Miralem Pjanic has revealed he twice rejected the chance to move to north London, first turning down the advances of Arsenal before doing the same to their rivals Tottenham.
The 27-year-old Bosnian will come up against Tottenham in the Champions League round of 16 this week, but could have been lining up for the other side had he taken the chance to join them in 2012.
Pjanic, who had already rejected Arsenal while still a budding young prospect at French club Lyon, was earmarked by Tottenham as a successor to Luka Modric after his move to Real Madrid.