Gunners push the envelope

ARSENAL have agreed to sign a player who almost quit football to become a POSTMAN.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has given his stamp of approval to Auxerre striker Yaya Sanogo, 20, handing him a four-year deal.

Sanogo delivered 10 goals in 13 games last season for his Ligue 2 club. But the France Under-21 international revealed he was close to packing in the game after a double leg break in 2010.

He said: “I felt there was no point in me continuing and putting my health at risk.

“I couldn’t run any more, the doctors didn’t know what my problem was and I felt disgusted.

“I told my mother that I was going to work for the Post Office.

“But one day I tried to run once more, it went well, and I recovered bit by bit.”

Sanogo, a target for Lille, said he was won over by the first-class treatment he received from Wenger and Gunners scout Gilles Grimandi.

The striker added: “Gilles came to watch me at Auxerre and he invited me to a hotel in Paris. Arsene Wenger was there to welcome me in person.

“I was very impressed that he had come all that way specially. He told me I would get my chance at Arsenal.

“He said he’d been following me for years. The journey he’d made convinced me to join Arsenal.”