New Manchester City signing Jesus Navas has revealed that he rejected the chance to join Premier League rivals Arsenal three years ago.
The Spanish international completed a £16m move from Sevilla to the Etihad Stadium earlier this summer in order to link up with new manager Manuel Pellegrini.
However, Navas admits that he could have been an Arsenal player in 2010, but did not want to leave a Sevilla side who had just won a Spanish Cup and qualified for the Champions League.
"At that time, I was still winning and achieving things at Sevilla and therefore it wasn't the right time to move," the Daily Star quotes Navas as saying.
"My time at Sevilla was great but we haven't won anything for two or three years and I feel now is the right time to move on. I am ambitious to win things. I always demand 100% from myself so for that reason it was the right time to go.
"It was a few years ago now. It's all in the past and I've moved on. Otherwise I wouldn't be here now. I have a wife and young baby now and having them in England will help me settle."
Navas was City's first signing of the summer, before the captures of Fernandinho, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic.
Matt Cotton
