Arsenal fans have been left upset after Wilfried Zaha revealed just how close he once came to signing for the club on the Greatest Game podcast.
Zaha said that he had told Unai Emery that he was ready to sign for Arsenal during the Spaniard’s time at the club.
However, Arsenal went in a different direction and ultimately opted to snap up Nicolas Pepe from Lille instead.
He said: “I had a conversation with the manager. [Unai] Emery was just like, “We don’t really need to go through much”.
“He said he’d seen me play, he knows I can change games at any time and stuff like that.
“He was like, ‘Yeah we’d love to have you’ and I was just like, ‘yeah I’d love to come’.
“The conversation was rather straightforward because I played against him when he was manager of Arsenal.
“He saw what I could do, saw my work-rate, and what I could add to the team.
“Obviously, it was up to the club who they chose and they chose Pepe over me.”
Arsenal’s decision to chose Pepe over Zaha is yet to really be vindicated.
The Ivorian has struggled to produce on a consistent basis since his move to the Emirates Stadium, and is no longer even a regular starter.
Zaha, on the other hand, has continued to impress in a Crystal Palace shirt.
And many Arsenal fans were left wondering what might have been after the £50 million-rated winger’s latest comments (Daily Star).
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