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How’s your luck? Tottenham believed they were about to sign midfielder Emmanuel Petit in 1997, but Arsenal had other plans.
This was a highly successful era for the Gunners – during the summer, Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt joined the team, and Arsene Wenger took on the managerial role in 1996.
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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, negotiating with Tottenham chairman Alan Sugar about a potential move from Monaco to the capital. Arsenal became aware of this meeting and managed to send a message to him, urging him not to commit to anything until he had a chance to hear Wenger’s vision for the new chapter set to begin at Highbury.
Given that Wenger was the one who had nurtured him at the French club, Petit found it reasonable to request Sugar for some time at his hotel to consider the proposal.
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 would give it, but after a couple of days I signed for Arsenal and it went into newspapers and all of a sudden the story came.
“I realised the pressure of the rivalry then.”
Speaking about it in 2018, Petit added: “It’s part of the legend now. David Dein still loves that story – and [more than] 20 years later he’s still telling it!”
His transfer began Wenger’s revolution, with Gilles Grimandi and Nicolas Anelka also arriving at Highbury.
And Petit was a very busy man.
By the end of the pony-tailed one’s first season, he was a Premier League and FA Cup winner, his partnership with Patrick Vieira in midfield lauded, he won the World Cup and he even found time to help Sun Hill’s finest with an appearance on former ITV drama The Bill.
Speaking of the World Cup, he credits Zinedine Zidane with inspiring the nation to beat Brazil in the 1998 final.
But those long blond locks he became known for may never have been seen by British fans, as his teammates threatened to cut them off owing to an apparent rudeness.
“When the French lads came over, the atmosphere was a little different,” Ray Parlour recalled to talkSPORT.
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“Us British guys had a little bit more fun.
“Dennis Bergkamp was another one, they were a little more bit serious and we tried to get a bit of fun out of them.
“They did change quickly and they did really enjoy the banter, but every now again, for example, Manu Petit sometimes would walk straight past you.
“You’d say, ‘morning, Manu’, and he’d walk straight past you.
“He did it to all the players. He did it to Tony Adams, he did it to David Seaman and that’s not acceptable.
“Whatever problems you have, you say good morning to somebody, don’t you? It’s very rude if you just walk past someone. It’s just having that respect for other people.
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“So, one morning we nailed him against the wall and told him: ‘Make sure you say good morning to everybody because, if you don’t, we’ll cut your ponytail off!’
“We even had scissors.
“After that, he was good as gold!”
Petit, though, would have been more worried by Martin Keown telling him to behave. Working alongside other former Arsenal teammates Luis Boa-Morte and Nicolas Anelka, he said the talkSPORT host was the player he’d want next to him in a fight or midfield partner Vieira. He even joked football saved Keown from a stretch in jail. “Martin is such a nice guy but all of a sudden, in the space of one second, he can change.”
Petit also found himself part of the talkSPORT network and was in Germany as part of the Euro 2024 team. He lambasted Kylian Mbappe for wearing a mask after the France star broke his nose, willing his compatriot to be tougher, while he also said he was bored watching England play.
His deal wasn’t the first to be hijacked – Spurs nabbed Paul Gascoigne from Man United – and it won’t be the last given Chelsea also stole a march on Spurs by pinching Willian in 2012.
Keep up to date with the latest transfer news with the talkSPORT transfer blog
