'Arsenal wanted me and I was close to joining - this is why I signed for Chelsea instead'

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Shaun Wright-Phillips has revealed that he was on the brink of signing for Arsenal before ultimately joining Chelsea . The former England winger went on to clinch the Premier League and FA Cup titles at the Blues under the guidance of Jose Mourinho .

The son of football legend Ian Wright , Shaun started his career at Nottingham Forest before moving to Manchester City's academy. He quickly made his mark in City's first team and initially thought he would spend his entire career there.

However, in July 2005, both Arsenal, where his father is revered as a legend , and Chelsea expressed interest in signing him . Despite being content in Manchester, Wright-Phillips was approached by Arsene Wenger .

But it was Chelsea who ultimately secured his services for £21million, thanks to the swift actions of then-head coach Mourinho and former owner Roman Abramovich .

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"As that young kid there [at City] playing, I was quite naïve, didn't really care about silverware. I wasn't thinking about winning the Premier League. I just literally enjoyed playing football for the club I was at," Wright-Phillips said on In The Mixer , brought to you by Sky Bet.

"So in my head, I'm thinking, 'Yeah, I'm happy. I can just stay here for the remainder of my career.' And then the pre-season comes in 2004-2005 and about two weeks before that I had a call from my agent.

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"He said, 'Arsenal are interested in you.' I was like, 'Yeah, okay, but I'm happy where I am.' He said, 'Well, I don't think you have much of a choice.'

"I kind of replied, 'Well I do have much of a choice because it's me.' But it doesn't work like that. Then he called me back three days later and said, 'Right, Chelsea are interested as well.'

"Obviously, you've got Dad in one corner with the whole Arsenal thing. So they spoke to Arsene Wenger. Wenger said, 'We want him, but we want to watch him a bit more until January.'

"Mourinho and [Roman] Abramovich called in and said we're taking him now. I still said, 'I'm happy where I am', but then the club said, 'You have to go.'

"So City had a game. I think it was at Macclesfield and I remember Paul Dickov saying I was not playing today and Pearcey [Stuart Pearce] was the manager at the time. He said, 'I've been told I'm not allowed to play you.'

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"So I basically got off the bus, walked into the changing room and within 10 minutes a car was outside to take me straight to London. Then I went straight to London and had the [Chelsea] medical and that was it.

"People ask me all the time, but I have no regrets. The players I played with... I was lucky. It was a joke. We had so much fun on and off the pitch, the bond that we had was incredible."