Steve Morrow, the former head of youth recruitment at the Gunners, tells Goal about some near misses in the transfer market
Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kylian Mbappe…
The list of star names who have been close to signing for Arsenal over the years is long enough to fill a book.
Top clubs across the world all have a catalogue of near misses when it comes to landing top talent and at Arsenal it is no different, with Arsene Wenger having spoken time and time again about players he came close to landing during his 22-year spell in charge.
With recruitment as competitive as it is in football, scouts across the world always have their fingers on the pulse, and as soon as they spot players they think can make the grade, the alert goes out.
And, having been head of youth recruitment at Arsenal for almost a decade before leaving in 2019, the names of those players would often fall on the desk of Steve Morrow.
So when it comes to the ones who got away for the Gunners, few know more than the 50-year-old from Belfast.
“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.”
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.”
Another star name who was on Morrow’s radar during his time at Arsenal was Christian Pulisic.
In fact, the United States international even travelled over to England and spent some time with the Gunners as a teenager before eventually moving to Borussia Dortmund.
“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.”
But while there were plenty of players who slipped through the net at Arsenal, there were also plenty who were spotted and brought on board.
There are few areas as competitive as London when it comes to signing young talent, with several clubs battling it out to convince the capital’s best emerging stars that their academy is the best place to develop.
“When you are at a big club like Arsenal you have to be aware of everyone who is out there, and it was my job to make sure we were being competitive and in the market for the best players around.
“Right from the age of Under-9s, when you first start academy football, that is a really competitive age group.
“Trying to identify those best young players in the London area that every other club like Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham are looking at and getting them into your system and then keeping them all the way through was a big, big challenge.
“We had to put the best structure in place and make sure we knew what we were and the product we could offer to younger players.
“I’m very proud of all of the work we did on that and you see the results of that today with…
Read More: ‘We were very, very close’ – How Arsenal missed out on Sancho, Pulisic and