David Seaman has admitted that he snubbed Manchester United to join Arsenal back in 1990 after talking with Ray Wilkins.
The goalkeeper was impressing for QPR in the 1989-90 campaign, before moving to Highbury where he would quickly establish himself amongst the best shot-stoppers to grave the English top flight.
Seaman won four FA Cups, three league titles, a League Cup as well as a European Cup Winners Cup during his time in north London, but strangely left the club the year before we went onto become the Invincibles, not that that should take anything away from our former star.
It turns out we could easily have missed out on his signature however, with the Red Devils having approached Seaman around the same time, but after talking to Ray Wilkins, he decided that becoming a Gunner was where he wanted to go.
“I got a chance to go to Man United. I spoke to Fergie, Seaman recalled whilst speaking to Ben Foster’s ‘The Fozcast’ Podcast.
“He was like, ‘I’ve got somebody who wants to speak to you… it’s the gaffer’, and it was Alex Ferguson. He said to me, ‘look, I want to come in for you in the summer’.
“That same day, Arsenal made a bid. They’d made the bid, and QPR said you’ve got to go and talk terms with Arsenal.”
The initial talks broke down, and he decided to seek advice from then QPR coach Ray Wilkins, who broke it down for Seaman, telling him he would be an instant hit at the Emirates.
“He said to me, ‘if you go to Man United, you won’t win trophies straight away, but you will later because they’re a massive club’.
“He said, ‘if you go to Arsenal now you’ll win trophies straight away’.”
Wilkins wasn’t wrong either. Seaman helped us to win the division in his first season with the club, whilst starting in each of the 38 league matches, and quickly established himself as a regular for England soon after making the switch.
It is unclear whether Seaman was already in favour of joining us over our rivals, but I cannot imagine not having signed Seaman all those years back.
Patrick
