Arsenal were left heartbroken after being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League following a 3-1 aggregate loss against Luis Enrique's talented Paris Saint-Germain side. The Gunners struggled at times to deal with some of the attacking quality of the French team, but in another world, one of the forwards could've been lining up on the other side.
That man is none other than Georgia international Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The winger gave Jurrien Timber a torrid time over the two legs, particularly in the first 45 minutes of the first leg. Before his rise to become one of the world's best wide players, the north London club could have actually signed him.
Napoli snapped up Kvaratskhelia from Russian club Rubin Kazan in 2022 for a modest £10 million. While that deal now looks like a masterstroke after guiding the Italians to the Serie A title and being moved on for a large profit, the Naples-based outfit took a risk Arsenal weren't willing to take.
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Former Arsenal scout Tomasz Pasieczny, who scanned Eastern Europe for talent, was the man who spotted the young Georgian. He wasn't specifically at Rubin Kazan's game to watch the winger, but he did catch the eye, not necessarily for the right reasons.
Speaking to Polish outlet weszlo.com (per The Sun), Pasieczny revealed the struggles of Kvaratskhelia during the time he spent watching him. The former scout explained: "I was at the old stadium in Kazan for a match with Dynamo Moscow, Khvicha came off the bench, made two completely unsuccessful dribbles, and the fans reacted very negatively."
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Continuing to shed light on how the fan reaction to his unsuccessful actions impacted the player, the ex-Arsenal staff member added: "At that stage, he couldn't cope with it. Every next move was bad, from start to finish. He got lost, the ball bounced off him, you could see that he had lost his confidence.
"He overcame it, but if it had continued, it would have been a problem. Being affected by a few thousand people in Kazan doesn't lead to a good rating...
"Everyone knew he would be mega good, but they wondered how good. Whether he would be the absolute top or a bit lower."
Despite getting over the difficult moments, it was decided that Kvaratskhelia wouldn't be signed due to the risk involved in the deal. Concluding that he was sure the Georgian would be a top-level player, he advised the Gunners against his signing: "Few had any doubts that he wouldn't be anything at all. However, at that stage I had to write how it is, draw conclusions, write where the problems are."