Former Arsenal scout names three current stars who could have joined

Steve Morrow has revealed that Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham and Christian Pulisic all came close to joining Arsenal previously.

The Gunners are famous for their ‘nearly-signed’ quotes, with Arsene Wenger naming a number of top players including Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi previously, and Morrow has added some more future talents to the list.

While I say these are ‘future talents’, they are already playing regular first-team football for top clubs in Europe, but my comment is more about what I expect them to offer further down the line.

We are claimed to have nearly signed Sancho, who has been strongly linked with a monster-value move to Manchester United in recent windows, with Morrow claiming we missed out on more than one occasion.

“Every top club will say there were near misses,” Morrow tells Goal during an exclusive interview.

“Jadon Sancho was certainly one of those. We missed out on him once when he moved from Watford and went up to Manchester City, and then again when he reached that age at City when young players have a choice to make.

“Jadon felt that his future was away from Manchester and we were very, very close to signing him, but the family felt at the time that the best opportunity for him was at Dortmund and off he went.”

The former Head of Youth Recruitment added that there was others worthy of a mention also, and starts with another future English talent.

Morrow adds: “There have been others. Jude Bellingham was another one that was very similar to that.

“When he came to the end of his contract at Birmingham and was debating whether to stay there and sign a scholarship or move somewhere else, we were very close to that one as well.

“But sometimes it just doesn’t happen and you have to accept it.”

Morrow then goes onto recall how his connections in America meant that Pulisic actually came to train in London as a 14 year-old before moving to Borussia Dortmund, long before he made the switch to Chelsea.

“Through our connections in the States, Christian was one that I actually had over at London Colney as a 14-year-old,” recalls Morrow of the Chelsea winger. “He came in and did quite well, but he was small and underdeveloped physically when he came to us.

“I did see his potential but he was certainly behind physically in terms of the same age group with our boys.

“I wanted to bring him back again, but it just didn’t work out and he went to Germany unfortunately.”

Clubs always have a list of players that they nearly signed, but Arsenal’s ones always cut me deep especially when they are serious talents like the above.

Patrick

Tags Christian Pulisic Jadon Sancho Jude Bellingham Steve Morrow

2 Comments

  1. just another reason why we should have kept Diamond Eye instead of the crooked Raul

  2. there will be misses, one cant sign everyone and play everyone

    young players need regular football with less pressure

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