Arjen Robben is currently being touted as one of incoming manager Louis van Gaal's first transfer targets as Manchster United boss this summer, and it certainly isn't the first time we've been linked with the Bayern Munich winger. Back in 2003, and wary of the growing threat from the newly-moneyed Chelsea, United sought to bolster their ranks by bringing in Robben, then of PSV. We had recently secured the services of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo but the Portuguese was deemed at the time too inexperienced, and a more accomplished winger was sought. That winger could have been Robben, who even completed a stadium tour of Old Trafford with his signing on the dotted line considered at the time a formality. Instead, the Netherlands star had his head turned by super-rich Chelsea, who had just been bought by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and when we made a bid that was considered so low that it would "only be enough to buy a shirt with Robben's autograph", Chelsea swooped in with a £12.1 million million bid and beat us to the punch. Robben would go on to win two Premier League titles with Chelsea before joining Real Madrid in 2007.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
