Rubins was one of 2 Latvian players from Skonto Riga who tried out for Arsenal over the summer. At first it seemed like Rubins was the more fancied of the two (see this newsreel piece), but we ended up only buying his team-mate Igors Stepanovs.

Rubins and Stepanovs both played in the match against Mainz just before the Amsterdam tournamount at the start of August, and Arsenal had options to buy both of them.

We have to admit that at one point ArseWeb thought Rubins the better prospect, and the decision not to buy him may have been clinched by the fact that we already have players of his type. Interestingly, the Latvian coach said last week that Rubins would not be coming to Arsenal "despite interest from Wenger.html", and that he expected the winger to join another English club soon.