Mathieu Debuchy completed his long-awaited move away from Arsenal in the January transfer window when the club terminated his contract allowing him to join Ligue 1 side St. Etienne on a free transfer, but the France international still holds a grudge over what might have been.
While Louis van Gaal was manager, Manchester United made a late window move in January 2016 to sign Debuchy on loan for the rest of the season after the right-back lost his place in the side to Hector Bellerin – only for Arsene Wenger to block the move because he didn’t want to strengthen a direct Premier League rival.
The 32-year-old joined Bordeaux on loan instead and his career has stuttered since then, and Debuchy is still thinking about what might have been.
There were some difficult moments at Arsenal, times when of course I was angry with the coach.
I had an opportunity to be loaned to Manchester United, that he rejected, because he didn’t want to strengthen a direct rival at the time. There were things said that I didn’t necessarily like. But that’s in the past. That’s how it is, that’s football.
Manchester United went on to win the FA Cup in 2016 and Debuchy clearly feels that if his loan move to Old Trafford materialised then his career could’ve panned out differently in the last two years.
