Tammy Abraham was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal this summer before eventually quitting Chelsea to join Jose Mourinho at Roma, and he has now revealed the conversation that swayed his thinking.
It was strongly reported that the English striker was keen to stay in England, with the Gunners believed to be at the head of the queue for his signature.
Our side was linked with a number of options in attack, and still are in fact, having failed to offload Alexandre Lacazette during the previous window, but with the Frenchman’s contract set to expire come the end of the season, our need for a replacement is likely to be hotting up over the coming months.
We certainly appear to have missed out on Abraham however, who moved to Serie A this summer, and he has opened up on the conversation with Mourinho which convinced him to choose Rome over London.
“I picked up the phone and the first thing [Mourinho] said was: ‘Do you want to enjoy some sun or stay in the rain?’,” said Abraham(via the Express).
“I laughed. At first I did not think much of it when we were speaking.
“My mindset was that I wanted to stay in the Premier League. It was home, being around London and England.
“Jose is a brilliant salesman. When he speaks, you listen. He is a good man and has helped me a lot so far and hopefully we can build on it.
“I have learned so much tactically – as much as I have in my entire lifetime!
“I want to be in the names of the best strikers in the world when they’re ranking the strikers.
“I think after my career I can sit back and look at the things that I’ve done. I want to be able to say I’ve done everything I can, I’ve left it all out there, I’ve worked as hard as I could.”
Would Abraham have been the ideal addition to our front line?
Patrick
Your headline is so wrong. Did he snub Arsenal? We didn’t bid for him.