Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger claims he attempted to sign Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho when he was at Manchester City.
The Frenchman thought that he had a serious chance of signing the England winger before he eventually joined the German outfit.
“I wanted to take him from Man City when he didn’t get the games,” Wenger told Bein Sports.
“I tried to lure him because he’s from London. I tried to get him to Arsenal. He’s one of the best players of his generation. He can dribble, he has the arrogance.
“There’s something in there that is part of the big players. You can call it arrogance, confidence, belief; but it has to be there.”
Sancho was born in Camberwell and Wenger believed his London roots might be the deciding factor in choosing Arsenal ahead of a move to Germany.
However failed to sign and Sancho joined Dortmund from Manchester City in August 2017, for a fee reported to be in the region of £8m.
At Dortmund, he established himself his second season as a first team regular and won the Bundesliga Player of the Month for October 2018 after registering three goals and an assist in just three league games.
Sancho also became the youngest-ever player to score eight goals in a single Bundesliga season, breaking the record previously held by Christian Wuck.
Sancho has been in sensational form since arriving in Germany where his performances have helped Dortmund to the top of the Bundesliga, and earned the 18-year-old a senior England cap.
Moreover, Tottenham’s manager Mauricio Pochettino knew what to expect from Sancho – he admitted to tracking him since his Manchester City days before his team faced Borussia Dortmund – so it was perhaps no surprise that he employed extra measures to contain him at Wembley, with Toby Alderweireld moving to the left of Tottenham’s back three to provide support for makeshift wing-back Jan Vertonghen, as reported by Sky Sports.