Frank McAvennie admits he came close to missing his move to West Ham United.
The Scot is regarded as an Irons legend, having had two spells with the club.
He recalled to whufc.com: “I actually came down (from St Mirren) to sign for Luton Town. If the chairman hadn’t have slapped me on the back of the head, I probably would have signed for them.
“Luton were a really good side at the time, and they had David Pleat as their manager. David was a great manager and he was great at talking about football. He was a good footballing man. I came down to England to sign for them, but the Luton chairman slapped me on the head, and said ‘Welcome to Luton, Macca!’
“When the chairman came in, apart from slapping me, he wouldn’t tell my agent or I how much I was going to be getting. He was saying the right things, but it was all ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.
“With that, and with the slap on the head, that was enough for me. I knew Luton wasn’t for me. That ended up being the reason I didn’t sign for them.”
It was only by rejecting Luton that McAvennie learned of another potential route into English football, just down the M1.
“When I told St Mirren that I didn’t want to go to Luton, they told me that West Ham wanted to speak to me. My agent and I didn’t know anything about it, but apparently St Mirren had to give Luton the first option; the first refusal.
“If I had signed for Luton, I would never have known about West Ham’s interest.”
