Sergi Samper moved from Barcelona to Granada on a season long loan in the summer, but he could have already been in England.
Linked repeatedly with a move to Arsenal, some of the claims from the Catalan media even thought Barcelona had lost the talent and he was off to join Arsene Wenger, like others had before.
In 2015 Mundo Deportivo and others in Spain claimed it was Samper and his circle trying to persuade Arsenal on a deal, having passed up the opportunity previously.
It was explained that in 2011 Samper visited Arsenal’s facilities along with Jon Toral and Hector Bellerin, but unlike the other two he decided against a move. His family feel that was poor advice from agent Pere Guardiola and that the brother of Pep may have been acting in the interests of Barcelona rather than of the young midfielder.
Speaking to the website of current club Granada, Samper was asked about Arsenal interest, and said: “I didn’t want to listen to Wenger. I made it clear that I wanted to stay, that I wanted to succeed at Barça, that was very good and that the happiest thing I did was to be able to succeed in Barça in the future.”
Even if it were true, Samper could hardly say ‘I regretted turning Arsenal down but they weren’t interested when we contacted them again’, could he?!
