Jesé Rodríguez scored for Stoke against Arsenal following his loan move to the Potters, but could Arsenal have signed him in the past?

The 24-year-old Spanish striker is a product of the Real Madrid academy,  and spent five years with the senior side and Real Madrid B, before moving to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.

After very limited game time for the team from the French capital, Jesé went on loan to Las Palmas in January, scoring three goals in 16 appearances, and has now gone out again to Stoke for the current campaign.

However, before PSG made their move for the player there were links made between Arsenal and the Spanish striker. In the summer transfer window in 2015 there were articles written about ‘Why Real Madrid’s Jese Rodriguez would be the perfect summer transfer for Arsenal’, although at this point there were no rumours that Arsenal might actually be interested.

Things then escalated the following summer, when it seemed like Jesé might be on the way out of Madrid. Arsenal were widely reported to be looking for a striker (this was before Alexis had been moved up front of course), and the Spaniard seemed to be one of their targets.

The Standard reported that Arsenal had turned their attentions to Rodríguez after having a bid for Alexandre Lacazette rejected. But nothing more came of it, Jesé joined PSG later that summer, and Lacazette finally joined Arsenal in the current window.

Whilst I definitely don’t feel that the Gunners will regret this decision at all in the long-term, it was a little bit painful this weekend.