Arsenal failed in an attempt to sign Stewart Downing in 2011, and the now 37-year-old has now explained why that move never happened.
The Englishman enjoyed a relatively successful career, having successful spells with Middlesbrough and Aston Villa before making a big-money £20million move to Liverpool a decade ago.
Arsenal were linked with a move for Downing back then, but he’s now explained why a deal never materialised.
Speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Downing explained that at 27 years old, he needed to move on from Villa for a bigger challenge, especially after hearing about Liverpool’s interest.
He even stated that former Villa and Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier encouraged him to sign for the club as he’d enjoy it on Merseyside.
Nevertheless, Villa’s owner needed the money for personal reasons. Two Premier League giants in Arsenal and Liverpool were after the winger, but he’s since explained why he moved to Liverpool and not north London.
“The Arsenal thing came around, there were whispers in the background but nothing concrete,” he said.
“When I went to Liverpool, Damien Comolli was there, the director of football, and he’d worked with [Arsene] Wenger at Arsenal many years before when [Patrick] Vieira and them came over.
“He said to me, ‘we’ve got to get this deal done quick because they [Arsenal] want to sign you’ but they wanted to sell [Samir] Nasri first.
“They were going to sell him to [Manchester] City, to buy me. But I said, no I want to go to Liverpool really. I’m a die-hard Liverpool fan, I love Liverpool, and it was concrete, I’m going there.”
Arsenal were still paying off stadium debts at the time, and needed to sell players before they could bring players in.
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Luckily for Downing, everything worked out as he wanted, largely because Fenway Sports Group (FSG) didn’t mess around when it came to getting deals done at the time.
“As it played out, Nasri left on transfer deadline day. He actually played against Liverpool in the second game of the season and then left. That could’ve fallen through and I could’ve been at Villa,” he added.
“They [FSG] just went ‘bang we’ll pay’.
“They did it with other deals that came in, Luis Suarez, Andy Carroll, big money. They wanted it yesterday. They weren’t there to mess around.”
