THIS IS HOW CLOSE ARSENE WENGER WAS TO SIGN LIONEL MESSI FOR ARSENAL.

It is no secret that Arsene Wenger the manager of Arsenal has a gift to recogignize real good young talent. for example Yaya toure and Petr Cech were spotted very early but faied o join Arsenal due to not getting a work permit. Lionel Messi to was inches away from joining Arsenal when he was a sixteen year old boy at the Barcelona youth team. In fact Arsene wenger had talks with Jorge the father of Lionel Messi as he was still a minor then.Everything was agreed to salary as well as the terms he wanted. But then The Home office in England refused to give Lionel Messi a visa to come to England. Arsenal tried very hard. but failed. The reason could be that Lionel Messi is a Argentinean, qand the Faulkland war with Argentina was fresh in their minds. But Lionel Messi was then given his big break by Franck Riajkard in the year 2004. And the rest is history. So it is not only the millions of pounds that count or the club , so next time please be patient on managers. Actually Arsenal were keen on all three players even though they got Cesc Fabregas they failed to get Gerrard Pique and Lionel Messi.