminded me of Fabregas. Good vision, good technical qualities, at ease with professional players with the first team.
“You could see there was something special there. In the end, he chose to go to Real Madrid.”
Martin Odegaard’s funny story about meeting Arsene Wenger
Martin Odegaard has already spoken about the time he came to Arsenal and met Arsene Wenger.
Almost every big club in the world wanted to sign the Norwegian back when he was a teenager. He was the hottest young prospect in Europe at the time.
Real Madrid got him in the end, but before he chose the Galacticos, Wenger took Odegaard and his dad out for dinner in a bid to convince him to join Arsenal.
In February 2023, the current Arsenal captain revealed what was going through his head when he sat across the table from the legendary Frenchman.
He said: “When we went there, I got to train at London Colney. I met Arsene Wenger. He took me and dad out for dinner. That was cool, but strange too.
“It’s Arsène Wenger, you know? He’s this legend I grew up watching on TV, and now I’m sitting across from him eating steak.
“I was so nervous I was just sitting there thinking, ‘Is he analysing me right now? Is he going to judge me if I eat the fries? Maybe I should just leave them.’ Hahaha!”
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