Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy offered Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich a minority percentage in the club, it has been revealed.

Mark Taylor, former Chelsea director, explained that the Russian businessman was in talks to buy the Blues' rivals, Spurs, before he took control at Stamford Bridge.

Abramovich went to see Levy the day before he met with Chelsea's then-chairman Ken Bates with his colleague Eugene Tenenbaum, but the Tottenham chief tried to sell him short after he asked about a majority stake.

"The key point was that when Ken met Roman and Eugene Tenenbaum they made it very clear that they wanted to buy control," Taylor explained to The Athletic.

"I think the story is they had seen Daniel Levy the previous day and he'd tried to sell them 29.9 per cent of Tottenham but they didn't want a minority stake, they wanted control."

The decision ended up working wonders for Chelsea, with Abramovich taking charge in June 2003.