Arsenal’s Wenger chose Walcott over Gareth Bale

Arsene Wenger missed out on signing Gareth Bale from Southampton before the Welshman joined north London rivals Tottenham, opting to buy Theo Walcott instead.

Bale, an Arsenal fan, and Walcott used to be room-mates at Southampton but, although Bale was shown around Arsenal's training ground, he decided not to follow his team-mate and moved to Spurs for £7million in May 2007.

Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker was also interested in a move to Arsenal when he left West Ham United last summer but, despite a ringing endorsement from his England team-mate Jack Wilshere, Wenger decided against signing the 31-year-old.

When asked if he came close to signing Bale, Wenger said: “Yes, but we had full-backs at the time. We had (Gael) Clichy, we had (Ashley) Cole. We were more on Walcott. Walcott was a lot of money.”

Bale will visit The Emirates on Sunday as part of a Tottenham side who are closing in on finishing above Arsenal in the Premier League for the first time since 1995.

The Frenchman will make a decision on Laurent Koscielny's knee injury on Saturday, but is already without central defenders Pet Mertesacker and Sebastien Squillaci, as well as left-backs Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos.

The Arsenal boss said: “Overall I feel we have stabilised our defence. But it was a blow to lose Mertesacker, personally. He is a good reader of the game, a calming influence and we have to reshuffle now our defence. To lose Santos and Gibbs together - we have lost so many players.

“(But) to feel sorry for ourselves would be criminal. We have a good opportunity (on Sunday) to show that we have character, that we have the mental qualities to play for this club and let's go for it.”