Former West Ham defender Julien Faubert has revealed he walked out of a meeting with Rangers to sign for the Hammers.
Faubert joined West Ham in an £8.24m deal from Girondins Bordeaux in August 2007 as the Hammers looked to add a new full-back to their squad.
Despite suffering a severe injury in the early days of his career at the club, he would go on to make 121 appearances in all competitions for the club.
His most famous moment at the club was undoubtedly when he temporarily left in 2009, though, as he completed a shock, and a somewhat bemusing loan move to Spanish giants Real Madrid in January 2009.
However, it seems things could have been very different, as he was extremely close to joining Glasgow giants Rangers.
In fact, he was sitting down at the table ready to sign his contract at Ibrox, when West Ham swooped in to sign him.
“I had left to sign for the Glasgow Rangers, I was talking to them, at the table, with my agent,” Girondins4Ever report him saying.
“And my agent, during this discussion, received a text message, telling him that West Ham was clearly interested and were in Bordeaux.
“He tells me to go to the toilet, we’re talking, and he asks me if I’m interested.
“I tell him, yes, and he asks me to leave from the table, and we go. We left, we left them high and dry, unfortunately.
“We went back to Bordeaux, the people from West Ham were there, and the contracts were already ready.
“Initially, we had gone for four years. The guy clearly says to me, “You want five years?”. I told him, yes, and we started on that.
“I arrived under the best conditions. They paid the transfer indemnity of 10 million euros: it was 8.5 or 9 fixed, and 11 million euros in total.
“I arrived there, and after two weeks of preparation, I seriously injured my Achilles tendon. The club was a godsend; it managed everything, took care of everything.
“Frankly, I was in the best conditions there, and that’s why I was flourished there.”
