Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich turned down the chance to buy Tottenham before purchasing the Stamford Bridge side, it has been claimed.
Mark Taylor, the former Chelsea director, claimed on the Straight Outta Cobham podcast that the Russian businessman was in talks to buy the Blues' rivals, Spurs, before he took control at Stamford Bridge.
Abramovich had previously been reported to have an interest in buying other Premier League clubs including Tottenham - although it has not been confirmed whether that ever got as advanced as talks with the Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.
It has not been confirmed if he got as far as having talks with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy
Yet Taylor claimed while speaking to The Athletic: 'The key point was that when (Chelsea chairman) Ken (Bates) met Roman and Eugene Tenenbaum they made it very clear that they wanted to buy control.