LEICESTER CITY or Real Sociedad? One team would go on to finish the season as Premier League champions, the others would end up a whopping 43 points behind La Liga winners Barcelona. With the benefit of hindsight, therefore, it is fair to conclude that David Moyes chose the wrong one.

In the summer of 2015, having guided Real Sociedad to a 12th-place finish in his first season in Spanish football, Moyes was approached to see if he would be interested in taking over from former Leicester manager Nigel Pearson at the King Power Stadium.

The lure of a potential return to Britain was a strong one, but having started slowly at Sociedad, the current Sunderland boss felt he was just getting to grips with life in La Liga. Having established his own playing style, and with money to spend, Sociedad looked a club on the up.

Leicester, on the other hand, were in chaos. They had scrambled to safety in the previous season after a series of wretched results in the first half of the year, were reeling from Pearson’s sudden departure after an ill-fated trip to the Far East and did not appear to have a squad capable of surviving in the top-flight.

Moyes chose Sociedad, and was sacked within four months. Meanwhile, at Leicester, Claudio Ranieri engineered one of the most remarkable fairy-tales in English football as he guided the Foxes to the Premier League title with a game to spare.

“I was asked about Leicester a long time ago, well after Nigel Pearson left and before Claudio came in,” said Moyes, whose side take on the reigning champions this afternoon. “I was asked if I would be interested, but I’d made my mind up that I wanted to manage abroad and wanted to stay in Spain.

“These things happen. I’ve been offered plenty of other jobs and thought, ‘Why didn’t I take that one or this one’, but at the time, Leicester were near the bottom of the Premier League and had just avoided relegation.

“You wouldn’t have thought they were going to be champions - it wasn’t something that made me think, ‘This is something I want to do’.

“I never saw them getting into the position they got into, so I’ve no regrets. I made the decision at the time.”

Leicester’s title success shocked everyone, but the dream is threatening to turn sour with Ranieri’s side just two points clear of the relegation zone as they prepare to travel to Wearside this afternoon.

They have sailed through their group in the Champions League, but their domestic form has been dreadful and they are yet to claim a league win away from the King Power Stadium this season.

They needed a stoppage-time penalty to claim a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough last weekend, but Moyes is confident they will haul themselves away from trouble and does not regard them as potential relegation candidates.

“I don’t look at them now as a relegation team,” he said. “I don’t think they will be in that position. I look at them as a strong team. People talk about their individuals but the key was there team, they had a lot of people who had good experience in the English leagues. People like (Wes) Morgan, (Robert) Huth, (Danny) Simpson, (Jamie) Vardy, (Marc) Albrighton – they were a team of pretty experienced players.

“They have had a big focus on the Champions League, and when they saw the draw they’d have realised they had a chance to go through. But when you play Wednesday, Saturday in big games, it is hard.

“Until you become a top team, getting used to that is tough. Leicester have qualified now, they’ve done that bit, so they now have to turn their attention to climbing the table. But not this week.”

Moyes’ main selection dilemma ahead of today’s game will be whether to play two of Steven Pienaar, Seb Larsson or Jason Denayer alongside Didier Ndong at the heart of midfield, or go with the bolder choice of recalling Adnan Januzaj.

Januzaj has not made a league start since September’s home defeat to Crystal Palace, but he came off the bench to decent effect in last weekend’s 2-0 loss at Liverpool, and Moyes is hoping to see sustained evidence of a return to his best form.

“He’s much more ready to start, but I still think he’s a little bit low on his general fitness since his injury,” he said. “I want to see more from him. I think the goal he scored in midweek for the Under-23s was reminder of what he can be.

“For me, bringing him here, I wanted him to make goals and score goals and undoubtedly he’s got the most talent here, but he has to show it. If he wants to go back to Manchester United and play, or play for a club at that level, he has to show that for Sunderland. He has to show it here and now.

“He’s quite a way into his loan spell now and he hasn’t shown it yet. I thought he actually played quite well in the first five or so games, but it wasn’t enough. We weren’t winning games and his individual flashes were not enough.

“You can be an individual like Jermain Defoe, and he scores a goal that wins you the game. I can see what he does. But what does Adnan do? He has to show what he can do, he has to create things, he has to score goals, but at the moment I’ve not seen enough of that.”