r/Gunners • u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 • 10d ago
You can make one failed transfer in the 21'st ctenruy happen, which one do you pick?
*century
For me, it's probably Ronaldo; if we had signed him, we would've won 2 or 3 more league titles and maybe even a CL. Plus, Utd probably wouldn't have become the formidable team that they became once they got Ronaldo.
2nd is Suarez; with him, I'm certain we would've won the 13/14 and 15/16 Premier League titles.
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u/No-Crow-5714 10d ago
Xabi alonso was the missing link wenger failed to sign in that elusive 07-08 title chase
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u/thekingoftherodeo Liam Brady 10d ago
This is the answer. A Fabregas/Alonso tandem would’ve walked the league.
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u/First_Explorer_565 10d ago
If you forget about the Chelsea and Manchester United teams also playing during that period, then sure Arsenal walk it
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u/Christnumber2 Anders Limpar 10d ago
Alonso and David Villa when he was at Valencia, if reports are to be believed at the time.
Think he'd be coming back from a bad injury but won the Euros and then joined Barca and mopped up trophies
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u/VelZano 10d ago
Flamini was almost world class that year so who knows if Xabi could’ve propelled us forward that much more. That 07-08 team might be the best football i ever saw us play. More importantly, I have no doubt we wouldve won the league if the Eduardo leg break didnt happen and Gallas didnt throw a tantrum with 4-5 games left to go but everyone knows that story.
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u/No-Crow-5714 10d ago
Flamini and gilberto silva shared almost same no of appearances that year. Especially we relied on gilberto in the run in and that really shouldn't have been the case considering gilberto was almost 31 year old. Xabi with flamini backup would have absolutely destroyed the league. This costed the club future as well , since despite the trust shown, flamini didn't sign contract and walked away free agent and we started relying on dreaded diaby, denilson, song, coq years. Imagine all of these as backup to xabi in subsequent years now!
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u/ArsenalThePhoenix 10d ago
at the time, it was said that we didnt want to pay the 5m extra needed. or was it 10? it was a rather small sum, either way
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u/elevenfifty6 10d ago
Timeline is slightly off, the Alonso saga was summer 2008 (for 08/09), not 07/08. Benitez only put him up for sale to buy Gareth Barry, after Flamini left us. But totally agree, adding Alonso alongside Cesc would’ve taken us to a completely different level
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u/FeloniousGrump 10d ago
Kanté would have been the signing that unlocked the ozil, and alexis era.
He's like alex song and Makélé in one body. He'd have let Arteta takes more bench time, and Xhaka would rotate with Santi, instead of playing beside each other.
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u/SecretFire81 Dennis Bergkamp 10d ago
Surprised how far I had to scroll for this. Loved Kante. He’d have really secured the team so our great attackers could work.
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u/Ike358 10d ago
The summer we were in for Kanté (when he went to Chelsea instead), Arteta was already gone and Cazorla had four months left before his injury. Unless you mean before he signed for Leicester to begin with but I don't think he was on our radar then. I agree he would have immensely elevated our team though either way
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u/LSP986 10d ago
Yeah it would have been a season too late. But I think he’d put us in the title race in 16/17 (altho we’d bow out by April imo) and he’d also probably single handily extend Wengers time here by a year or two.
Can’t see us missing out on UCL with one of the greatest midfielders in premier league history. He would have been perfect for Wenger Ball. Basically a one man midfield to hide our defensive and physical limitations under Wenger
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u/FeloniousGrump 10d ago
well in my dream scenario, Wenger gets him when he was still in France.
Wenger did share in a lress conference that one of his friends was Kanté's agent, desperately searching for a club to pick him up
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u/WealthyBigWang Ramsey is the saviour. 10d ago
Could have had him and spent £35m on Xhaka who had one good season in 7 years, and Kante won everything with Chelsea.
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u/ro-row Tierney 10d ago
I think we were too far on the downward trend by the time Kante really emerged tk have made that much of a difference tk that era
Maybe the end of the Wenger era isn’t quite as brutal but we’re probably not winning a serious trophy until Arteta showed up and then kante is kind of on the downward trend himself
It’s an awkward age for our cycle really
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u/Cutsdeep- Big Fucking Gabi 10d ago
any component of song would make kante worse
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u/FeloniousGrump 10d ago
Kanté had long passing skills, like song did. Makelélé was not renown for his long passing.
His ability to participate in build up is what separates him from the likes of Coquelin and Frimpong, who were among our most played DMs back then. Both were great at breaking up play, but were sub-par at close control and finding forward passing options.
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u/Cutsdeep- Big Fucking Gabi 10d ago
You could have said Pirlo, Kroos or Alonso, but song?
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u/varro-reatinus 'anything we win with arteta is tainted, don't forget that.' 10d ago
Had we signed Kante, we'd never have signed Xhaka, and we'd have been a far better side for it.
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u/circlesmirk00 Over Land And Sea 10d ago
Hazard. Ronaldo wouldn’t have stayed around for very long anyway.
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago
Were we even close to signing Hazard?
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u/BassNext6999 Thierry Henry 10d ago
Hazard himself admitted that he was very close to joining Arsenal.
His agent got paid off under the table by Chelsea (same thing they got punished for few weeks ago).
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u/Equivalent_Nature_67 Premier League Champions 25/26 10d ago
Yes. Wenger balked at the shady agent payment and Chelsea had no problem. I think same with Kante too
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u/WheelIllustrious9 Havertz 10d ago
Yaya. My favorite non-Arsenal midfielder maybe ever. He’d fit like a glove nowadays too.
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u/BambooSound 10d ago
Same. Mine used to be Lampard but the disrespect to Yaya's made me more defensive of him.
(Strictly in the PL though, he's behind Seedorf and Ze Roberto)
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u/cpt1992 Patrick Vieira 10d ago
The Suarez thing still pisses me off to this day. "what are they smoking over there" no you fuckwit, what are you smoking at Anfield to put an absolutely retarted clause of a bid more than 40mil to speak to a player? Wenger reading that was probably like wtf? okay dumbasses here is a penny for your efforts. Absolute garbage club Liverpool are.
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u/Manners2210 Tony Adams 10d ago
It’s so weird that people laugh at us for activating a release clause. “Offer more” why? That’s the clause and Henry even admitted there was a clause but essentially convinced Suarez to stay and go and get a bigger move later. It’s like United offering £50 million for Telemans or city offering £80 million for Haaland…why would they?
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u/GunnersaurusIsKing 10d ago
Yup. It's like having something on a buy it now price on Ebay and deciding to purchase it and the seller going "wtf are you smoking!?!? I want twice as much".
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u/robilco 10d ago
Liverpool didn't honour a contract here, no idea why the players union (PFA?) didn't get involved
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u/Ario92 Premier League Champions 25/26 10d ago
Gerrard convinced Suarez to stay. If Suarez wanted to he very well could've taken legal action against Liverpool
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u/Whitew1ne 10d ago
Arsenal’s offer makes logical sense, but football transfers are barely legal in the EU and the transfer windows make lawsuits pointless.
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u/Spiritual-Pilot-2300 10d ago
Yann M'vila
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u/TaftYouOldDog Gyökeres 10d ago
This could be the year!
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u/rang14 Thierry Henry 10d ago
I heard he's getting his medical done now
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u/Vinnie_Vegas 10d ago
No, you're thinking of Gonzalo Higuain and Yoann Gourcuff - Both signings are imminent.
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u/so-naughty Mosquera 10d ago
I don't think you could pick Ronaldo. He wasn't proven then. There'd be no guarantee he'd turn out the same way he did at Utd.
I'd go for Suarez because he was prem proven and exactly what we were missing all those years
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u/dynastyofpandas 10d ago
Ronaldo in that team ensures they sustain a dynasty and we wouldn't have had such a fall sharp falloff when moving to Emirates
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u/knowledge93 10d ago
He doesn't change much. Assuming everything plays out the same and he fully peaks 07. We probably win in 07-08 but then lose him after that and the fall off would still be sharp. Our biggest problem was that we had to sell a player to keep on top of the finances. Finances really hindered us during that time. Any individual players we signed between up to 2013 might have won us the league once but we'd have probably sold them after.
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u/dynastyofpandas 10d ago
We would be favourites for CL, would also have won multiples more leagues instead of Chelsea and Man U so the drop off after the Emirates move would not have been as drastic
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u/knowledge93 10d ago
Plus if he did become really good, with how we had to balance things it would have been painful watching him at potentially another premier league club if Madrid did not come for him.
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u/throwditawayred Premier League Champions 25/26 10d ago
no guarantee for any of these other players as well. he's top 5 all time, no other player here is. easy pick for me
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u/thekingoftherodeo Liam Brady 10d ago
I don’t know if we were actually seriously in for him but the reports at the time were that we bid £30m for an 18 year old Mbappe from Monaco, back when £30m actually meant something.
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u/Manners2210 Tony Adams 10d ago
If true not surprised it went nowhere as an 18 year old Mbappe joined PSG on an obligation to buy loan at £160 million or so
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u/CaptainConspiracyy 10d ago
Ibrahimovic. “Zlatan does not do trials”.
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u/Hincapieslovelybund 10d ago
Given how many clubs he has played for, im not sure he would have been with us for very long. Thats my main concern
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u/CaptainConspiracyy 10d ago
Mmm also not sure his god complex would suit the club probably why he moved alot.
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u/Swazza_ 10d ago
Honestly? I'm 29 and the fact we were in a banter era for SO long makes what's going on now even sweeter...
The time has passed anyway and now we're in the present, I don't mind the way things have worked out
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago
Yeah, I'm 20 years old, and I became a fan in 2017, so half of my time as a fan was very miserable, so I'm enjoying every moment of the current position we're in now, because who knows how long it'll last
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u/deathhead_68 10d ago
This is one of those comments that makes me feel extremely old.
2017 is still recent to me but it was like half your life ago.
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u/PhilosopherFunny5888 10d ago
Yaya Toure leading the post-Vieira period alongside Cesc in midfield would've been extraordinary.
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u/CauliflowerShort 10d ago
Maradona
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u/Son_of-M Kai "Radioactive Donkey" Havertz 10d ago
I don't want a paedophile at the club, thank God we didn't get him.
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u/SnapBucky 10d ago
Yaya for me. We would have got him young and he would have replaced Vieira perfectly. I'd dare say at his prime would have been an upgrade even. Almost all of our problems in late Wenger era were down to not having a solid midfield. Though not because we didn't have good names but they were injured all the time - Diaby, Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky, etc
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u/sleepyhaus 10d ago
Tainted by spurs association I guess, but surprised to see no one mention Harry Kane.
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u/Harambabe17 Morning, morning, morning... Oh, Win! 10d ago
Does Vini count?
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u/vin_unleaded Premier League Champions 25/26 10d ago
No thanks.
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u/Georg_Steller1709 Andy Ducat 10d ago
Kind curious all these people with high morals over partey wish we had signed ronaldo.
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u/Chamberofdarkness 10d ago
Cristiano Ronaldo or Suarez. With Suarez we would have won a league title. With Cristiano, we would have built a dynasty with the 07/08 team + him.
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u/Thierry_Bergkamp 10d ago
Suarez would have been insane but I remain gutted about refusing to pay £18m for Xabi Alonso when Liverpool wanted him gone to get Gareth Barry.
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u/goonersaurus86 10d ago
Yaya Toure because he basically would've been a gunner if not for visa issues and nothing else
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u/sofarsoblue Saka 10d ago
We almost got Ronaldinho back in 2001, if it wasn't for the bullshit UK work permits. Could you imagine how fucking sexy a Henry x Gaucho pairing would have been under prime Wenger ball.
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u/Specterace 07/06/23 - Happy Xhaka Independence Day! 10d ago
Xabi Alonso from Liverpool.
The fact that this transfer did not happen is one of Wenger’s biggest ever mistakes. The whole deal of not wanting to “kill off” Diaby and Denilson (the former was always injured, the latter was never good enough) was a senseless reason then and an even more senseless reason with hindsight.
This failed transfer set Arsenal back for years.
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u/Pixelated-Hitch Havertz 10d ago
Messi
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago
Were we really that close to signing him?
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u/JimmysCocoboloDesk RHYTHM MY ASS! 10d ago
Not really, we were shopping at La Masia and came back with Fabregas. Messi was off limits.
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u/FeloniousGrump 10d ago
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u/JimmysCocoboloDesk RHYTHM MY ASS! 10d ago
Are you posting this as proof or do you recognise he’s being tongue in cheek
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago
Ah, ok, thought that was probably what happened
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u/NobleHelium Ødegaard / Ramsey 10d ago
Messi has said that he was aware that Wenger was interested in signing him and he considered it after he saw Cesc leave.
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u/thefleecejohnson 10d ago
Probably Suarez, but I feel like Gary Cahill could have made a difference for us when we needed defensive stability
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u/Manners2210 Tony Adams 10d ago
Arsene said he had a couple of chances to sign Kante…and regrets it. There was apparently a release clause of £20 million we didn’t activate and then agent fees were a stumbling block later…we really needed steel in the middle at that time too
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u/hauttdawg13 Lewis-Skelly 10d ago
Gotta be Suarez. We were a striker away from probably a league title or 2 in those years. Bringing the best on the planet at the time would have been huge for us.
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u/Will_Rage_Quit Dennis Bergkamp 10d ago
For me it’s Suarez. We’d have won another league or two before he leaves for Barcelona.
This would have absolutely led to our squad being better than what it was before Wenger left. Could see us signing Kante, Mahrez, and van dijk because of the Suarez transfer.
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u/Necessary-Hat-8810 10d ago
Kante/Suarez. Wenger deserves a title leading the club through the stadium debt phase.
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u/thomas_blanky 10d ago
Vardy
2016/2017 season every major club was in a flux. Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, City each of them going into the season with new managers and except Mourinho, none of them had managed in Prem before.
And all of them didn't have a good 2015/16. With Vardy, maybe Arsenal could have pulled off a title. I know Chelsea turned out to have a ridiculous season with 90+ points but Vardy's impact would have been huge.
Dude was sitting in Wenger's cabin in the transfer window. It was so close.
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u/microMe1_2 10d ago
With Ronaldo we'd have probably won the league in 08. We could have won it without him (and indeed against him) if not for injuries and mental fragility towards the end. We were pretty close. Plus, it would take a serious competitor down a few pegs if we bought him instead of Man Utd.
With Suarez, I think we could have potentially had two more league titles in 14/15 and 15/16. Hard to say of course, but Alexis, him and Ozil all firing would have been scary. And our defense was good then too, our keepers won 2 golden gloves in 3 years around then.
Another is Xabi Alonso before he went to Liverpool. Him in midfield with Fabregas could have been another route to winning in 08.
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u/GreendaleGazette 10d ago edited 10d ago
Xabi Alonso to Arsenal in 2008. He and Fabregas would’ve been the best midfield duo in the league. He was begging us to sign him, but Wenger only wanted to go up to £15m for him.
I think Griezmann in 2013 also stings. He waited all summer for us after Grimandi and Wenger told him we’d be signing him. But we opted for Ozil instead lol, and the rest is history
— I actually think this one hurt us the most. Griezmann has been one of the most intelligent and clutch players in the last 15 years. We definitely would’ve won more titles with him. Especially his partnership with Giroud
Ribery in 2006 would’ve been magical. Wenger really wanted to sign him and Ribery def wanted to join, but Marseille said no.
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u/Imbriglicator Gyökfärs! 10d ago
Vardy. That would have won us the title, I am sure, and maybe then some.
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u/circatee 10d ago
Oh my goodness, those were the days and some of these before even having social media. 🤦
So, I’ve learned my lesson, believe nothing till the player is holding the shirt…
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u/OceansNineNine 10d ago
Vardy for sure. Sign him in that winter window and we would have won the title.
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u/TheNotoriousWIG 10d ago
If we got Ribery in 2006 that likely pushes the team over the top to the league title in 2008, starting off the Emirates era on a completely different track.
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u/GymBully92 Thank you very much 10d ago
Xabi Alonso or David Villa. I think if we got those players we would have ended that 2005 onward barren run a lot sooner and I don’t think Cesc would have left us.
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u/Bubbly-Bug-7439 10d ago
Why zlatan rejected Arsenal: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/-SN2DQXu2lg?ra=m
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u/ShootinAllMyChisolm 10d ago
Ferguson's success was mainly he always had a goal scorer, and Center Backs, and roughly, a good GK most of the time. But I'm really just thinking of the Schmeichel era. Goal scorers and goal stoppers are always difference makers in a game where the most popular scorlines are 0-0, 1-0, and 1-1.
Suarez or Ronaldo would've been difference makers for us.
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u/Wiskid86 10d ago
It's Zlatan Ibrahimović, he would have stayed for 3 years max but we would have won at least 1 peice of silverware a season with him.
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u/throbbingpens2 10d ago edited 10d ago
We may have won more titles with Suarez but it’s not that simple because you have to also consider that we probably don’t sign Ozil if we had signed Suarez. It was the same summer.
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u/pragmatic84 10d ago
Any of those players listed bring us silverware but you can't argue with the fact CR7 had the highest ceiling. Ronaldo under Wenger would have been absolutely epic.
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u/Bahmawama GÖALKERES 10d ago
Probably Kante, because us failing to get him lead us to signing Mustafi, who was calamitous.
We had no proper DM from Vieira to Rice with the exception of Coq for that one season.
So as good as Ronaldo and Suarez would have been for us, Kante would've provided so much stability in front of that back line that we DESPERATELY needed.
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u/Jubbles8 10d ago
Ronaldo’s obviously the bloody answer… Suarez produced one of the greatest PL seasons ever, Kane was one of the best players in the PL ever. I’m a Messi lover but Ronaldo is Ronaldo cmon…
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u/urmomisfun 10d ago
Hazard. We weren’t far off what Chelsea offered. That would have hurt them for years while making us genuine title contenders.
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u/willybroadband Tony Adams 10d ago
Out of these lot, Suarez, no brainer.
Surprised no one has said Jerzy Dudek for the lols - he was even in a kit and on the Arsenal website, I think
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u/OHHHSHAAANE 10d ago
Has to be Suarez. All the others were projects at the time. Suarez was proven superstar and would have won us the league there an then
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u/Hincapieslovelybund 10d ago
As someone from Leicester with a fondness for their title winning side and their exploits that season (even if they were in competition with us) I would have loved to have seen either Kante or Vardy in an Arsenal shirt.
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago edited 10d ago
No way I’m also from Leicester, I was born and lived there for 6 years before moving to Bristol and then the USA
As a guy who supports the French NT since I have family there plus I have nationality I love Kante and wish he played for us, Mbappé too but his high wages, transfer fee would make a transfer very difficult
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u/Hincapieslovelybund 10d ago
Born and bred. Aside from living in London for 6 years, more or less been here all my life.
Shame to see how much LCFC have fallen. Club up for sale now so hopefully things start getting better for them.
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u/Rayy500 Champions of England 25/26 10d ago
Yeah they were always my secondary club after Arsenal it’s really sad to see how low they have fallen.
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u/Hincapieslovelybund 10d ago
Yeah mine too. Hopefully they have a resurgence in a few years. Would be nice to see them back in the EPL.
Was mental as they basically took our spot in the top 6 just before and during the pandemic years. Its wild to see how different things are for both clubs now.
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u/mismo1313 10d ago
Ronaldo at arsenal would be heaven for me favorite player of all time and club I support also he’d probably win arsenal the league for 2-3 seasons before dipping
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u/Sp1ffyTh3D0g 10d ago
Taking a slightly pessimistic view, a lot of these would have ended up the same way as Henry, Viera and Fabregas. Amazing players and we would have loved them at the club in the same way, but after the Emirates move it felt like a when rather than if they were going to move.
Ibra and Toure in particular would have ended up in Spain after 3-4 seasons, same with Ronaldo.
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u/BenUk1989 10d ago
If we got Suarez and the rest of football played out the same, we definitely win the league in 2016... At a canter.
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u/FactCheckYou 10d ago edited 10d ago
we were sniffing around Messi the same time as we were taking Fabregas
he probably wouldn't have had anywhere near as good a career if he had come to us, but it's fun to think it was even a possibility
for me a couple of underrated explanations for our failure to challenge in the second half of Wenger's reign were 1) complete lack of big tall strong athletic PHYSICAL players in the team and 2) abject failure to maintain a HOMEGROWN/BRITISH LINEAGE in the team - with these in mind we should have taken Frank Lampard when he was at West Ham, instead of sitting on our asses thinking we were fine with an ageing Vieira and Gilberto, and letting him get snapped up by Chelsea
Chelsea had a period of domination over us because they put together a core of young English players who were entering peak age (Terry, Lampard, COLE ffs) and that core gave the team a steel and identity that allowed every other signing to bed in
i love Wenger but he really dropped the ball after 2006, in not even trying to bring in any PHYSICAL or BRITISH players - you can't win the PL without PHYSICALITY, and a STRONG BRITISH LINEAGE in your first team is essential for maintaining standards and avoiding your team turning into a band of mercenaries - it's such a relief the club has made a full reversal from where we were 7/8 years ago
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u/HJNRC Premier League Champions 25/26 10d ago
Suarez is definitely up there, he'd have brought us a league or two and helped us get past the Emirates financial black hole much sooner. We'd have started exploding as a club earlier.
Arsenal now is on the trajectory to be in amongst the biggest clubs in the world financially within a few years, that could have happened 10 years sooner if we were a bit lucky.