Former Arsenal right-back Lauren says he chose the North London side over Real Madrid thanks to a meeting with David Dein and Arsene Wenger.

As one of the biggest clubs in world football, it’s not often that Real Madrid fail to sign and hold onto the players they want. We did see them lose Cristiano Ronaldo this summer, but there’s already speculation over a number of top names who could replace him at the club.

However, one man who did turn down the La Liga side is Arsenal legend Lauren. He’s previously spoken about how he was ‘very close’ to signing for Real, but he told Soccer AM last week why he decided on the Gunners instead.

“When I went to David Dein’s house, I sat down with Arsene Wenger and from then on everything was right,” Lauren explained. “It was the right move at the right time. I spent four or five hours there, having dinner, talking about football.

“I got the impression that they wanted to know the person. They knew everything about football but he wanted to know which person he was signing. It was impressive.”

Lauren went on to make 159 appearances for Arsenal, winning the Premier League twice, the FA Cup three times and two Community Shields. Most notably, he was part of the team that won the league unbeaten in 2003/04.

For all the success Real Madrid had, you doubt the right-back has any regrets about being able to play a part in such a monumental achievement by Arsene Wenger’s side. Every year there’s talk about repeating it until every team loses a game, whilst no one really cares about points totals, goals scored and so on until the season ends.

The fans are certainly glad to have had Lauren. I’m sure they’ll be even happier knowing he chose them over such a big team.