Christian Eriksen revealed he snubbed repeated advances from Manchester United before signing up last month.
The Denmark international joined Erik ten Hag s side on a free transfer in July following a short-term stint with Brentford, having left Inter due to medical issues that meant he was no longer able to play in Italy.
The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator he had fitted after suffering cardiac arrest at the European Championship last year counted Eriksen out of a Serie A return to action.
Eriksen excelled with Thomas Frank s Brentford side, scoring once and contributing four assists in 11 Premier League matches, leading to United s interest.
He indicated he had previously spoken to Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer about a potential move, having been admired since first moving to the Premier League in 2013 with Tottenham.
I ve spoken to every manager who s been here at Man United to see what the situation was, Eriksen told ESPN.
But I was at Spurs at the time and I really couldn t see myself playing in another English team at that time. I went abroad and went to Inter.
10 Christian Eriksen is one of only two players, along with David Beckham for Manchester United, to have recorded 10+ assists in as many as four consecutive Premier League seasons (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19). Trademark.
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It s been on the books, well, not on the books but it s been spoken about. For me, it wasn t the [right] timing, it wasn t there and I was at a place at Spurs for a long time and I wanted to try something abroad, and I went to Inter and ended up having a lovely time.
But then obviously something happened in the summer and that changed a bit the career path I had in mind, and then obviously to come back to Brentford first of all and then to be here is something I didn t think could happen a year ago.
Eriksen s impressive form at Brentford led to United battling the London side for his services, but the midfielder denied there was a possibility of a return to Tottenham.
It was only talk. They never really came with anything, so it wasn t really a thing for me to go back to Tottenham at the time and Man United were very early on, very positive and I had good conversations, he said.
It was very positive from the first few phone calls already and the club felt like they wanted me, so it was on for a long time.