I declined an offer made by Arsenal and instead picked Cambridge United: David Moyes

David Moyes almost joined Arsenal during his playing career

Former Manchester United and current Real Sociedad manager David Moyes has said that he declined an offer given to him by Premier League side Arsenal and instead chose to take an offer made by lower-division club Cambridge United, during his time as a player.

"Cambridge were in what's now the Championship. Arsenal manager Terry Neill called me at my house in Glasgow and told me they were going to sign me, but a week later, they called back and said: 'we've decided to take you on loan'.

"I wasn't having that, leaving Celtic to go on loan, so I turned it down. Arsenal went on to buy the late Tommy Caton instead. I joined Cambridge and played every week, which I wasn't doing at Celtic,” Moyes told FourFourTwo in an interview.

"We were relegated two years in a row at Cambridge before I moved to Bristol City. That league had Newcastle United in it, with Kevin Keegan and Chris Waddle, and Chelsea, with Kerry Dixon and David Speedie. It was a really tough league and Cambridge were the smallest club in the division - as they would be now,” he added.

Maybe, I should’ve joined the Gunners: Moyes

Moyes feels that he is putting to use whatever he learnt during a 19-year long playing career as a manager now and felt that maybe he could have accepted the offer made by the Gunners at the time.

"We went down and there was a chain reaction which couldn't be stopped and we went down again. I played nearly 600 games in my career and it was varied through the divisions. That helps me as a coach and I wouldn't change it, though maybe I should have said yes to Arsenal,” he said.