Manchester United are hoping to hijack a transfer for a former Arsenal target, but this time, the Gunners won’t be caught cold.

The Red Devils have opened talks for Benjamin Sesko after sending a delegation to Germany to meet with RB Leipzig officials.

9

talkSPORT understands the striker favours a move to Man United over Newcastle, who are also pushing for his signature.

Arsenal had been heavily linked with the 22-year-old this summer but have since pivoted to sign an alternative target.

Mikel Arteta’s side have completed a £63.7million deal for Viktor Gyokeres, who ironically also had interest from Man United.

However, the 27-year-old turned down the opportunity to reunite with former manager Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford.

Arsenal would have been forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu when United looked to hijack their negotiations with Sporting Lisbon.

In 2003, Alex Ferguson greenlit the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo for £12m from Sporting, a then record for a teenager in England.

Arsenal had been keeping tabs on the Portuguese as a youngster, and Arsene Wenger was keen on bringing the 18-year-old to London.

Speaking to GQ magazine in 2010, Ronaldo said, via FourFourTwo: “It’s true. I was an inch away from signing for Arsenal.

“I saw Arsene Wenger three times with my mother. It was very close to being a done deal.

“After I signed for United, she and I were sitting watching a Premier League game on television, and she yelled out, ‘I know that guy – I liked him.’”

9

9

How close was Ronaldo to signing for Arsenal?

Ronaldo’s meeting with Wenger, which happened months before he moved to Man United, had been almost three years in the making.

Former Arsenal scout Damien Comolli claimed he first saw the future five-time Ballon d’Or winner play as a 15-year-old in 2000.

At that time, Ronaldo was starring in a youth tournament in France, and no other Premier League club was in the race to sign him.

“The first time I saw Ronaldo was at the Montaigu tournament. He was 15 years old,” Comolli told SFR Sport 1.

“He was playing Japan and I immediately thought to myself “what is this?”. I called my contact in Portugal at half-time and told him I’d seen a phenomenon. I had never seen anything like it since Thierry Henry.

“He twice visited Arsenal’s training centre. Nobody even knows about that. He met Henry, who was his idol. And when the time had come to complete the transfer, there was no money.

9

“A few months later, Manchester United partnered up with Sporting and played a friendly against them.

“Ronaldo destroyed them and Ferguson immediately acted.”

The story of Ronaldo’s pre-season audition against Man United remains a famous chapter in what would become a storied career.

In a friendly on 7 August 2003, the future Portugal captain gave John O’Shea a torrid evening as United lost 3-1 to Sporting.

Rio Ferdinand has since jokingly recalled that his fellow defender required an ‘oxygen tank’ after playing against a youthful Ronaldo.

Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, told GQ: “This is what really happened. Everyone wanted Cristiano – Real, Juventus, Barcelona. But only Arsenal and Manchester United attempted to take him from Sporting Lisbon that season. The others wanted to leave him at Sporting at least a year.

“But with United, everything was in place already, since an agreement had been reached the day before the match [a friendly between Manchester United and Sporting].”

Former Man United masseuse Rod Thornley claimed Ronaldo’s performance in that friendly convinced Ferguson to try to broker a deal in the changing rooms after just 45 minutes of play.

9

Inside story of Ronaldo’s Man United transfer

Speaking on the Euro Thrash podcast, Thornley recalled: “We’ve played the game and he was brilliant. He was absolutely outstanding. So, half time’s come the players’ dressing room is one side of a corridor and the management and the medical staff’s on the other side; it’s like partitioned off.

“We’ve sorted the players out, they’re on their way out to the second half, and we come to just get ourselves changed to go out for the second half.

“Sir Alex is in there with David Gill, and a representative from Sporting Lisbon, and whether it was the agent, I don’t know, and they’re discussing, ‘we want to take him now, we want him tonight’.”

Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein admitted his club were still at the table for Ronaldo, but were ‘blown out of the water’ by United.

9

9

“I was asked by our chief scout if I would go with him to see a young boy playing for Portugal Under-18s, and he was only 16,” Dein told Sky Sports.

“You can imagine who that young guy was. It was Cristiano Ronaldo. The following day Manchester United came and blew us out the water. These things happen.”

Five days after that Sporting friendly, Ronaldo was a red and was even handed the No7 shirt vacated by David Beckham.

“Everything changed during that match,” ex-Sporting director of football Carlos Freitas told FourFourTwo. “Within 24 hours, the deal was complete and Cristiano was heading off to England immediately.”

9

9

Ronaldo career stats

Sporting Lisbon (2002-03): 31 games – 5 goals

Man United (2003-09) and (2021-22): 346 games – 145 goals

Real Madrid (2009-18): 438 games – 450 goals

Juventus (2018-2021): 134 games – 101 goals

Al Nassr (2023-): 111 games – 99 goals

Over two decades later, and the rest, as they say, is history – with Ronaldo establishing a legacy as one of the greatest of all time.

Perhaps that is why Wenger has since admitted his biggest regret at Arsenal was not signing the 40-year-old when he had the chance.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, the legendary French manager was asked who he regretted not signing the most.

He explained: “Oof! I would say there is not one player, there are 50! On the other hand, maybe the closest [to that] was Cristiano Ronaldo, when he signed for Man United.

“We had an agreement with Sporting, and Man United took Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach, and they just outbid us quickly and took Ronaldo. But we had an agreement basically.

“He had the shirt of Arsenal, I had lunch with him and his mother at the training ground!

“It’s one example, but there were so many. The history of a big club is full of missed great players!”