Angel
di Maria, just like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and
Yaya Toure joins the list of players whom Arsenal almost signed.
Di
Maria cost Manchester United a record breaking fee of £59.7million for a transfer from
Real Madrid, but Wenger revealed that he signed the Argentinian superstar for
free when he was just 17. The deal, though, couldn’t be completed because Di
Maria was unable to attain a work permit. And it seems like Arsenal are going
through this again, as they try to sign Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista.
Wenger
thinks the idea of work permits should be abolished and borders should be
completely opened up in football as it is unfair to stop non-European players
playing for The Premier League.
"We had identified Di Maria when
he was 17," he said. "We wanted him to come here. So he goes to
Portugal [with Benfica], from Portugal he goes to Spain. Why? Because he could
not get a work permit. That means you can only get him to England once he is
worth a huge amount of money.
"Messi is a different example
because he was in Barcelona from a very young age. But a player like Di Maria,
he left [Argentina] at 18 years of age. We saw him in an international
competition.
"What does it mean if at the end
of the day he comes anyway into the country, just with a huge amount of money
and that is the only difference. And who do you pay this huge amount of money
to? A club like Real Madrid. They don't need the money.
"Let's open it completely. We
live in a world where artificial protection is negative.
"If you want to be the best
league in the world then you have to accept that you have to produce the best
players in the world so the question is how can you produce the best players?
"One thing is for sure, if you
put a young player with top level players he has more chance to develop. If you
put him with average players he has more chances to remain average. We have to
accept that."
Wenger
says that the deal of signing Paulista has 50% chance as the player does not
have a European passport and has never played for Brazil so he does not fit the
criteria.
The
manager says that he will never change his footballing philosophy and has set
up the team to be more disciplined and defensive rather than having an attack
minded approach.
He said: "I go from being too
romantic to too pragmatic. We knew that it was important for us to be a bit
more cautious. We wanted to be a bit more reassured.
"We are not going to change our
style. Of course we want to be defensively strong but we want to play."
Columnist: Taha Ahmed Khan
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