Monaco winger, Allan Saint-Maximin, has revealed that Arsenal tried to sign him in 2015 but he decided to sign a new deal with his club at the time, Saint-Etienne, instead.

Saint-Maximin, 20, told France Football that he felt he owed Saint-Etienne something since they were the Ligue 1 club that developed him. While there, he made just nine League appearances during his final season and months after turning down Arsenal’s proposal, signed for Monaco.

“Saint-Etienne promised me game time, but I was also a year off my deal coming to an end,” the winger told France Football.

“Despite my situation, I still had a lot of big clubs, including Arsenal, who wanted me.

“I owed Saint-Etienne something, and I was also proud to impose myself in the club that developed me. Therefore I signed a new deal”.

Saint-Maximin is currently on loan at Bastia after a spell at Hannover and has gone on to appear 26 times in Ligue 1, scoring three and assisting the same amount. He’s also been capped twice for France’s under-20s.

While it’s doubtful that the Gunners had huge plans for the youngster past the youth team, Arsenal have shown numerous times that they’re willing to give the slightly more inexperienced players a chance. Just look at Alex Iwobi. Perhaps Allan wishes he hadn’t said no after all.