Arsenal Transfer News: Arsene Wenger Rejects Blame over Failed Lionel Messi Bid

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed he very nearly signed a teenage Lionel Messi, but he failed in his attempt as the Argentina star was happy at Barcelona.

Recent revelations from Spanish football expert Guillem Balague in his book, Messi (via The Telegraph), suggest the Gunners missed out on arguably the world's best player after refusing to buy his family a London flat.

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However, Wenger refutes this version of events, suggesting Messi simply did not want to move from Barcelona's academy. He also revealed he was eager to sign Gerard Pique at the time Cesc Fabregas moved from Barca to Arsenal in 2003, per John Cross in the Daily Mirror:

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I refused nothing. I think in the end, he was not so keen to move, because it was at a period where Fabregas came and Fabregas and Messi played together in the same team. We wanted to take Fabregas, Messi and Pique. It worked only for Fabregas. It was not completely down to a flat in the end. It was down to the fact that in the end Messi was comfortable at Barcelona.

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Had Wenger succeeded in signing the Barcelona trio back in 2003 from the famed La Masia, and had he managed to keep them, the Gunners would likely be higher than their current sixth spot in the Premier League.

The French manager has claimed in the past to have nearly signed a whole host of top players, many of whom Gunners fans no doubt wish had made the switch, per Cross:

As recently as September of this year, Wenger claimed to have been "so close" to signing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003 from Sporting, per Sky Sports. In 2012, the Gunners boss revealed how Zlatan Ibrahimovic refused to do a trial at Highbury when he was 16, per Matt Fortune in the Daily Mail.

Messi, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic have scored a combined total of 30 league goals for their respective clubs so far this season, per WhoScored.com, significantly more than Arsenal's club total of 19 in the EPL.

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It seems as though Wenger needs to be more persuasive in his signings if he is to return Arsenal back to their title-winning ways any time soon.

However, he did make one impressive signing from Barcelona in the most recent transfer window in the shape of Alexis Sanchez, without whom Arsenal would be in a far worse position, per Transfer Centre:

The Gunners have historically been loathe to splash the cash, but the £35 million they spent on Sanchez seems to have been worth the money already.

Whether Messi would have become the player he has if he'd been at Arsenal is impossible to tell, but he would certainly have been an incredible asset for the Gunners and perhaps boosted their trophy cabinet over the last decade.