You could fill a novel with all the players Arsenal could have, would have and maybe should have signed.
Remember the time a deal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic collapsed after Arsene Wenger had the cheek to ask the precocious young Swede to prove himself first via a brief trial?
A buck-toothed, blond-tipped Cristiano Ronaldo visited the Arsenal training ground not once but twice before becoming a Ballon D’Or winner at Manchester United.
Teenager Gerard Pique, meanwhile, was “inches away” from joining the Gunners before failing to obtain a work permit.
That same fate befell a little-known Argentine whizzkid named Leo. I wonder whatever happened to him?
And Federico Valverde could be about secure his place in the sprawling pantheon of Arsenal’s most wince-inducing near misses.
“Arsenal asked about me when I was with Penarol,” the Uruguay international said in 2019. “I had travelled to practise with them.
“Sharing training with Alexis Sanchez and the fact he came to help me with the language was something very nice.”
The wild-eyed Valverde would join Real Madrid for £4.5 million just a few months later, however. And that is about £852 million less than it would take to lure the dynamic, box-to-box midfielder from the Santiago Bernabeu these days.
- REPORT: £21m star was in London for talks as Arsenal eye bargain
Regrets? Arsenal have had a few. And Federico Valverde, is just one to mention
As reported by Goal, Valverde has been rewarded for his lively start to the Carlo Ancelotti era with a new deal – one that will keep him at the 13-time European Champions until 2027 and raises his release clause to a staggering €1 billion.
Of course, no-one is going to pay even a fraction of that in this climate. Even for Paris Saint-Germain that would be a Financial Fair Play minefield too risky to consider.
But the fact Real Madrid saw fit to double his release clause – and add another two years to his contract – shows just how highly Valverde is rated in the Spanish capital.
“I said he’s going to be one of the best number eights in the world in two years. I think I was wrong, because he’s quickly moving up the ladder,” says Real teammate Casemiro.
“He’s doing a phenomenal job.”
With Toni Kroos and Luka Modric the wrong side of 30, 23-year-old Valverde could soon be tasked with defining a new generation at the Bernabeu. A barnstorming bridge between one era and the next.
As for Arsenal, if anyone ever invents the time machine, expect Mikel Arteta to be at the front of the queue.
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