How Arsenal almost signed Fulham sensation Manor Solomon

Stuart Telford

• 7 Mar 2023 10:09 GMT
• 3 min read

Manor Solomon has impressed since joining Fulham on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer, but he could easily have been playing his football across London with Arsenal.

Israel winger Solomon left Shakhtar under the FIFA ruling which allowed players to suspend their contracts with Ukrainian clubs following Vladimir Putin's invasion of the country.

Knee surgery meant Fulham knew they would have to be patient in blooding their new recruit, but now that they have he is up to four goals from just eight Premier League outings.

READ: Manor Solomon's FootballTransfers bio

Solomon was a long-time transfer target of Arsenal's however, and they should be rueuing the fact he is tearing up West London instead of North.

Arsenal interest

"Israeli super-agent Pini Zahavi had been in touch with Arsenal transfer chief Edu to discuss a possible deal after offering the winger to ex-Gunners head of football Raul Sanllehi in May 2020," report the Express.

"And a year down the line, there was still talk about a move, with Shakhtar setting an asking price of £21 million [€24m] for the ace."

READ: Mudryk given scathing assessment by Arsenal legend after Chelsea transfer hijack

But Arsenal baulked at the fee and he joined Fulham under the aforementioned loophole instead.

The Gunners have had a difficult time in attracting a left winger to the Emirates of late.

Another reasons they cooled on Solomon is that they were convinced they could sign his Shakhtar teammate Mykhailo Mudryk, especially with the "Ukrainian Neymar" publicly courting a move.

But Chelsea nipped in at the last minute this winter, agreeing to pay Donetsk €70m up front with €30m to follow in add-ons, and Mudryk now lines up in Blue instead.

Solomon's contract with Shakhtar expires in December, just five months after his loan deal with Fulham expires, and Arsenal could yet sign him on a Bosman next winter.