I have to assume that the fact Arsenal really need to get something from the north London derby tomorrow to keep any realistic hopes of another top four finish alive and kicking is part of the reason for Arsene Wenger being willing to talk about the Gunners looking into the transfer of the Tottenham and England international star Dele Alli when he was coming through as a young player with MK Dons.
You often hear a manager talking about opposition players in the build up to a big game in order to play some sort of mind games, like we saw when Pep Guardiola hinted that Man City had an interest in the transfer of Alexis Sanchez before the recent FA cup final, but I cannot see how Wenger’s comments on the Spurs midfielder reported on the Arsenal website would achieve that.
He said, “We looked at him. He played at Milton Keynes. It’s down the road from here. You have to say that he has done extremely well, and he has developed very well into a very complete player. He is dangerous and scores goals – I think he’s scored 16 or 17 goals this year, so it’s absolutely marvellous at his age. They’ve done well to buy him and give him a chance. They deserve credit for that.
“I don’t know. We watched him a few times because we watched Milton Keynes a lot.”
I’m not really sure what the Frenchman is trying to do with these words on Alli, but as far as I can see it will only wind us Arsenal fans up, as we are sick of hearing about great players that Arsenal missed out on over the years, with the likes of Hazard, Ronaldo and even Messi having apparently been on Wenger’s transfer radar at some point.
While we think about what might have been I reckon the fans of our local rivals will have a good old laugh at Wenger admitting that he maybe could have signed one of their best players but failed to do so. Would it have been better for4 him to say nothing on this topic at all?
Bob.