Kylian Mbappe is one of the best players in the world now and the Frenchman is a player every club would want to have in their squad.
The striker now plays for PSG in Ligue 1 after a failed move to Real Madrid, but he could have been an Arsenal player if things had gone differently.
The Gunners are one of the finest sides in the world in terms of spotting talent and have consistently added some good players to their squad from a young age.
Mbappe broke out at AS Monaco before moving to PSG, but the Gunners knew about him even before his time at the former.
Former Arsenal scout Gilles Grimandi has now opened up on how close the club were to adding a teenage Mbappe to the Gunners side.
‘The job of scouting is about finding but also missing players. For me, it is Kylian Mbappe. We just could not convince him,’ Grimandi told The Sun.
‘He was out of contract in June 2013 and we met him in February. If we could have convinced him to join, he would have changed the club – but he then decided on Monaco.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Mbappe has been one of the world’s most consistent performers in the last few seasons and continues to improve.
As we watch the Frenchman, we can only imagine what could have been if we had won the race for his signature and added him to our squad.
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He’s not even as good as Gervinho was
If only the kronkie’s had backed AW the way they have with MA!! SIGH!!
KEN There must have been reasons why they did not. The cost of building Emirates was certainly ONE. I CAN THINK OF ANOTHER TOO. CAN YOU?
Clue; it is to do with the timing of when they first has overall control, not 100% shares but just overall control and could make decisions.
Got to agree Ken
Nearly 700 million spent since AW left and not much coming back into the club regarding transfers out .
Strange one how we have managed to stay within the FFP rules without CL football and paying players to leave .
Just goes to show what a job the greatest manager in our history managed to do year after year .
the Kroenkes didnt have full ownership until 2018
they were still shareholders, even though majority
this is why, since then they got wenger out and actually started backing managers, even with no UCL football and the pandemic
As major shareholder, Stan Kronkie controlled the club, even before he became the outright owner.
Anyone who thinks otherwise, are just postering.
Usmanov realized this and that’s why he sold his shares.
Sorry Ken that’s not right. There are various levels of share ownership where powers increase. 75% and 90% are key milestones and Kroenke didn’t have that until 2018 as Val says.
No-one in their right mind pumps money into a club without that level of control. There are so many cunning plans that can be deployed against you if you did, you might never see your loans repaid so you need to do things the right way, in the right order.
I’D, if you believe kronkie wasn’t running the club before he actually bought it outright, then I believe you are misguided.
It was his wish to have David Dein ousted and it happened.
It was his wish to bring in Gazidis and it happened.
It was his wish to keep Usmanov off the board and it happened.
It was his wish to buy up any shares available, large or small and it happened.
He was, indirectly, ploughing money into the club via his share buyout and the board, while looking to get as much money for their shares, played along with him.
It was always known that he wanted to buy the club outright and, with the help of our unscrupulous board he achieved all of his aims.
He has turned out to be a better owner than I ever thought he would be (another one of my mistakes!!) but he most definitely wanted Wenger out and didn’t support him at all.
Think it was the same thing in the case with Christian Ronaldo but Alex Furgeston personal intervention tip the scale in Man United favor.
Methimks a certain Gazidis might be on the your mind Jon?
You are quite right Gunsmoke – imagine Mbappe and Ronaldo up front in the red and white!!!
Just like today, money talked ((s).
Mbappe’s (reported) character would be a good reason to steer clear.
And why imagine the best outcome without taking into account where teh club was then? Signing Ozil was seen as great, it went sour. Others left for more money and glory, the same could well have happened with Mbappe after a honeymoon period.
I’m happy with the way things have turned out for now, rewriting history would risk that. Perhaps best to let sleeping dogs lie.