Arsenal, Chelsea contacted agent of unsettled ex-Man Utd star forward

Former Manchester United star Paul Ince has revealed how the language barrier, as well as interest from both Arsenal and Chelsea, almost cut short his time at Inter Milan.

Following his illustrious six-year tenure with Manchester United, Ince left Old Trafford in 1995 amid claims his ego had ruffled Sir Alex Ferguson. Labelled the ‘Guv’nor’, Ince won over fans at Inter despite not bagging any trophies during his two-season stay in Serie A.

However, Ince who returned to the English game with Liverpool in 1997 has admitted that he almost joined either Arsenal or Chelsea within three months of his departure from United.

Recounting his early days in Italy, Paul Ince told Ladbrokes 1-2-Free (via The Mirror): “The first three or four months were really tough for me in Italy. It’s always tough when you move abroad because the language is such a barrier.

“It’s completely different nowadays; football clubs are so cosmopolitan, and pretty much everyone speaks English, and that makes it easy to settle in. In my time, no one spoke English. It was only really Nicola Berti and my best pal, Massimo Paganin, who spoke English, but the rest of them didn’t.

“So it was tough, you know, in those first few months. I was wondering whether or not I’d made the right decision. I started to think about going back to England, and my agent told me Arsenal would take me, and that Chelsea were interested.”

Paul Ince of United jumps over the slide tackle of Stuart Ripley of Blackburn. (Photo by Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)

Ince also revealed how the arrival of Roy Hodgson helped shape his Milan career.

“The most important thing for me out in Italy was the arrival of Roy Hodgson,” Ince recalled. “Prior to that, we had a manager called Ottavio Bianchi, who was playing me out on the left. I’m not a left-winger. I’m a central midfielder!

“When Roy came in, I felt like I had someone close to me all of a sudden. You know, we stayed at a hotel called the Villa d’Este and so I’d meet up with him for dinner and we’d sit and talk football with a glass of wine… finally I was thinking, ‘This is the life!’ And then everything just seemed to click, from that moment. The fans seemed to adore me. It was great.

“It’s a shame I had to come back, to be honest, because I still had three years left on my contract, and Ronaldo turned up in the next season! But sometimes, you have to make decisions for your family. Sometimes I look back and it’s something I regret. But family comes before anything.”