Tottenham lost Emmanuel Petit to Arsenal when they hijacked transfer and north London rivals even paid for his taxi to Arsene Wenger’s house
How's your luck? Tottenham believed they were about to sign midfielder Emmanuel Petit in 1997, but Arsenal had other plans.
This was a period of great success for the Gunners — Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt were added to the squad that summer, while manager Arsene Wenger was appointed manager in 1996.
So when it was put to France international Petit: Do you want to fight relegation or challenge for Premier League titles, it was a no-brainer.
Petit was in London, talking to Spurs chairman Alan Sugar about moving to the capital from Monaco. Arsenal heard about the meeting and got word to him not to sign anything until the midfielder had at least heard Wenger's pitch about this new era that was about to unfold at Highbury.
That seemed fair enough considering Wenger was the man who brought him through at the French club, so Petit asked Sugar for time to think about the offer at his hotel.
Spurs even paid for the taxi to drive him there, but the player instead diverted the cab to Wenger's house where he was joined by vice-chairman David Dein and a £3.5m deal was sealed.
Speaking to Andy Goldstein on talkSPORT Drive, Petit said: “I had meetings on the same day with Tottenham and Arsenal and had a meeting with Tottenham in the morning, but when I came to England I didn’t know about the rivalry between the two clubs.
«When I left the Spurs stadium, they booked me a cab and the cab driver asked me for directions, so I gave him the Arsenal address and I didn’t realise that the cab was pre-paid by Spurs, so they knew where I was going!
»I’d told Spurs that I needed time to think about it but knew that I had to see Arsenal, as well as other clubs in Italy and Spain.
“I told everyone that I’d make my mind up and when I knew the answer I
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