[Photo] Arsenal could have signed Ibrahimovic for £3m.
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC has just signed for 5 year contact with Barcelona, the spanish giants have paid £40m PLUS Samuel Eto’o for the striker. Ibrahimovic is now the worlds most expensive striker.
But did you know that he came VERY close to signing for Arsenal?
In 2001 Arsenal agreed a £3m fee with his club at the time Malmo FF, Personal terms with Ibrahimovic were also agreed and his was even given the number 9 shirt (photo above) It all basically a done deal…Until it all went wrong.
Zlatan was sure the deal was done and even posed for photos with the number 9 shirt, He called his friends at Malmo and told them how happy he was to be signing for a great club like Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger then told Zlatan the deal was NOT done and that he would have to play in a trial match before he signed him as he was not 100% of his talents. Zlatan was so angry about this he refused to play in the game and walked out of the Arsenal training ground. Zlatan felt insulted by Wengers late decision and refused to go back as he knew there were other clubs who wanted him.
Wenger decided NOT to sign him for £3m and he was then sent back to Malmo FF.
Wenger said: “I rate him highly. I wanted to buy him when he was a boy but it didn’t turn out that way.”
Malmo then sold Zlatan to Ajax and Arsenal signed Francis Jeffers for £8m, for almost 3x times as much as what they could have signed Zlatan.
So i wonder how wenger feels now knowing he picked Francis Jeffers over Zlatan Ibrahimovic and at more then double the price.
lol wenger isn’t that good because there was a good player he didn’t sign on the cheap ages ago….. right.
i guess barca are even worse then for paying LUDICROUS money for him when they could have had him for 3 mil.
how many players in the invincibles lineup were bought as established world class players at huge costs? campbell was world class-free. toure was a cheap unknown cm who got converted to a great defender at that time, lauren was a cheap, unknown attacking midfielder converted to right back, cole was a youth academy player. pires wasn’t overly expensive and joined as a player who wasn’t entirely on top of the world before, viera wasn’t very expensive (nuff said), gilberto was cheap, ljungberg was cheap and unknown until he signed. henry wasn’t that cheap, but he went from a decent winger to one of the greatest ever players up front and bergkamp wasn’t bought by wenger so doesn’t count. oh and lehmann was cheap and not overly well known.
grow up mate. wenger has made lots of mistakes, but the man has done so much for arsenal that your disregard is insulting to the club itself. who could replace him? unless you want arsenal to piss stupid money away on these over-rated players and get into the same money trouble as utd and chelsea then there are no other managers who are up to the task of doing a good job.
and your logic is shit, look at the players you listed as flops, there weren’t even that many and only a couple of those were expoensive. we’ve never blown money like man u have on veron, chelsea with shevchenko etc. or are you going to say that by the SAME logic ferguson and mourinho are not that good too?
lol As much as i hate saying it, he’s right! i remember all those years ago when this story 1st happened and it’s true! it’s not a matter of not having all the facts….those were the facts! plain and simple.
but sometimes you win some sometimes you don’t. we missed zlatan, we missed ronaldo, but we snared cesc (can you imagine a team with all three lol) but you shouldn’t be so harsh on him Sinbad it at least shows he’s still probably the hottest talent spotter out there. and i still believe that, weather he still has the ability to fully nurture them with kids playing against kids….i don’t know. i understand if you’ve lost faith in him now unlike a lot of akb’s out there who are completely blind to the fact that somethings wrong with my beloved arsenal. but please don’t start to find anything and everything to throw at him it’s not fair. talent spotting is a lottery, so find something a little more constructive to critisize him with!
Being spurned by a great club can spur a player on to greatness, and equally throwing 20 year olds the keys to the club can trigger a certain complacency. It’s impossible to make every call correctly but certainly this one didn’t turn out too well for us.
I don’t hate wenger he’s done great for us,not lately but a few years ago was magic.But i’m really only interested in the present and the future and both look kinda gloomy,i’d love to see a miracle next season though.Sadly,and this occured to me last season after chelsea humiliated us that we have won our last trophy under Arsene it was like the end of an era.But who’s to know if he can sign the 3 (now that kolo is gone) world class players we need then there may be a glimmer !
hahhaah love this blog your right AW is holding arsenal back……. with his 70m in the bank he refuses to buy honestly any other manager would win with his budget also have an undefeated season in the epl……… (see the sarcasm) also other managers would have signed promising youth players like cesc vela clichy anelka viera petit henry
This is really some bottom of the barrel stuff. Managers miss out on good players all the time, due to the idiosyncrasies of the contract negotiation process which covers an umbrella of myriad potential reasons for not signing a player.
You say you’re trying to prove that Wenger is not the god that some people think he is, but who are you to say that we would have been better and not worse off with Ibrahimovic in our team? You can’t because it’s impossible to say so with any certainty. That’s to say nothing of the bulk of our strike force at the time which was really rather good. It’s just insulting how easy you think it is, using the benefit of hindsight, to be a football manager. I really don’t think it is.
More fool me for reading it, and I did know the story but I presumed this would be an exercise in base shit-stirring and, well, I was right. It’s a bit pathetic though.
yeh Etoo over ibra anyyyy day,i had biiig hopez that wenger may just suprise us and get him with the ADE money but thats just another dream of the past,lets fukn start buying players now am fed up with this shiiiit 4 years now,bring in a any quality/TOUGH&BIG players,and nt fukn midgnts like most of our players,i mean i can understand why he dosnt wanna buy players with his youth policy,but what about buying BIG&TOUGH youth???i mean guyz that can handle the EPL toughness,jus dnt get him anymore as we had a good mixture in allll this time he been here,but lately its all about midgnts,never heard of a team with soo many soft and small in size of players alll at the same time,has anyyy1 did????that’s what’s really annoyn coz we ill be bullyd by tough teams over and over and over again,until we have few of them tough players we are nothing anymore
The Italian league is weird. Strikers who have done well in Italy struggle in other leagues. Shevchenko, Luca Toni to name a few. They were outstanding in the Italian league but turned out to be no brainers elsewhere. Only time will tell if Ibrahimovic can match Eto’s quality.
AA, you have a good point about AW leading arsenal from contenders for the league to also-rans. It is mind boggling how this guy continue to make mistakes every season, and some bone head fans dont even do as much as questions the future of the club they profess to love so much. I respect the work AW has done at arsenal pre 2004, after then, he has been more of a joke in his choice of players and stubbornnes on signing quality players. I will never forget last season’s FA cup semi final decision, which to me shows AW does not give a sugar about arsenal fans, what he does, is think about his legacy.
Wenger is a great manager and has done so many good things here at Arsenal. But still its only fair to accept he has made quite a few mistakes which has caused Arsenal not doing better and we need to accept he is human too and stop saying whatever he does is correct.
Sinbad – If you think Wenger has done such a poor job over the last decade (the most successful Arsenal Manager ever) who should replace him?
You say that – The sad fact is that Wenger is killing the club with his lack of spending…. so how do you suggest the Board raises the funds you believe we so desperatly need? with the option of a Russian Billionaire (who has spent time inside for Rape, Murder etc. although this has been overturned…) not being available…
Finally I would like to ask how long you’ve been following Arsenal? as the comments and your attitude must have been alot worse under Graham, Howe, etc.
You ask for a debate now you opinions are being asked….
Jeffers’ career (or lack of) bears no relation to the original point – Ibrahimovich is the most over-rated tart of all time. He has failed to score a single goal in the knock-out stages of the European Cup, with most of his goals in Italy’s seriously under-par Serie A coming against bottom half sides.
If we’d signed him in 2001 would you have rather had him playing than Henry, Bergkamp, Pires etc.?
Barca have made a chronic mistake; great coup for Mourinho.
Absolute nonsense he came over refused to play in a trial game and rejected us for Ajax!!!!!!!!!!!! He was given the no. 9 jersey with his name on as a present the no. 9 was already taken at that time so it wasnt a squad number for him. Get your facts straight!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah becuase 2001/2002 was such a shit season for us wasn’t it. If only we’d signed the over-rated arrogant prick….how different things might have been…
..Oh hang on, league and cup double..oh yeah that was right!
Yet another negative, pointless, uneducated, shit post from yourself. Well done.
metalhead, i think the blogger is out gettin pissed celebrating his REAL club spunking money on crouch! so is not able to offer any answers to your questions!
This is bullshit, he came to an arsenal match with a few friends for a champ.lge game and was invited in after he and friends got a shirt from the club with their name on it.
Ibrahimovic is most expensive striker as ur said,yes i want to know why he is the most pay,while out there many strke better him,why £40m ?does it mean that pound has reduce it’s valves to extent that he is sold for £40m?
I seriously cant believe this guy is an Arsenal fan, doubtless that you should have some reservations and criticise Arsene fairly. But he is a fantastic manager who knows things have got to change, and they will, its in the general nature of things. So perhaps you should go and support spurs as you will soon find that you have more material to right insepid little articles like this!!
Well if anyone but God had been in wenger’s shoes he wouldn’t have surely known that zlatan would become a star. Stop trying to blame wenger for not knowing what no other human being could have known. He is one of the best at spotting talent. And one good game doesn’t make zlatan an amazing player, barca bought him for so much money but he was a flop.
You writers would do anything, change any story, drive peoples feelings in any given way so that you have more to write about. Very disgraceful for the field of journalism.
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC has just signed for 5 year contact with Barcelona, the spanish giants have paid £40m PLUS Samuel Eto’o for the striker. Ibrahimovic is now the worlds most expensive striker.
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Thats it…..im not reading this SPUDSACTION IN THE ASS blog…what a waste of my fucking time.
BTW where did you get your info? name your source ASSHOLE!!!!
And oh yeah, where did you get that picture?….that looks like FAT ROBBIE WILLIAMS or is it you you fat cunt.
REAL ARSENAL FANS SHOULD BOYCOTT THIS STUPID BLOG. IVE GIVEN THIS FAT TWAT TOO MANY CHANCES, SHE’S NOT WORTH IT.
lol wenger isn’t that good because there was a good player he didn’t sign on the cheap ages ago….. right.
i guess barca are even worse then for paying LUDICROUS money for him when they could have had him for 3 mil.
how many players in the invincibles lineup were bought as established world class players at huge costs? campbell was world class-free. toure was a cheap unknown cm who got converted to a great defender at that time, lauren was a cheap, unknown attacking midfielder converted to right back, cole was a youth academy player. pires wasn’t overly expensive and joined as a player who wasn’t entirely on top of the world before, viera wasn’t very expensive (nuff said), gilberto was cheap, ljungberg was cheap and unknown until he signed. henry wasn’t that cheap, but he went from a decent winger to one of the greatest ever players up front and bergkamp wasn’t bought by wenger so doesn’t count. oh and lehmann was cheap and not overly well known.
grow up mate. wenger has made lots of mistakes, but the man has done so much for arsenal that your disregard is insulting to the club itself. who could replace him? unless you want arsenal to piss stupid money away on these over-rated players and get into the same money trouble as utd and chelsea then there are no other managers who are up to the task of doing a good job.
and your logic is shit, look at the players you listed as flops, there weren’t even that many and only a couple of those were expoensive. we’ve never blown money like man u have on veron, chelsea with shevchenko etc. or are you going to say that by the SAME logic ferguson and mourinho are not that good too?
fucking moron, jesus christ.
lol As much as i hate saying it, he’s right! i remember all those years ago when this story 1st happened and it’s true! it’s not a matter of not having all the facts….those were the facts! plain and simple.
but sometimes you win some sometimes you don’t. we missed zlatan, we missed ronaldo, but we snared cesc (can you imagine a team with all three lol) but you shouldn’t be so harsh on him Sinbad it at least shows he’s still probably the hottest talent spotter out there. and i still believe that, weather he still has the ability to fully nurture them with kids playing against kids….i don’t know. i understand if you’ve lost faith in him now unlike a lot of akb’s out there who are completely blind to the fact that somethings wrong with my beloved arsenal. but please don’t start to find anything and everything to throw at him it’s not fair. talent spotting is a lottery, so find something a little more constructive to critisize him with!
Being spurned by a great club can spur a player on to greatness, and equally throwing 20 year olds the keys to the club can trigger a certain complacency. It’s impossible to make every call correctly but certainly this one didn’t turn out too well for us.
Sorry… is this a spuds blog…………… AGAIN?!!!
Get a life, sinbad!
In 2001 Wenger didn’t sign Zlatan but Arsenal went on to win the double (01-02 – for the second (third in total) time under Le Prof).
Were you complaining than Mr. Sinbad????
I’d appreciate an answer if you don’t mind please…
I don’t hate wenger he’s done great for us,not lately but a few years ago was magic.But i’m really only interested in the present and the future and both look kinda gloomy,i’d love to see a miracle next season though.Sadly,and this occured to me last season after chelsea humiliated us that we have won our last trophy under Arsene it was like the end of an era.But who’s to know if he can sign the 3 (now that kolo is gone) world class players we need then there may be a glimmer !
hahhaah love this blog your right AW is holding arsenal back……. with his 70m in the bank he refuses to buy honestly any other manager would win with his budget also have an undefeated season in the epl……… (see the sarcasm) also other managers would have signed promising youth players like cesc vela clichy anelka viera petit henry
This is really some bottom of the barrel stuff. Managers miss out on good players all the time, due to the idiosyncrasies of the contract negotiation process which covers an umbrella of myriad potential reasons for not signing a player.
You say you’re trying to prove that Wenger is not the god that some people think he is, but who are you to say that we would have been better and not worse off with Ibrahimovic in our team? You can’t because it’s impossible to say so with any certainty. That’s to say nothing of the bulk of our strike force at the time which was really rather good. It’s just insulting how easy you think it is, using the benefit of hindsight, to be a football manager. I really don’t think it is.
More fool me for reading it, and I did know the story but I presumed this would be an exercise in base shit-stirring and, well, I was right. It’s a bit pathetic though.
yeh Etoo over ibra anyyyy day,i had biiig hopez that wenger may just suprise us and get him with the ADE money but thats just another dream of the past,lets fukn start buying players now am fed up with this shiiiit 4 years now,bring in a any quality/TOUGH&BIG players,and nt fukn midgnts like most of our players,i mean i can understand why he dosnt wanna buy players with his youth policy,but what about buying BIG&TOUGH youth???i mean guyz that can handle the EPL toughness,jus dnt get him anymore as we had a good mixture in allll this time he been here,but lately its all about midgnts,never heard of a team with soo many soft and small in size of players alll at the same time,has anyyy1 did????that’s what’s really annoyn coz we ill be bullyd by tough teams over and over and over again,until we have few of them tough players we are nothing anymore
If satan move to arsenal at that time, maybe he wont be the player he is now.
Why dun also add about wenger give up signing c.ronaldo cuz mu bid higher ?
But i tell u one things, arsenal will be another aston villa without wenger, he is such a big influence, ppl wanna play for him.
And yes every ppl make mistake, he should play AA in semi final against chelsea.
The Italian league is weird. Strikers who have done well in Italy struggle in other leagues. Shevchenko, Luca Toni to name a few. They were outstanding in the Italian league but turned out to be no brainers elsewhere. Only time will tell if Ibrahimovic can match Eto’s quality.
AA, you have a good point about AW leading arsenal from contenders for the league to also-rans. It is mind boggling how this guy continue to make mistakes every season, and some bone head fans dont even do as much as questions the future of the club they profess to love so much. I respect the work AW has done at arsenal pre 2004, after then, he has been more of a joke in his choice of players and stubbornnes on signing quality players. I will never forget last season’s FA cup semi final decision, which to me shows AW does not give a sugar about arsenal fans, what he does, is think about his legacy.
Wenger is a great manager and has done so many good things here at Arsenal. But still its only fair to accept he has made quite a few mistakes which has caused Arsenal not doing better and we need to accept he is human too and stop saying whatever he does is correct.
Sinbad – If you think Wenger has done such a poor job over the last decade (the most successful Arsenal Manager ever) who should replace him?
You say that – The sad fact is that Wenger is killing the club with his lack of spending…. so how do you suggest the Board raises the funds you believe we so desperatly need? with the option of a Russian Billionaire (who has spent time inside for Rape, Murder etc. although this has been overturned…) not being available…
Finally I would like to ask how long you’ve been following Arsenal? as the comments and your attitude must have been alot worse under Graham, Howe, etc.
You ask for a debate now you opinions are being asked….
Jeffers’ career (or lack of) bears no relation to the original point – Ibrahimovich is the most over-rated tart of all time. He has failed to score a single goal in the knock-out stages of the European Cup, with most of his goals in Italy’s seriously under-par Serie A coming against bottom half sides.
If we’d signed him in 2001 would you have rather had him playing than Henry, Bergkamp, Pires etc.?
Barca have made a chronic mistake; great coup for Mourinho.
Absolute nonsense he came over refused to play in a trial game and rejected us for Ajax!!!!!!!!!!!! He was given the no. 9 jersey with his name on as a present the no. 9 was already taken at that time so it wasnt a squad number for him. Get your facts straight!!!!!!!!!!
Show some proof, ANY, that you were party to the ongoings between Ibrahimovic and Arsenal. And you know what you’re talking about. Again, any will do.
Gone quiet have we…. ?
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC is a diving cheat.
Yeah becuase 2001/2002 was such a shit season for us wasn’t it. If only we’d signed the over-rated arrogant prick….how different things might have been…
..Oh hang on, league and cup double..oh yeah that was right!
Yet another negative, pointless, uneducated, shit post from yourself. Well done.
metalhead, i think the blogger is out gettin pissed celebrating his REAL club spunking money on crouch! so is not able to offer any answers to your questions!
sorry i meant to say lee not metalhead,
This is bullshit, he came to an arsenal match with a few friends for a champ.lge game and was invited in after he and friends got a shirt from the club with their name on it.
So stop shit stirring CUNT
If we buy him for £3m back then……. I’m sure Wenger already sold him last year for £40m+… hahaha
LOL
Ibrahimovic is most expensive striker as ur said,yes i want to know why he is the most pay,while out there many strke better him,why £40m ?does it mean that pound has reduce it’s valves to extent that he is sold for £40m?
I seriously cant believe this guy is an Arsenal fan, doubtless that you should have some reservations and criticise Arsene fairly. But he is a fantastic manager who knows things have got to change, and they will, its in the general nature of things. So perhaps you should go and support spurs as you will soon find that you have more material to right insepid little articles like this!!
Hes just reporting the facts objectionally. There is no opinion in the articule. Lay off him.
according to zlatan himself, this isnt what happened. he says it in his new book
Well if anyone but God had been in wenger’s shoes he wouldn’t have surely known that zlatan would become a star. Stop trying to blame wenger for not knowing what no other human being could have known. He is one of the best at spotting talent. And one good game doesn’t make zlatan an amazing player, barca bought him for so much money but he was a flop.
You writers would do anything, change any story, drive peoples feelings in any given way so that you have more to write about. Very disgraceful for the field of journalism.