Barcelona great Gerard Pique has confirmed Arsenal were close to signing him before his move to Manchester United.

Pique says former Gunners boss Arsene Wenger also tried to land Lionel Messi.

He told BBC Five Live, "The first one was Cesc [Fabregas] the summer before I left to go to Manchester United.

"Then Arsene [Wenger] came to sign me. At that time Arsenal didn't want to get into a big fight with Barcelona because they already took Cesc.

"So they were trying to arrive to a deal with Barcelona and it took more time than we wanted to so Manchester United arrived and said, 'Listen, we want you, lets make a decision right now,' and I decided to go there."

Pique then continued: "And it's true that later on I think Arsene also tried to sign Messi - but he didn't have a chance.

"So then the good part of that is all of us went back to Barcelona, we played together again for the first team of Barcelona."