Defender shares baffling reason why he rejected Arsenal and joined Tottenham Hotspur

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When you talk about the big clubs in England, Arsenal are always up there but the same cannot really be said about Tottenham Hotspur.

Yes, the Gunners share a fierce rivalry with the other club in North London, but history shows we are levels above them, and that is never going to change.

If a choice is given to an elite player to choose between Arsenal and Tottenham, almost everyone will pick a move to the Emirates.

One player, however, chose Spurs over the Gunners many years ago, and he has now revealed the baffling reason behind the decision.

Defender shares why he rejected Arsenal for Tottenham

There have been a few players who have played for both Arsenal and Tottenham before.

Sol Campbell, of course, is the best one, and he rightly left that club to join the Gunners, with whom he became a Premier League champion and an Invincible.

That certainly wouldn’t have been possible if he had stayed at Tottenham, which shows that he made the right decision all those years ago.

• READ MORE: Former Tottenham star admits he very ‘nearly’ replaced Patrick Vieira at Arsenal

One player who actually did the opposite is Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

The left-back is a bit of a cult hero at Tottenham. He had his moments at Spurs and some fans there remember him fondly to this day.

Assou-Ekotto, who has been retired for almost six years now, has revealed that he had the chance of joining Arsenal before he moved to Tottenham.

However, he rejected that opportunity, and his reason may baffle you a bit.

He said in an interview with Julian Palmieri on his YouTube show Carton Jaune: “Do you know why I didn’t sign for Arsenal? I asked my agent: “Do they go to the hotel before matches? He said yes, they do. I said I’m not going there. I want to have a life, not live in a hotel.

“Then he told me that Tottenham didn’t do that, so I said cool, we’ll go to Tottenham! What’s more, Arsenal were playing in the European Cup, which meant you weren’t at home 4 days a week!”

• READ MORE: Gary Lineker explains how Tottenham could still play ‘a big part’ in Arsenal title bid

The 15 players who have played for both Arsenal and Tottenham

Arsenal and Tottenham share a fierce rivalry in North London, so not many people dare to represent one of those clubs after they’ve already played for the other.

However, over the years, 15 players have dared to cross the North London derby divide.

We’ve already told you about Sol Campbell, who is loved by everyone at Arsenal. Theo Walcott once claimed he was more of a leader than Thierry Henry.

Then, there are the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, William Gallas and the great Pat Jennings who represented both clubs.

The other 10 players to play for both Arsenal and Tottenham are Jimmy Robertson, Vic Groves, Willie Young, Jimmy Brian, George Hunt, Freddie Cox, Steve Walford, Laurie Brown, David Jenkins and Rohan Ricketts.

David Bentley is another one who played for both clubs, and if you really want to, you can count Harry Kane as well, who played for Arsenal’s youth side when he was a kid before being released.