Manchester United have had a history of signing some of Arsenal’s top stars over the years.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously made England right-back Viv Anderson his first signing after he took over at Old Trafford back in 1987 as he secured the defender’s services from Arsenal when an arbitrator awarded Anderson to United for a bargain price of £250,000.
Arsenal struggled for sometime to replace the outgoing Viv Anderson and as result had defensive issues for several seasons before signing Lee Dixon while Anderson became one of the cornerstones of Ferguson’s rebuilding of the Red-Devils.
Perhaps the most memorable and most impactful signings United have made from Arsenal was when they literally stole Robin van Persie from Arsene Wenger’s Emirates club when SAF signed the Dutchman in the summer of 2012 for another bargain fee of only £23million initially.
Van Persie was coming off a great season at Arsenal where he led the Premier League in scoring with an impressive 30 goal haul but the striker announced that he would not be signing a new deal with Arsenal meaning he could leave a year later for nothing.
Arsenal clearly did not want to lose RVP for nothing so in swooped Man United to prise the striker from the Emirates and the Dutchman went on to be an inspired signing as he was a big reason why United won the title in the 2012-13 season which also proved to be SAF’s last as we now know.
Van Persie tailed off in subsequent seasons but he was still a steal.
This past January of course saw United most unexpectedly intervene to sign another Gunners star in Alexis Sanchez who had also been linked with Chelsea. Jose Mourinho seemingly outbid rivals Manchester City, who looked certain to sign the Chilean hitman, and secured the player on a huge wage contract.
Whether Sanchez was swapped for Henrikh Mkhitaryan or not is still up for debate and so far Sanchez has not been the success he was expected to be at Old Trafford but he may well still come good.
The latest Arsenal name to be linked with a move to United is none other than midfielder Jack Wilshere who has been at Arsenal his whole career.
Wilshere has suffered some tough injury problems over his career and spent a season on loan at Bournemouth before returning to the Emirates last season. The Englishman spent much of the 1st half of the season on the bench only playing occasionally in Cup matches but did feature more later in Arsene Wenger’s last season in charge.
While Wilshere might seem like a strange option for United he does have lots of Premier League experience, has won 2 FA Cup trophies and seems to have strengthened his core making him less injury prone.
Wilshere, now out of contract, has a new contract offer on the table at Arsenal but reportedly remains unconvinced of playing time under new Gunners boss Unai Emery.
Whether Jose Mourinho thinks he can take advantage of Wilshere’s undoubted talents remains to be seen but with outlets like MEN reporting on the story and United still not coming to a new contract agreement with Marouane Fellaini signing Wilshere might be a good option.
With Jose Mourinho reportedly only having a more limited transfer kitty to play with this summer we just could see another Gunner become a Red-Devil despite the fact Newcastle, Everton, West Ham and others have been strongly linked with a move for Arsenal’s out of contract Wilshere.