10 Boyhood Arsenal Fans The Gunners Should Have Signed
1. Gareth Bale
“I’ve played with him since under-11’s at Southampton. With him being an Arsenal fan, it’s just a shame he didn’t come to us!” - Theo Walcott, November 2010.
Yep, the best player to have pulled on a Spurs shirt in living memory was indeed an Arsenal fan. Given his age, nationality and sparkling left foot, you might have assumed Ryan Giggs would have swayed Gareth Bale into following Man United as a youngster but it was the Gunners who were the apple of his eye as he honed his talents in south Wales.
Of course, the most expensive footballer on the planet would have been a frighteningly good acquisition for the club.
Arsene Wenger would have been salivating at the prospect of working with such a talented teenager had he won the race to pluck him from Southampton in 2007, and who knows - the 27-year-old might not have spent so long mucking around at left-back if he’d done so.
“I used to like Arsenal a lot. But when I moved to Tottenham of course I liked them less - but I really admired Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, those kind of players. They were incredible.” - Gareth Bale, January 2015.