Speaking to Podpah, Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhaes has claimed that he very nearly became an Everton player, and he even had a medical with the Toffees at one point.
“I went to Arsenal it was right in the year of Covid, 2020. A little before that my agent said ‘Oh you have an offer from Everton.’ But the guys had already made an agreement, Everton and Lille had agreed everything in the January window,” Gabriel said.
“But I wasn’t going in the January window, I was only going in the middle of the year, in June.
“Then I got suspended for a Lille game, and the Director from Lille said ‘you’re going to go there and you’re going to have a medical and everything’.
“I said ‘Ok, everything was already sorted,’ Man, it was still Ancelotti right, he came to me (at Brazil) and said ‘do you remember me?’ He said ‘This time you’re not going to run because last time you refused and here you can’t say yes or no.”
“I went to Everton did a medical exam, crazy bro, I got there, they prepared a whole thing for me, a reception in the hotel. Gabriel, number four in the hotel room the shirt on the bed.
“I did a medical exam, Ancelotti wasn’t there, it was his son, his assistant, he started showing me videos saying how they wanted me.
“I went back to Lille and then Covid started, the league in France stopped and then I went to Brazil and I was on vacation. In the end I came back and the Director said you have an offer from Napoli, not Arsenal, only Napoli.
“I thought everything was sorted with Everton. But Gattuso called me, the coach of Napoli, Ancelotti called me in the afternoon, what is going to happen? Feeling like Alex Hunter on FIFA, then at the last minute Edu Gaspar called me, the Director from Arsenal,”