Jose Mourinho claimed Arsenal star was an all-time nice and practically signed him for Barcelona

Former Chelsea and Manchester United supervisor Jose Mourinho admitted he was an “inch” away from signing a participant who would go on to turn out to be an “all-time nice” at Arsenal.

Mourinho is already considered top-of-the-line bosses there has ever been, having fun with loads of success and profitable main honours with FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Actual Madrid, Man Utd and AS Roma.

Cristiano Ronaldo even referred to as Mourinho the perfect supervisor he has ever labored with again in 2015, saying: “I might put him on the prime, I all the time say that. He’s a superb coach, he did many good issues and received many trophies for different golf equipment.”

Throughout his profession, the Portuguese tactician has entertained the footballing world with some sensible quotes and touchline moments, and he has additionally struck gold on quite a few gamers within the switch market.

Jose Mourinho’s finest signings in photos

From defensive stars at Chelsea in Ashley Cole and Petr Cech to attacking icons in Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there have been loads of high-profile names Mourinho has persuaded to hitch him down the years.

Nonetheless, one of many near-misses Mourinho had within the early days of his teaching profession was with Thierry Henry, who would go on to turn out to be an Arsenal icon.

Mourinho and Robson practically signed Henry for Barcelona

Now Arsenal’s document goalscorer after a memorable eight-year spell in north London, Henry was signed from Juventus in 1999.

He received two Premier League titles at Highbury and lifted the FA Cup on three events, happening as top-of-the-line gamers the highest flight has ever seen.

Juventus solely had the French ahead for a matter of months earlier than promoting him to the Gunners, they usually signed him from AS Monaco.

It might have been a lot totally different, although, with Mourinho revealing in 2014 that in his time as Barcelona assistant supervisor to Sir Bobby Robson, the Catalan giants had been an “inch” away from signing Henry from Monaco.

Henry would come up towards Mourinho on quite a few events however by no means labored underneath the Portuguese boss, who referred to as Henry “one of many all-time greats”.