Perry Groves thinks Arsenal still won’t be able to land Kylian Mbappe’s services after he claimed that the France star rejected them when he was a teenager.
Coming through as a wonderkid at Monaco, former Arsenal man Groves has claimed that the London club ‘watched him’ and urged him to join them, but instead, he took the bigger money offer at Paris Saint-Germain, which included opting against joining Real Madrid, as he told talkSPORT.
Fast forward a few years and the 24-year-old is about to get booted out of PSG, amid a falling out with the owners over his desire to join Real Madrid for nothing in 12 months, as reported by Sky Sports.
With the French club willing to let him go this summer, a number of teams across the land have knocked for his services, including Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
Unsurprisingly, they are joined by a host of other Premier League clubs, including his former manager Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea.
But Groves thinks none of those sides will secure his talents because they will simply opt against paying ‘£800k-a-week’ for the forward.
“He is the best player in the world because Messi and Ronaldo have gone past their best,” said Groves. “What clubs realistically would be in for Kylian Mbappe in the Premier League because of the money and FFP? No club is going to pay him, which he would want, £800k-a-week.
“When he was 18. Arsenal had looked at him. They actually went and watched him. They tried to get him to come to Arsenal. Real Madrid wanted him and they sent Zinedine Zidane, who was one of his massive heroes and countryman. They thought ‘Oh, Zidane, he will be our trump card and he will get him’.
“In the end, he went to PSG because PSG paid more money than what Real Madrid offered when he was 18.”
What if with Mbappe…
Even the most ardent of ardent, Arsenal Fan TV-loving of Arsenal fans will admit that they won’t get Mbappe now or in the future.
But what could have been had Arsene Wenger been able to nab his services when he was a teenager?!
That was the best chance many teams had of securing his services because, whilst he now has all this interest, in truth, only Real Madrid will secure his services now.
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