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Arsenal’s Near Nab of Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique Revealed
By Josh Sippie
Amidst all the injuries and let downs so far into this Arsenal season, let’s take a moment to revel in a discovery that was just recently revealed by Guillem Balague’s biography “Messi.”
Accoring to Balague, in the 2002/3 season, Arsenal, in the midst of swooping up the outstanding Cesc Fabregas, future captain fantastic, and now stalwart Chelsea Blue, the Gunners were also a mere inches from grabbing two other players who would have revolutionzed this team for the past decade and beyond:
Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.
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Arsenal was actually the first European club to make a formal offer to Messi since he arrived at Barcelona at the age of 15. However, small obstacles began to compile and the offer died. Before leaving, Messi was told that if he ever wanted to move, Arsenal wanted him.
Pique was much closer to a done deal but as Balague writes, “he was not yet old enough to sign and Arsenal suggested that they should make a verbal agreement that would be confirmed in a year’s time, when he was 16. The same agreement that they worked out with Cesc. Pique (or, to be precise, his agents) said no.”
What’s done is done and there’s no point in dwelling in the past, but let’s do it for a second anyways, just because. Lionel Messi up front with Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez (debatable), fielding passes from Aaron Ramsey while Gerard Pique mans the back line? Who could have stopped that Arsenal?
But alas, that is not our Arsenal and Messi and Pique aren’t going anywhere. And given the mass of players we had to sell to foot the bill for constructing the Emirates, it’d doubtful we could have kept them anyways.