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Olympiacos midfielder, Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez has revealed Arsenal were interested in signing him in 2011.
Arsenal were looking to recruit an attacking midfielder that summer under the likelihood that Samir Nasri would be leaving.
Carcela-Gonzalez who was at Standard Liege at the time, claims Arsene Wenger wanted to sign him, however he suffered a severe facial injury which ended his chances of a move.
Arsenal instead bought Gervinho for £10.5m from Lille. The winger scored just 9 Premier League goals for the club before departing for Roma two years later.
“In 2011, that was the time when I was hesitating between Belgium and Morocco,” said Carcela-Gonzalez (via Football365). “I’d received quite a few offers from Arsenal, Marseille and Benfica. Vicente del Bosque, Spain’s manager at the time, asked me to have a test with Spain’s U21s.
“Real Madrid put a lot of pressure on me to choose either Spain or Belgium because they don’t like players leaving mid-season for the Africa Cup of Nations. Negotiations were underway, then the accident happened.”
Following the accident, Carcela-Gonzalez joined Anzhi Makhachkala. He calls the period in which saw him undergo surgery on a number of facial fractures and broken teeth the “most difficult period of his life”.
The midfielder signed for Olympiacos this summer from Granada. He scored five and assisted once for the Spanish outfit last season.
