Playing for West Bromwich Albion just since last summer, former Manchester City, Everton, and English NT defensive midfielder Gareth Barry (36) talked about how he got close to join Arsenal in the past: "There were a couple of conversations with representatives and Arsène that he was interested. Before I was leaving Villa and when I was leaving Man City to go to Everton there was a bit of interest too. But it didn't materialise. I've got massive respect for Arsène Wenger, for what he's done for the English game, and it would have been good to work under him, but that didn't happen. He deserves credit, because he was ahead of the game back then. If you speak to people who worked with him in the late 1990s, he was seeing things and doing things that other managers in England weren't".
Source: transfermarketweb.com