Arsenal have been blessed with some incredible players and legends over the years, from the likes of Tony Adams and Ian Wright to Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira.
However, for every icon of the game who donned the red and white of the Gunners, it feels like they have supposedly missed out on six others.
Stories about Arsène Wenger missing out on Kylian Mbappé, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and even Cristiano Ronaldo are all too familiar to the fans.
Still, another Premier League superstar was once on the North Londoners’ wishlist in 2012, but they ended up with Lukas Podolski.
Podolski’s Arsenal career
In April 2012, it was announced that Arsenal had secured the services of German international Podolski for a fee said to have been just £10.9m the month before.
The former Bayern Munich star moved to North London from Koln that summer, and while his stint with the club wasn’t the most illustrious, he became something of a cult hero for his aggressive style of play and thunderous left peg.
In all, the Gliwice-born dynamo would make 82 appearances under Wenger, in which he’d score 31 goals, provide 15 assists, and win an FA Cup before joining Italian giants Inter Milan on a six-month loan in January 2015 and then sealing a permanent move to Galatasaray the following summer for around £1.8m.
Overall, while Podolski wasn’t a bad player for Arsenal and scored some brilliant goals in his time with the club, he is incomparable to the player the Gunners were supposedly keen on signing that same summer.
When Arsenal wanted to sign Eden Hazard
Yes, the future Premier League icon that Arsenal wanted to sign in the same summer they bought Podolski was Eden Hazard, and by all accounts, he wanted the move as well.
In an interview with French outlet DH in April 2021, the Belgian’s former agent, John Bico, revealed that the Gunners, Chelsea, both Manchester clubs and Tottenham were keen on his client.
However, even though a move to the red side of North London was Hazard’s “number one choice”, Bico convinced him to join the Pensioners due to Arsenal’s position at the time and the number of young players already there.
Interestingly, in another interview with GOAL, former chief transfer negotiator Dick Law revealed that it was the cost involved that stopped them from pulling the trigger back then.
“Eden Hazard as well, we wanted to do that deal. But there was a sense of responsibility and running the club prudently, all the time knowing that every £1 we spent we had to act as if it was our money. It was very, very difficult.”
Unfortunately for the North Londoners, Lille eventually sold their incredible talent to Chelsea for around £32m. Over the next seven years, he would go on to become a Premier League “legend,” as Chelsea fan Frank Khalid dubbed him.
In all, the La Louvière-born icon made 352 appearances for the West Londoners, in which he scored 110 goals, provided 85 assists, and won almost everything there is to win, including two Premier League titles, two Europa Leagues, an FA Cup, and a League Cup.
| Hazard’s Chelsea record | |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 352 |
| Goals | 110 |
| Assists | 85 |
| Goal Involvements per Match | 0.55 |
| All Stats via Transfermarkt | |
He then netted the club up to £130m from Real Madrid, although the less said about his time in Spain, the better.
Ultimatley, Podolski was a reasonably successful signing for Arsenal given the price and shouldn’t be looked upon as a mistake, but it certainly was a mistake not to also sign Hazard that same summer, as the Belgian is undoubtedly a Premier League great.
