Arsene Wenger has expressed regrets for missing out on signing Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese winger was close to joining Arsenal in 2003, and was even at Arsenal’s training ground before he joined Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Arsene Wenger said a couple of years ago that the presence of Carlos Quieroz in the Old Trafford outfit managerial team tilted the balance Manchester United’s favour.
The Frenchman finally opened up on the missed opportunity to sign the Ballon’Or winner thus:
“My biggest regret, I was so close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo.”
“And not only did I not get him, but he signed for Manchester United.”
“That, of course, still hurts today.”
With the way the Real Madrid winger’s career has progressed since 2003, it is no wonder that le prof has some regrets that he just missed out on signing him.
However, is Arsene Wenger entirely exempted from the entire missed target spread over several years?
Arsene Wenger has a knack for dithering in transfers, and the list of players that Arsenal has missed out on is numerous. It is such attitude that has cost Arsenal several times in last couple of years.
His refusal to sometimes meet certain demands of targets by displaying a penny pinching attitude has been an albatross in Arsenal’s transfer dealings.
Arsene Wenger was on record on saying in the past in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo, that he could not convince the mother of then 18 year old, which means perhaps the club failed to meet certain demands placed on them.
The missed opportunity to sign Cristiano Ronaldo is just one of the several missed opportunities that the club has experienced not because the said players were not ready to play for the club, but because of the trademark inability of the club to close a transfer deal for reasons none other than dithering, and penny pinching.
It was eleven years ago that Ronaldo’s transfer to North London failed to materialize, yet how about events that played out this summer, and throughout the Emirates era?
The failure to sign a striker last season holds much to dithering and penny pinching that anything else, the same applies to the failure to sign a defensive midfielder or a central defender to replace Thomas Vermaelen.
Arsene Wenger’s regrets on this score is water under the bridge because that boat has long sailed.
The reasons often given for the missed opportunity to sign players in the past was financial constraint, yet, since the much touted escalation of the club’s financial power, nothing has changed, and the status quo of more missed opportunity has continued in no time, the bouts of regrets would only continue to increase because when the list of players that have missed are reeled out, it is enough to become a huge book of records titled missed opportunity.
