Football history has more than its fair share of 'Sliding Doors Moments'.
What if Manchester United had chosen to bin a toiling Alex Ferguson in 1989? What if Big Sam had turned down that pint of wine in 2016? What if Roman Abramovich had opted to buy Tottenham instead of Chelsea in 2003?
Every club has their moments where the path of their history was forever changed, for better or for worse.
Max Aarons on his Barcelona move that never happened
The same goes for players, where a certain transfer can make or break their career, while the collapse of a move can also linger long in the memory and leave all parties wondering ‘what if?’
One such example of this was Max Aarons' proposed move to Barcelona back in 2020, when the young English defender was turning heads for Norwich City in the Championship.
Aarons had broken into the Canaries first-team in 2018, with an England under-21 debut following in September 2019. As the former Luton Town youth product established himself as one of the country’s best young prospects, Barcelona were on the lookout for a new right-back, having just sold Nelson Semedo to Wolves in September 2020.
“It was very close,” Aarons tells FourFourTwo. “It’s crazy when I think about it.
“From what I heard, it was a loan with an option to buy, but didn’t happen in the end. You can’t let yourself dwell on these things as a professional.”
Barcelona would instead move for Ajax’s Sergino Dest in a €21million deal, ending Aaron’s chances of lining up alongside Lionel Messi and company.
Did that make it tough for Aarons to re-focus on that Championship season with Norwich?
“No, because I knew how valued I was and our coach, Daniel Farke, was very good with me,” Aarons adds. “Throughout a lot of the transfer talk he allowed me to just focus on the next game, on training, and never allowed me to get ahead of myself.
“I felt I owed the club too. They had done a lot for me from a young age and I loved the people there. I’ll always have a special place for Norwich in my heart.”
Aarons did eventually leave Carrow Road in the summer of 2023, when he joined Premier League Bournemouth in a £7 million move. A six-month loan move to Valencia in January 2025 meant that he did get a taste of LaLiga action, with Aarons currently enjoying a season-long loan stint at Rangers.
