Earlier this week Arsène Wenger talked about how close Arsenal came to signing Kylian Mbappé in the summer of 2016.

So we thought we’d look at how Mbappé fits in the best side of players Wenger almost signed.

It’s a relatively regular occurrence that Wenger tells the media that he nearly brought a top player to Arsenal. In his defence, he’s almost always asked the question by reporters looking to rile up Arsenal fans, and the only alternatives are to keep quiet or lie.

Also, it’s not the worst thing in the world that the Gunners have been on the case of some top talent, it’s just disappointing that so few were actually brought to North London. Just one or two of the following players could really have changed Arsenal’s fortunes significantly.

But without further ado, here’s Arsène’s ‘almost signed’ eleven, courtesy of talkSPORT:

Gianluigi Buffon; Roberto Carlos, Gerard Pique, Vincent Kompany, Djibril Sidibe; Yaya Toure, Claude Makelele; Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Thomas Lemar; Zlatan Ibrahimovic

There are more than a couple of names there that would undoubtedly improve the current first team. Mbappé is perhaps the most frustrating right now. Arsenal were linked with the 18-year-old before he’d even scored his first goal for Monaco, and last summer the Gunners seemed pretty close to making a deal happen.

Mbappé clearly thought he’d get more of a chance with the first-team at Monaco, and in the end it worked out for him and he got his dream move back to Paris.

Another one where we’re left wondering what could’ve been…