Over the years, Arsenal have tried and failed to sign a number of players, from Didier Drogba to Cristiano Ronaldo, some of football’s best players have been close to joining the Gunners. David Villa can now be added to that list after the Spain international came out and revealed he too was close to wearing the famous red and white.
In an interview with BBC’s Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, the former Barcelona forward, now 38, confirmed that he was ‘90% certain’ he would moveg to north London in 2013. Arsene Wenger then confirmed at the time that the Catalan giants didn’t want to sell the player and a move collapsed. However, Villa would go on to move to Atletico Madrid just six months later, where he would win La Liga and reach the Champions League final in 2014.
After Spain’s record goalscorer came out and confirmed he was close to joining, some Arsenal fans took to Twitter to lash out at their legendary manager. Here are some of the replies:
Those days Wenger was penny pinching. Imagine the number of world class players we would have had.
— Tee (@LuxyTee) February 26, 2020
Wenger wasted his career. Arsenal had the cash reserves to building a title winning side betweem 2008 and 2015. Sad we wasted it on piece-meal deals
— Giglio 🇮🇹 (@Arsenalsmania) February 26, 2020
Classic Wenger …always dragging over negotiations.. In the end we loose top players and settle for the avg/injury prone one, when then leave the club after excruciating years of keeping faith with them.
— mygoonerbook (@mygoonerbook) February 26, 2020
What a joke!
Unbelievable player and still had a lot to give
— Jason (@JasonJhuti) February 26, 2020
Wenger just never wanted serious competition for average Giroud.
Prime Higuain, Suarez, Ba and even Villa all wanted to play for Arsenal. Somehow foolish reasons kept denying such moves from going through. Any of the aforementioned names would have won us the league back then.— Mankind 👑👑 (@nna_amadi) February 27, 2020
How many deals did wenger bottle man. honestly believe he held us back post 2008 with his own imaginary market value https://t.co/CHLhexrzBq
— birrdcatcher (@vickhaverford) February 27, 2020
I’ll always say it, Wenger did more harm than good. He had the reserves to build a formidable team but he didn’t want to spend. He’s better off at BEin sports discussing tactics he never implemented. https://t.co/zBrUnM1O4Y
— call me 16! (@Josh__IK) February 27, 2020
Arsenal fans, do you think the club would’ve won more trophies if Villa joined the team? Let us know your thoughts below!
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