Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has spoken of his failed bid to land Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Manchester United.

Ronaldo revealed yesterday that he came "within an inch" of signing for the Gunners. And he insisted he still has tremendous esteem for Wenger - as does his mother.

Ronaldo visited the Arsenal training ground with his mum Maria Dolores Dos Santos Aveiro and suave Wenger pulled out all the stops to convince him as well as his family to sign for the London giants. He even gave Ronaldo a Gunners shirt with his name on the back.

But while mum Maria Dolores fell for Wenger's charms, the winger chose United in the end.

Wenger quipped: "I'm disappointed that I seduced only Ronaldo's mum! It was a question of the amount of transfer fee to Sporting Lisbon. Of course, he's proved to be a bargain.

"The price in fact we discussed was much lower. It was divided by three. What killed the deal is that United came back from the US and played against Sporting Lisbon and Ronaldo was man of the match.

"I had Ronaldo at the training ground, I showed him around and I gave him a shirt. It has got his name on the back.

"I wanted him to be here but he went to Man United.

"It was because of Carlos Queiroz they signed him.

"They had a partnership agreement with Lisbon and in that partnership they played them after coming back from the States.

"Also what killed us was the United players must have been dead coming out of the plane and Ronaldo was fresh, so he must have been even more dominant.

"Queiroz knew him well and since then they have signed Anderson and Nani from Portugal because of him. It's like I can sign from France because I know them well."

Wenger had spotted Ronaldo playing for Portugal's Under-19s in the famous Toulon tournament.

The French chief added: "I saw he was an exceptional talent but we could not predict that he would become the player that he is.

"What we did not see in him at that time is his capability to score goals. He was something special but he did not score."