‘Thought I was going’… Midfielder Tottenham signed for £7m says he actually nearly joined Arsenal

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It’s a long time ago now, but once upon a time, Jermaine Jenas was the hottest young property in English football.

The midfielder was a PFA Young Player of the Year winner during his time at Newcastle United, and, as you can imagine, big clubs were sniffing around at that time.

Eventually, Jenas would join Tottenham in a £7m deal, but before he headed to Spurs, he almost ended up on the other side of north London.

Indeed, speaking on Peter Crouch’s podcast, Jenas has stated that he actually almost joined Arsenal under Arsene Wenger.

Jermaine Jenas almost joined Arsenal

The midfielder spoke about how he almost joined the Gunners.

“Arsene Wenger, he’s a lovely guy. Because I nearly went to Arsenal when I left Newcastle. I thought I was going to Arsenal at that time,” Jenas said.

“He was quite vocal. Vieira was about to leave to go to Juve and he always used to say he was an admirer of mine. When I won Young Player of the Year, Martin Keown said everyone in our dressing room voted for you so I thought there was half a chance of going to Arsenal here and at that time Wenger was basically Pep Guardiola.

“I said why didn’t you buy me and he said I should have bought you when you left Forest. I thought you had Cesc Fabregas coming through so I think you were alright! But it was a timing issue with the amount of money that they could spend at the time and it just didn’t happen.”

Better move

As much as Spurs fans won’t thank us for saying this, a move to Arsenal would’ve been better than a move to Tottenham for Jenas at this time.

At this time, Spurs were a bit all over the place, and while Arsenal were on the decline, they had a clear vision under Wenger and the Frenchman was also fantastic at bringing through young players.

Who knows? Perhaps a midfield of Jenas and Fabregas could’ve led Arsenal to more success in the mid 2000s.