Two summers ago, Arsenal were on the verge of taking Demba Ba to the Emirates on loan from Chelsea, but after Arsene Wenger unveiled the purchase of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho decided to block Ba’s move as he considered Arsenal a rival for the title.
Now it seems that last summer, Arsenal were also trying to buy a striker and was in talks with QPR over taking Loic Remy across London, but Jose Mourinho stepped in and persuaded him to go to Chelsea instead, much to the consternation of ‘Arry Redknapp! “I got a phone call on the Saturday before the transfer window shut saying that he had done a deal with Chelsea. Arsenal were in for him as well, we had Arsenal and Chelsea trying to sign him and he chose Chelsea,” he told The Telegraph.
“I was surprised he went to Chelsea, I thought he’d go to Arsenal. I could see Arsenal, but I couldn’t really see Chelsea because I thought “he’s not going to play there”.
“It’s a waste really, it’s a bit of a waste of a real Premier League goalscorer. I don’t know what persuaded him to be number two at Chelsea. I thought Arsenal, where he would have played more, would be his move at the time.”
Arsenal went on to sign Danny Welback in the dying minutes of the transfer window, but the fact is that Remy was a confirmed Premiership scorer, and maybe he could have had an extended period as centre-forward while Giroud was injured. I wonder how better our early season form would have been if we had had Remy instead of Welbeck?
Don’t cry over spilt milk.
I think its is a good question, no doubt remy playing beside Alexis Welbeck would bring goals and i remember Welbz missing a few when played top. Another real pity was Haydens injury, we could have done with some young legs and hes a big lad too.
I do think behind some of mourinhos or che buying does be about player not going to Arsenal is bonus.
I don’t really think we lost out. Welbeck was a good signing.
I have got nothing against danny welbeck! Lets give him a chance he really tries and contributes on the field! he will come good for us! Rome wasnt built in a day! Coyg!
Agree Greg if he works hard (and the indication is that he will) then he will be a very good player. His goal against his former club was one of the big highlights of the year.
I´m willing to be patient with him, and after that glories goal at OT he is already a favourite of mine
Mourinho is always on mind game tactics! We have to get use to that! All i want is for the gunners to put a licking on chelsea in a forth nights time, so i can enjoy seeing his dejected “sour puss” face after the lost! Coyg!
Danny needs time to improve his finishing and holding the ball a bit longer as a striker. He has a few years to do that. But as a winger, he is very good. Welbeck will hopefully just improve and improve.
We have a lot of depth on the wings with Alexis, Walcott, Welbeck, Oxlade. Even Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey have played on the wings
In the meantime we need another top striker. Hopefully, lacazette or Dybala
Welbeck: more of a team player, suits our style of play well, homegrown, younger, more versatile, less of an ego, less injury prone.
Rémy: better goalscorer.
I think we got a good deal in the end.
Man City could be doing a Man United, from champions to out of top 4.
When ever a top team drops from top 4, that can be what we call it, a Man United
Yes, but at least man utd lost their 26 years manager, even though Moyes was a good manager he couldn’t handle the pressure of coaching Man Utd.
City, I really don’t understand what their problem is.By now you can say the have got a manager who get used to epl.They have got good squad that can be compared to the big teams in Europe.And they don’t have more than 2-3 players out injured the whole season.They are almost injury free.I remember man utd and arsenal having 10-11 players out injured.I don’t understand why City is struggling really.
I guess the fact that it’s just a bunch of overpaid mercenaries combined in a squad has finally begun to shine it’s true colours. Big ego’s (Yaya, Nasri etc.) don’t work well with one another. Don’t get me wrong, as a squad they probably have the best in the PL in terms of quality, but that alone wont win you everything.
Let us not underestimate Manchester United, we are lucky to not face this Manchester united in the FA cup. A top 2 finish will be something to cheer but I wont count the chicken before it hatches.
We just have to focus one game at a time and then see where we are at the end of the season. Next week match will be interesting between MU and Chelsea. I have never liked Mourinho so will cheer for Van gaal and his team. As of now if we have to have even an outside chance of lifting the premiership then next week MU needs to beat Chelsea.
Remy chose Chelsea because Chelsea offered him more than what Arsenal was willing to pay. Simple.
Man sometimes I wonder if these articles have any logic behind them.
Chelsea sold Ba and loaned out Torres.
They got Costa who while is a lethal striker has a history of a hamstring injury, what on earth did you really expect them to do. They got a proven premier league goal scorer as a back up. I doubt that Chelsea had any other inclination to go for him other than needing a back up. Arsenal had nothing to do with it
How many seasons now have we seen title runs halted or end prematurely because of a lack of goals. Would we not have done the same thing? In fact didn’t we do the same thing?
And both are out injured
No offence to him but it’s difficult to deny that Remy is currently a better striker than Welbeck. The way we know this is that there still are clamours in Arsenal fan circles wanting a ‘pacy striker’ to complement Giroud this summer, showing the signing Welbeck hasn’t managed to sate all our wishes up front.
Having said that, Welbeck has a hunger and attitude that does set him apart from Remy. We’ve seen players improve massively under Wenger in the past, fingers crossed Danny can be another of our success stories and we can laugh in the faces of United!
Welbeck just need a little tweeking in that he has to learn how not to think too much but lets his instinct comes in and make the decision for. Its really what they call the ‘killer’ instinct where if you don’t shoot and kill first, you’ll get yourself killed. Thats what we had seen before in the likes of Henry and several others of the players in the invincible era including Pires and Bergkamp.