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?