Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
‘It was a lot of money’: 38-year-old claims he nearly signed for Arsenal for £17m
Chris Samba made his name in the Premier League as a solid mid-table defender, but he could’ve ended up playing for one of the biggest clubs in England at one point.
Indeed, on the All to Play For Podcast, Samba opened up on how he almost got a big move away from Blackburn Rovers in the early 2010s as Arsenal and Tottenham were vying for his signature.
Samba says that he spoke to both Arsenal and Spurs, back in the day, but both north London clubs were put off signing him due to his £17m pricetag at the time.
Samba could’ve joined Arsenal or Tottenham
The 38-year-old spoke about the failed move to north London.
“I’ve saw players go with David Bentley going to Tottenham, Stephen Warnock went to Aston Villa and Phil Jones went to Manchester United. So it was time for me to go and try to play in the Champions League if I can. There was a discussion going on with Arsenal, there was a discussion also with Tottenham, but it never happened because at the time paying £17m for a central defender was too much. It was a lot of money at the time and they thought it was too high of a valuation,” Samba said.
For the best
No disrespect to Chris Samba, but it’s probably a good thing that neither Arsenal nor Tottenham ended up signing him.
Indeed, both clubs were about to unite highly successful centre-back partnerships and Samba wouldn’t have improved either team.
Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker helped Arsenal to a couple of FA Cups during that period, while Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld is arguably Spurs’ greatest ever centre-back pairing.
Samba was certainly good enough to play for a top club at one point, but it was the wrong place at the wrong time for either Arsenal or Spurs.
