Arsenal share Wenger’s transfer vision over one of Guardiola’s most impressive signings ever

Oleksandr Zinchenko offers proof that Pep Guardiola’s magic does not need multi-million pound talents to work. No wonder Arsenal are sniffing.

The 2013/14 UEFA Youth League was an ostensibly unremarkable tournament. Barcelona thrashed Benfica in the final, with top scorer Munir netting in every knockout game. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City reached the quarter-finals. Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes coached James Wilson, Paddy McNair, Andreas Pereira and Manchester United to an exit in the group stage. And Arsene Wenger almost signed someone.

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“He called and said: ‘I have a need for that player. He’s going to play in the first team. I know he is only 17, but I’m going to write a letter to his family that I will take care of him when he is with us and he’ll play in the first team,” Sandor Varga claimed two years later, Zinchenko having impressed at Euro 2016.

“Arsene had seen a youth game of Shakhtar and took 20 minutes to assess the potential of Oleksandr. Wenger asked me ten times about Zinchenko and I later informed him and felt even a bit sad because I couldn’t help him. [Arsenal] made an offer but there were some problems and then Zinchenko was discovered by a lot of people.”

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A sprightly attacking midfielder, Zinchenko had scored the goal to essentially confirm Shakhtar Donetsk’s qualification in the competition at the