Arsène Wenger has revealed that when Arsenal signed Fàbregas, they also tried to sign Messi and Piqué from Barcelona, but ultimately failed.
Arsène Wenger recently revealed that Fàbregas was not Arsenal's only transfer target at the time. He recalled in an interview with Arsenal's official website:
"The story of Fàbregas is that Francis Cagigao and Steve Rowley brought the player here, and we still had to convince him. I met Fàbregas's parents, and at the time we were also interested in Messi and Piqué. We tried to sign all three players at the same time, but it didn't work out in the end. Still, being able to sign a gem like Fàbregas was already very good. He is an excellent player with a very strong football mind."
Wenger also explained why Arsenal failed to sign Messi and Piqué: "The deals for Piqué and Messi didn't go through because of agent-related factors. I think Nike was also involved at the time, and they wanted Piqué to join Manchester United. As for Messi, Barcelona were of course unwilling to lose him and set out the conditions needed to keep the player. I wasn't really sure whether Messi was interested at the time. I also never had the chance to pursue the deal further, because Barcelona shut down that possibility very early on."