Arsene Wenger will still regret the day he narrowly missed out on signing Eden Hazard for Arsenal all the way back in 2012.
That’s off the back of Hazard announcing his retirement from football today.
Hazard spent his prime years at Chelsea after his signing for the club from Lille for a fee of £32m.
But since then, Wenger has revealed just how close Arsenal were to tempting Hazard to the Emirates.
Wenger revealed that Hazard’s agent was actually at this home prior to the move and it was only finances that saw Arsenal miss out.
The Arsenal legend was confident at the time that Hazard would go on to reach the levels of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronalo.
Moreover, whilst that wasn’t quite the case, some of his years in the Premier League did come close.
And both Wenger and Arsenal fans must rue the day they missed out on Hazard, a player who may have helped populate the trophy cabinet further.
Of course, it’s easy to now draw parallels to that move today.
Wenger thought Hazard could be world class at Arsenal
Whilst he’s probably not got the potential of Hazard, Mikel Arteta may be very keen not to miss out on Pedro Neto.
Arsenal are said to hold long-term interest in the winger and may make a move in windows to come.
And it’s actually a current Arsenal player that Manchester United will be ruining their missed opportunity over.
It was revealed in The Athletic today that United passed on the chance to sign Gabriel Martinelli despite multiple trials.
A decision that looks baffling right now.
Arsenal and Wenger did want Hazard, they were just gazumped by money elsewhere.
But if they had passed on the ‘superstar’, it would be a whole different story.
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