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15th October 2020
03:05pm BST

“And that’s all I can say on that. A lot get away – two, three, four a year – but I prefer to look at the ones we did get.”
Arsenal are not the only club to have been 'close' to signing a young Lionel Messi. In Gianluca Di Marzio's new book, the Italian journalist details how the Argentine superstar could have ended up at Chelsea after a phone call with José Mourinho. Barcelona evidently knew they had a huge talent on their hands, though, and would not let him leave - a theme that dominated the summer transfer window as Messi tried to force his way out of the club. Cagigao did manage to bring a number of Barcelona's other great young talents to north London though, in Cesc Fabregas and some years later, Hector Bellerín. "A combination of very good technique, vision, awareness, intelligence. I was watching a boy with a GPS in his brain, maturity beyond his years. His decision-making was near perfect already," Cagigao said of a teenage Fabregas. "Cesc showed how strong our scouting department had become, how well we could identify and then recruit,” Cagigao added. "If [a player] is willing to sit around a table the first part’s done and whatever player we brought to the club, a 16-year-old fresh from Paris, Barcelona or Rome or an established professional, we sat him in front of Wenger – and Arsène insisted."Explore more on these topics: