Eden Hazard the latest star Arsenal missed out on following likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
ARSENAL failed to sign Eden Hazard during Arsene Wenger's reign due to their penny pinching attitude.
A key component of the club's transfer machine, Dick Law, has opened up on why the winger and Thibaut Courtois are on a long list of world class players who escaped their grasp.
Famously, Zlatan Ibrahimovic posed in an Arsenal shirt after a trial in 2000 whilst Cristiano Ronaldo had a tour of the training facilities back when he was 18.
According to Law, a big problem inside the club was a shortage of cash that rivals did not have to contend with.
The Gunners mediator from 2005 to 2018 told : “It was very difficult.
“Our closest competitor other than Chelsea was Manchester United and they had enough free cash that they could afford to make mistakes.
“We always felt that we didn’t have the option to make a mistake because a £10million-£20m mistake would be a serious one for the club.
“Where United would take risks on players, we just didn’t have that luxury.
We were gnashing our teeth over Thibaut Courtois. We knew he was good.
Dick Law
"We didn’t think it was prudent to take those risks.”
Chief scout Steve Rowley and CEO Ivan Gazidis were the major decision makers alongside Wenger at the time.
And Law felt that, when it came to signing up-and-coming stars, the Gunners lacked will power.
He continued: “We had the financial muscle, but the risk reward calculation wasn’t clear.
“Spending a lot of money on a player that didn’t work out would have really put the club in some financial straits.
“Did we miss out on talents? Certainly.
"I remember sitting in meetings with Steve, Ivan and Arsene and gnashing our teeth over Thibaut Courtois. We knew he was good.
“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.”
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Other missed opportunities for the Gunners include Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, who Wenger wanted when bringing Cesc Fabregas over from Barcelona.
Gareth Bale was another half of a potential double swoop the club lived to regret, Arsenal aware of the Welshman when signing Theo Walcott from Southampton.
And Virgil van Dijk was on their radar at Celtic but scout Rowley recommended they didn't go for the £12m man because he was "too nonchalant".