The Gunners' manager has risked the wrath of the Emirates crowd by revealing that he passed up the opportunity to sign the star Welsh winger before he joined arch-rivals Tottenham

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As the build-up to the north London derby on Sunday intensifies, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to sign Tottenham winger Gareth Bale Bale, himself an Arsenal fan, and Theo Walcott were room-mates together during their time at Southampton, but unlike Walcott and, more recently, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the Welshman chose not to follow the career path from St Mary's to the Emirates.It was reported that Bale was shown around the London Colney training ground, but decided to move to Spurs in a £7 million deal 18 months after Walcott had left the Saints.Walcott joined the Gunners for a reported £12m, but has often frustrated for the club since his arrival following a series of niggling injuries. The 22-year-old has pleaded with Wenger to be tried at the spearhead of the attack, but Robin van Persie's superb form has ruled that out.Yet while Walcott has failed to deliver at times, the same cannot be said of Bale, who has been a revelation for Spurs.Initially, the move was tough for Bale and he acquired an unenviable record, having played in 24 games for Tottenham without being on the winning side. But he has turned it around emphatically with a number of scintillating displays to wow the Premier League.Whilst Bale and Tottenham sit pretty in third place in the league standings, Arsenal are clinging onto a top-four spot. Indeed, if Spurs win the north London derby on Sunday, it will leave the Gunners a mammoth 13 points behind their nearest and dearest rivals.So with his club perceived by some to be in crisis, Wenger risked tipping the scales of public opinion slightly more with this revelation.Questioned about whether he could have signed Bale, the Frenchman admitted: "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."