‘A regret’ – Wenger reveals one player he would love to have added to his Invincibles
The legendary Premier League manager oversaw the Gunners’ unbeaten title-winning season in 2004, which saw them crowned English champions.
With 26 wins and 12 draws, Wenger’s champions are the only team to go undefeated in a Premier League season.
The title-winning side is regarded as one of the greatest in English football history, but there is no such thing as perfection, with Wenger telling talkSPORT that he would have loved the floppy-haired teenager to be a ‘Invicible’.
“At that time it was [Cristiano] Ronaldo,” Wenger told talkSPORT at the premiere of a new film ‘Arsene Wenger: Invincible’ which charts the journey of his team’s remarkable campaign.
“He played at Manchester United in 2004, and he’s one of the players I regret not to have signed because we were very close.”
It speaks volumes about Ronaldo’s reputation at the age of 18, as he begins his first season in England after joining from Sporting CP for £12.24 million.
Ronaldo went on to win seven of the 15 games he played against Arsenal, scoring six goals, but despite failing to score, he made an impression on Wenger in his debut season.
His most famous moment against Wenger’s side came in the 2008/09 season, when he scored twice in the Champions League semi-finals to send United to the final in Rome, the first of which was an incredible 40-yard free kick.
Things could have been so different, with Ronaldo confirming Wenger’s claim that he was on the verge of becoming a Gunner.
“Very close. One step. Seriously,” Ronaldo said in 2019.
“It didn’t happen, but Arsenal, I appreciate what they did for me, especially Arsene Wenger. In football you never know where you are going to play, life is like that.”
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‘A regret’ – Wenger reveals one player he would love to have added to his Invincibles
