A transfer near-miss for every Prem club

With talk of Leicester almost signing Harry Kane for £600k, we’ve picked out a huge near-miss for every Premier League club, including Liverpool choking over losing Cristiano Ronaldo, and Fulham making a disastrous decision over Antoine Griezmann…

Arsenal – Lionel Messi
There is an insane XI of star players Arsenal almost signed. Cristiano Ronaldo features and, of course, so too does Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Messi is the leading name, with reports around the time the Gunners took Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona suggesting they also wanted the Argentinian, as well as Gerard Pique. Some said a sensational move broke down over accommodation for Messi’s family, but Arsene Wenger, partially at least, disputed that: “It was not completely down to a flat in the end, it was down to the fact that Messi was comfortable at Barcelona.”

Aston Villa – Roberto Carlos
Doug Ellis says Carlos had agreed to join Villa in 1995 after playing at Villa Park for Brazil in a friendly against Sweden. Deadly Doug wrote in his autobiography: ‘I was so impressed with Juninho and Roberto Carlos that I sounded out the Brazilian president about them and he expressed the view that Carlos could be available. He [Carlos] said he was very impressed with the club and the facilities, and would be interested in joining us. Then it emerged the player would accept a contract with us, paid in American dollars, at a rate that was no higher than our highest-paid players of that time.

‘Unfortunately, Brian Little was less enthusiastic than myself and thus we did not pursue the deal.’

Bournemouth – Kieran Tierney
Eddie Howe made no secret of his fondness for the left-back in 2018 and Tierney acknowledged the Cherries’ interest. “When big teams are looking at you, it’s flattering,” he said. But then Arsenal sneaked in, took Tierney to north London and made him one of their captains. Howe hasn’t gone off the Scotland international, with reports the Newcastle boss will try again this summer.

Brentford – Mykhaylo Mudryk
Chelsea forked out £87million for Mudryk in January but Brentford thought they had a deal done for the winger last summer for less than a quarter of that price. The story goes that Shakhtar were willing to accept £20million but, thankfully for the Ukrainian club, the move broke down due to his agent’s salary demands.

Brighton – Virgil van Dijk
Ex-Brighton boss Gus Poyet claims he could have signed the £75million Liverpool defender in…