Article from the Athletic a few days ago:
theathletic.com
I'll skip the older fables (Rivaldo, Duff, Damiao, Suarez etc) which the article covers and zoom through to some more recent ones it talks about:
....Presumably of far greater regret is the decision at around the same time not to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, then 23 and playing for Saint-Etienne. In fairness, Tottenham were not the only club to say no, as Woolwich and even Borussia Dortmund, who he joined a year later in 2013, also declined to buy a player who was available for around £10 million (he has since accumulated transfer fees of close to £70 million).
Ronny Rosenthal was working with Aubameyang at the time and has a picture of the striker in what appears to be the Spurs dressing room in front of a shirt with (Aaron) “Lennon 7” on the back.
Five years later, ahead of facing them with Dortmund in the Champions League, Aubameyang recalled that trip to north London. “(In 2012), I was in Tottenham at the time, looked at the stadium and the training ground, and we talked,” he said. “But after that, nobody contacted me again.”
“Villas-Boas didn’t fancy him,” says Rosenthal. “He just didn’t see what was to come. No one wanted him then. In football, the point is to see what’s coming in the future and if they don’t see what’s coming in the future, they won’t do anything. The big clubs have more choice, and it happens a lot. Some at the club did want Aubameyang but once Villas-Boas said not for him, that was the end of it.”
The following summer, Spurs missed out on another player who passed through Dortmund on the way to Woolwich: Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The then 24-year-old flew to north London to meet with representatives from White Hart Lane — as often happens with clubs and prospective signings. But in the end, Mkhitaryan was persuaded by Jurgen Klopp to join Dortmund as a replacement for Mario Gotze, who had left them to join Bayern Munich.
The 2013 summer was when Tottenham sold Gareth Bale and brought in seven new first-team players. It was a summer almost as notable for the players they missed out on, most famously Willian, who completed a medical only for Chelsea to hijack the deal at the very last minute. Spurs were enraged by what they saw as foul play and Levy was said to be incandescent. Some at the club even believed Chelsea had signed the player simply to spite Tottenham and that it represented a vendetta they held against their cross-London rivals.
Relations between the two clubs were strained already after Chelsea’s failed pursuit of Modric over the previous two summers, and this stretched them to breaking point. They still refuse to negotiate with each other over transfers, which makes the prospect of Willian finally joining Spurs this summer as a free agent all the more intriguing.
Another big-name Brazilian that Tottenham were linked with at the time was then-Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk. Villas-Boas had worked with the player when managing Porto and was known to be a big fan.
A year earlier, after being pictured with him at the London Olympics, Villas-Boas said: “Hulk is a very special player for me. We had a very good year together in Porto and we have a good relationship. That I do not deny. But we have just been talking, nothing more.”
“Andre really understood Hulk’s value. He definitely would have been a good fit for English football,” says a source close to the player.
In 2013, Tottenham were willing to go up to around £30 million for the striker but Zenit were holding out for closer to the £39 million they had paid Porto for Hulk the previous summer.
Spending that kind of money on a 27-year-old was out of reach for Tottenham then and would have seemed even more far-fetched under Mauricio Pochettino, who, after Villas-Boas’ sacking in December 2013 and Tim Sherwood’s brief stint in charge, became manager in May 2014.
There was a feeling that Spurs’ approach to transfers had become too reactive and short-termist under Redknapp and Villas-Boas, and that a return to Jol’s more youth-focused approach was needed. Pochettino’s preference for young, athletic, hungry players he could mould to his high-energy specifications made him the perfect man to oversee this change.
During the Pochettino era, Spurs looked at a number of players who fitted that profile — some they decided against but often, they were priced out of deals and had to accept that if a club such as Chelsea entered the bidding, they would stand little chance. The backdrop of their new stadium being built for much of Pochettino’s time in charge added to the club’s parsimony compared to their top-four rivals. That they became regulars in the Champions League during this period underlines the scale of their success.
Players that Tottenham could recruit generally had to sit in the fairly narrow prism of being young, athletic, on an upwards trajectory and on a modest enough contract that they could improve it sufficiently without compromising their wage structure. Generally, they also had to be players Chelsea or one of the Manchester clubs weren’t after, so Spurs weren’t vulnerable to being blown out of the water financially. Certainly compared to Manchester City and Chelsea, they had the advantage of a proven pedigree of giving young players a chance, but even that was not always enough when up against such considerable spending power.
One of the players who fit the bill in the early Pochettino days was Anthony Martial — young, athletic and at a club in Monaco whose financial position meant they were being forced to sell. As a 19-year-old, Martial was part of the exciting Monaco team that knocked Woolwich out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage of the 2014-15 season.
At the end of that campaign, he is understood to have visited the Tottenham training ground and had contact with Pochettino. But Manchester United, desperate to strengthen their squad after a sluggish start to their 2015-16 season, made their move on transfer deadline day. The fee of £36 million was a world record for a teenager and had the potential to rise as high as £58 million — figures that Tottenham simply could not match.
It was a similar story with Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, who were both watched by the club’s scouts at this time but it became apparent that, especially with the stadium build in the background, they would be prohibitively expensive. So it proved, as the pair joined Woolwich for around £50 million each in successive years, at a time when Tottenham weren’t going above £30 million and were working hard to keep their wage bill under control.
Spurs’ recruitment staff were realising that a balance had to be struck between keeping an eye out for gems such as Martial but not losing sight of signings that were more realistic. Some also felt the pursuit of bigger names such as Aubameyang and before then, Mkhitaryan were partly to give off the impression that Tottenham were serious about signing elite players when, in reality, the club’s financial restrictions made completing such deals extremely unlikely.
Much more attainable were players from clubs below them in the Premier League. For instance, new head of recruitment Paul Mitchell had worked with Pochettino at Southampton and was happy to pilfer that club for Toby Alderweireld and Victor Wanyama, who were a bit further down the list of targets for Spurs’ main rivals. The likes of Southampton were also used as a benchmark when thinking about making signings — the logic being that the south coast club had a good recruitment system in place but, if it came down to it, most players would choose White Hart Lane over St Mary’s.
Interestingly, in the summer of 2015, when Spurs signed Alderweireld, Southampton replaced him with Van Dijk. Had Levy failed to get Alderweireld then Van Dijk, then at Celtic, is understood to have been the next name on the list of centre-back targets.
Alderweireld has proved to be an outstanding signing, so it’s not one the Spurs staff beat themselves up about too much, especially as their logic in signing a player with Premier League and La Liga experience made sense. Van Dijk’s performances in Scotland were excellent but there is always a question mark over whether players can make the step up from the Scottish Premiership to the Premier League.
Spurs continued to watch Southampton regularly and were aware of how seamlessly Van Dijk had settled in English football but even after one good season on a long-term contract, he was already heading out of their price range. Liverpool, remember, ended up paying £75 million for him in 2018.
Elsewhere, during that 2015 summer, Tottenham were looking at both young, cheap talent, and also players of a similar profile to Alderweireld — ie, established in one of the big leagues but not about to be scooped up by one of their rivals.
In the former group was then 16-year-old centre-back Dayot Upamecano.
Spurs’ scouts raved about his athleticism and ball-playing after watching him star for France at the Under-17 European Championship in Bulgaria, and he was deemed perfect for the Pochettino project. Tottenham very rarely buy players at that age, preferring to trust those who have been nurtured in their academy, but with the compensation only expected to be just over £300,000, he was deemed to be a relatively low-risk option.
But in the end, Spurs lost out to the financial might of the Red Bull organisation. Red Bull Salzburg were willing to pay a much higher transfer fee and wages than Spurs and even other interested clubs like Manchester City, and so he moved from France’s Valenciennes to Austria at the end of the 2015-16 season. A year later, he joined Salzburg’s German sister club RB Leipzig and has established himself as one of Europe’s most exciting young defenders, valued at around £50 million and supposedly wanted by Woolwich and Manchester United.
In the category of more established players that summer, Spurs also gave serious thought to signing forward Max Kruse from Borussia Monchengladbach. Aged 27 and attainable for around £10 million, the Germany international was a viable option but there were concerns about his professionalism and dedication. A year later, he was dropped from the national team after a string of misdemeanours.
There were no such concerns about Danny Ings, who Pochettino was a fan of and is believed to have had contact with at the time (Ings also met with David Moyes, then at Spain’s Real Sociedad). Ings was 22 and available on a free, with around £10 million owed to his club Burnley as compensation, but Tottenham always felt as though he had his heart on a move to Liverpool. Injuries curtailed his time at Anfield but he has since gone on to excel for Southampton.
Saido Berahino, then at West Bromwich Albion, was also in his early 20s and on a seemingly similar upward curve.
On this occasion, the general consensus is that Spurs dodged a bullet by not signing a player whose career has gone dramatically off the rails since. At the time, Tottenham insisted they made an offer that met West Brom’s £25 million asking price but West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace refused to budge.
As the deal became, according to sources, a battle between the rival egos of Levy and Peace, Berahino tweeted that he would never play for West Brom again. His career has never really recovered and he now plays for Belgian side Zulte Waregem.
The following season, 2015-16, saw Spurs continuing to scour Europe for young talent.
Kylian Mbappe appeared on their radar when he came on as a second-half substitute for Monaco against them in the Europa League in December 2015. The 16-year-old quickly registered an assist and scouts were sent to France to take a closer look at him.
It soon became apparent though that Mbappe would be out of their reach — Tottenham were informed there was already interest from Real Madrid but that the youngster’s plan was to sign a professional contract at Monaco first to try to establish himself there. Had he not, he would have been available for around £450,000 in compensation, but his desire to stay in France meant a deal was impossible.
It was a similar story with Ousmane Dembele, who Spurs had been watching with interest from the moment he broke into the team at France’s Rennes in 2015. The club’s statistical model quickly highlighted how much Dembele was influencing games and when Spurs’ staff went to see him play live, they saw an 18-year-old with staggering ability and confidence. He was even taking corners both right and left footed.
There had been suggestions of a buyout clause, but these proved to be wide of the mark and ultimately, close links between Rennes and Dortmund, who were both sponsored by Puma, saw Dembele join the Germans at the end of the season. Complications over who represented Dembele also put Tottenham off pursuing the deal. After one year in Dortmund, he joined Barcelona for just under £100 million.
Closer to home, defender Ethan Ampadu was another youngster Tottenham were monitoring. But after he made his debut for Exeter as a 15-year-old in 2016 and quickly impressed, Chelsea signed him a year later. Spurs believed they had enough quality in their youth set-up and, as mentioned earlier, signing players for sizeable compensation fees at that age is not part of the club’s development policy. In a similar vein, forward Ben Knight was admired by Pochettino and the club’s staff but he ended up joining Manchester City, aged 16, for £700,000 from Ipswich in 2018.
As for more established targets during this period, one name that jumps out is Sadio Mane — another from Southampton who had worked with Mitchell when he was at St Mary’s.
Having opted against signing Moussa Dembele in January 2016 because of a disagreement over whether to loan him back to Fulham for the rest of the season, come that summer Spurs were looking to bring in another forward.
Even back then, finding someone to come in and play second fiddle to Harry Kane was tricky, with some targets being told optimistically that Kane could play as a No 10 to accommodate them. So someone such as Dembele, who was young (19 at the time) and willing to be patient seemed like the best option.
Mane’s versatility, though, made him even more appealing, as did his athleticism and outstanding performances for Southampton, where improbably, his numbers had improved from his days in the Austrian League with Red Bull Salzburg. Mitchell had already helped to sign him at Southampton so was familiar with the agents involved, while the way Mane had forced that move offered hope that he was gettable.
Continuing the theme of being outbid by a rival, however, Liverpool came in with an offer of a £34 million and wages of around £90,000 a week. Spurs did end up paying £30 million for Moussa Sissoko a couple of months later but that was a very different deal as the payments were staggered and it was a signing completed on deadline day, with Newcastle expecting to sell the midfielder during the window. Mane, by contrast, joined Liverpool on July 1, right at the start of the window and for a hefty up-front fee — neither of which were generally associated with Tottenham at the time.
Spurs spent a combined £28 million on Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou that summer which, coupled with how good Mane has become, is why for some at the club at the time there are still regrets about him joining Liverpool instead. Spurs finished second the following season, and some feel they would have won the title had they got Mane.
That same summer of 2016, we saw another of the recurring themes during the Levy era: offering far less than the fee the selling club are hoping for. On this occasion, Tottenham bid £12 million for Wilfried Zaha, which was dismissed as “ridiculous” by his Crystal Palace chairman, Steve Parish. Zaha was a player Pochettino really admired but his long-term contract at Palace meant a deal is never thought to have been close. Spurs were similarly rebuffed for him in 2018 and then again the following year.
Also in 2018, they tried and failed to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa, whose financial difficulties made them seem appear easy prey. An offer of £25 million was nowhere near what Villa were after, however, and according to one source, “they grew a pair of bollocks and stood up to it”.
By the time the purse-strings were loosened last summer and Tottenham made serious moves to sign Paulo Dybala, Juventus decided at the last minute that the striker was not for sale. There were also issues over Dybala’s image rights, which feel a world away from the days of Rivaldo’s camp sending Hoddle that letter.
Now, as we enter a period of huge financial uncertainty, making the right signings will be more important for Tottenham than ever.
There will be hits, there will be misses, and inevitably, there will be some deals they can’t quite get over the line.
Rivaldo, Upamecano, Mbappe… the truth about Spurs transfers that didn’t happen
From Rivaldo to Mbappe, with plenty in between, these are the stories of a selection of players who Tottenham wanted to sign in recent years
theathletic.com
I'll skip the older fables (Rivaldo, Duff, Damiao, Suarez etc) which the article covers and zoom through to some more recent ones it talks about:
....Presumably of far greater regret is the decision at around the same time not to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, then 23 and playing for Saint-Etienne. In fairness, Tottenham were not the only club to say no, as Woolwich and even Borussia Dortmund, who he joined a year later in 2013, also declined to buy a player who was available for around £10 million (he has since accumulated transfer fees of close to £70 million).
Ronny Rosenthal was working with Aubameyang at the time and has a picture of the striker in what appears to be the Spurs dressing room in front of a shirt with (Aaron) “Lennon 7” on the back.
Five years later, ahead of facing them with Dortmund in the Champions League, Aubameyang recalled that trip to north London. “(In 2012), I was in Tottenham at the time, looked at the stadium and the training ground, and we talked,” he said. “But after that, nobody contacted me again.”
“Villas-Boas didn’t fancy him,” says Rosenthal. “He just didn’t see what was to come. No one wanted him then. In football, the point is to see what’s coming in the future and if they don’t see what’s coming in the future, they won’t do anything. The big clubs have more choice, and it happens a lot. Some at the club did want Aubameyang but once Villas-Boas said not for him, that was the end of it.”
The following summer, Spurs missed out on another player who passed through Dortmund on the way to Woolwich: Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The then 24-year-old flew to north London to meet with representatives from White Hart Lane — as often happens with clubs and prospective signings. But in the end, Mkhitaryan was persuaded by Jurgen Klopp to join Dortmund as a replacement for Mario Gotze, who had left them to join Bayern Munich.
The 2013 summer was when Tottenham sold Gareth Bale and brought in seven new first-team players. It was a summer almost as notable for the players they missed out on, most famously Willian, who completed a medical only for Chelsea to hijack the deal at the very last minute. Spurs were enraged by what they saw as foul play and Levy was said to be incandescent. Some at the club even believed Chelsea had signed the player simply to spite Tottenham and that it represented a vendetta they held against their cross-London rivals.
Relations between the two clubs were strained already after Chelsea’s failed pursuit of Modric over the previous two summers, and this stretched them to breaking point. They still refuse to negotiate with each other over transfers, which makes the prospect of Willian finally joining Spurs this summer as a free agent all the more intriguing.
Another big-name Brazilian that Tottenham were linked with at the time was then-Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk. Villas-Boas had worked with the player when managing Porto and was known to be a big fan.
A year earlier, after being pictured with him at the London Olympics, Villas-Boas said: “Hulk is a very special player for me. We had a very good year together in Porto and we have a good relationship. That I do not deny. But we have just been talking, nothing more.”
“Andre really understood Hulk’s value. He definitely would have been a good fit for English football,” says a source close to the player.
In 2013, Tottenham were willing to go up to around £30 million for the striker but Zenit were holding out for closer to the £39 million they had paid Porto for Hulk the previous summer.
Spending that kind of money on a 27-year-old was out of reach for Tottenham then and would have seemed even more far-fetched under Mauricio Pochettino, who, after Villas-Boas’ sacking in December 2013 and Tim Sherwood’s brief stint in charge, became manager in May 2014.
There was a feeling that Spurs’ approach to transfers had become too reactive and short-termist under Redknapp and Villas-Boas, and that a return to Jol’s more youth-focused approach was needed. Pochettino’s preference for young, athletic, hungry players he could mould to his high-energy specifications made him the perfect man to oversee this change.
During the Pochettino era, Spurs looked at a number of players who fitted that profile — some they decided against but often, they were priced out of deals and had to accept that if a club such as Chelsea entered the bidding, they would stand little chance. The backdrop of their new stadium being built for much of Pochettino’s time in charge added to the club’s parsimony compared to their top-four rivals. That they became regulars in the Champions League during this period underlines the scale of their success.
Players that Tottenham could recruit generally had to sit in the fairly narrow prism of being young, athletic, on an upwards trajectory and on a modest enough contract that they could improve it sufficiently without compromising their wage structure. Generally, they also had to be players Chelsea or one of the Manchester clubs weren’t after, so Spurs weren’t vulnerable to being blown out of the water financially. Certainly compared to Manchester City and Chelsea, they had the advantage of a proven pedigree of giving young players a chance, but even that was not always enough when up against such considerable spending power.
One of the players who fit the bill in the early Pochettino days was Anthony Martial — young, athletic and at a club in Monaco whose financial position meant they were being forced to sell. As a 19-year-old, Martial was part of the exciting Monaco team that knocked Woolwich out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage of the 2014-15 season.
At the end of that campaign, he is understood to have visited the Tottenham training ground and had contact with Pochettino. But Manchester United, desperate to strengthen their squad after a sluggish start to their 2015-16 season, made their move on transfer deadline day. The fee of £36 million was a world record for a teenager and had the potential to rise as high as £58 million — figures that Tottenham simply could not match.
It was a similar story with Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, who were both watched by the club’s scouts at this time but it became apparent that, especially with the stadium build in the background, they would be prohibitively expensive. So it proved, as the pair joined Woolwich for around £50 million each in successive years, at a time when Tottenham weren’t going above £30 million and were working hard to keep their wage bill under control.
Spurs’ recruitment staff were realising that a balance had to be struck between keeping an eye out for gems such as Martial but not losing sight of signings that were more realistic. Some also felt the pursuit of bigger names such as Aubameyang and before then, Mkhitaryan were partly to give off the impression that Tottenham were serious about signing elite players when, in reality, the club’s financial restrictions made completing such deals extremely unlikely.
Much more attainable were players from clubs below them in the Premier League. For instance, new head of recruitment Paul Mitchell had worked with Pochettino at Southampton and was happy to pilfer that club for Toby Alderweireld and Victor Wanyama, who were a bit further down the list of targets for Spurs’ main rivals. The likes of Southampton were also used as a benchmark when thinking about making signings — the logic being that the south coast club had a good recruitment system in place but, if it came down to it, most players would choose White Hart Lane over St Mary’s.
Interestingly, in the summer of 2015, when Spurs signed Alderweireld, Southampton replaced him with Van Dijk. Had Levy failed to get Alderweireld then Van Dijk, then at Celtic, is understood to have been the next name on the list of centre-back targets.
Alderweireld has proved to be an outstanding signing, so it’s not one the Spurs staff beat themselves up about too much, especially as their logic in signing a player with Premier League and La Liga experience made sense. Van Dijk’s performances in Scotland were excellent but there is always a question mark over whether players can make the step up from the Scottish Premiership to the Premier League.
Spurs continued to watch Southampton regularly and were aware of how seamlessly Van Dijk had settled in English football but even after one good season on a long-term contract, he was already heading out of their price range. Liverpool, remember, ended up paying £75 million for him in 2018.
Elsewhere, during that 2015 summer, Tottenham were looking at both young, cheap talent, and also players of a similar profile to Alderweireld — ie, established in one of the big leagues but not about to be scooped up by one of their rivals.
In the former group was then 16-year-old centre-back Dayot Upamecano.
Spurs’ scouts raved about his athleticism and ball-playing after watching him star for France at the Under-17 European Championship in Bulgaria, and he was deemed perfect for the Pochettino project. Tottenham very rarely buy players at that age, preferring to trust those who have been nurtured in their academy, but with the compensation only expected to be just over £300,000, he was deemed to be a relatively low-risk option.
But in the end, Spurs lost out to the financial might of the Red Bull organisation. Red Bull Salzburg were willing to pay a much higher transfer fee and wages than Spurs and even other interested clubs like Manchester City, and so he moved from France’s Valenciennes to Austria at the end of the 2015-16 season. A year later, he joined Salzburg’s German sister club RB Leipzig and has established himself as one of Europe’s most exciting young defenders, valued at around £50 million and supposedly wanted by Woolwich and Manchester United.
In the category of more established players that summer, Spurs also gave serious thought to signing forward Max Kruse from Borussia Monchengladbach. Aged 27 and attainable for around £10 million, the Germany international was a viable option but there were concerns about his professionalism and dedication. A year later, he was dropped from the national team after a string of misdemeanours.
There were no such concerns about Danny Ings, who Pochettino was a fan of and is believed to have had contact with at the time (Ings also met with David Moyes, then at Spain’s Real Sociedad). Ings was 22 and available on a free, with around £10 million owed to his club Burnley as compensation, but Tottenham always felt as though he had his heart on a move to Liverpool. Injuries curtailed his time at Anfield but he has since gone on to excel for Southampton.
Saido Berahino, then at West Bromwich Albion, was also in his early 20s and on a seemingly similar upward curve.
On this occasion, the general consensus is that Spurs dodged a bullet by not signing a player whose career has gone dramatically off the rails since. At the time, Tottenham insisted they made an offer that met West Brom’s £25 million asking price but West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace refused to budge.
As the deal became, according to sources, a battle between the rival egos of Levy and Peace, Berahino tweeted that he would never play for West Brom again. His career has never really recovered and he now plays for Belgian side Zulte Waregem.
The following season, 2015-16, saw Spurs continuing to scour Europe for young talent.
Kylian Mbappe appeared on their radar when he came on as a second-half substitute for Monaco against them in the Europa League in December 2015. The 16-year-old quickly registered an assist and scouts were sent to France to take a closer look at him.
It soon became apparent though that Mbappe would be out of their reach — Tottenham were informed there was already interest from Real Madrid but that the youngster’s plan was to sign a professional contract at Monaco first to try to establish himself there. Had he not, he would have been available for around £450,000 in compensation, but his desire to stay in France meant a deal was impossible.
It was a similar story with Ousmane Dembele, who Spurs had been watching with interest from the moment he broke into the team at France’s Rennes in 2015. The club’s statistical model quickly highlighted how much Dembele was influencing games and when Spurs’ staff went to see him play live, they saw an 18-year-old with staggering ability and confidence. He was even taking corners both right and left footed.
There had been suggestions of a buyout clause, but these proved to be wide of the mark and ultimately, close links between Rennes and Dortmund, who were both sponsored by Puma, saw Dembele join the Germans at the end of the season. Complications over who represented Dembele also put Tottenham off pursuing the deal. After one year in Dortmund, he joined Barcelona for just under £100 million.
Closer to home, defender Ethan Ampadu was another youngster Tottenham were monitoring. But after he made his debut for Exeter as a 15-year-old in 2016 and quickly impressed, Chelsea signed him a year later. Spurs believed they had enough quality in their youth set-up and, as mentioned earlier, signing players for sizeable compensation fees at that age is not part of the club’s development policy. In a similar vein, forward Ben Knight was admired by Pochettino and the club’s staff but he ended up joining Manchester City, aged 16, for £700,000 from Ipswich in 2018.
As for more established targets during this period, one name that jumps out is Sadio Mane — another from Southampton who had worked with Mitchell when he was at St Mary’s.
Having opted against signing Moussa Dembele in January 2016 because of a disagreement over whether to loan him back to Fulham for the rest of the season, come that summer Spurs were looking to bring in another forward.
Even back then, finding someone to come in and play second fiddle to Harry Kane was tricky, with some targets being told optimistically that Kane could play as a No 10 to accommodate them. So someone such as Dembele, who was young (19 at the time) and willing to be patient seemed like the best option.
Mane’s versatility, though, made him even more appealing, as did his athleticism and outstanding performances for Southampton, where improbably, his numbers had improved from his days in the Austrian League with Red Bull Salzburg. Mitchell had already helped to sign him at Southampton so was familiar with the agents involved, while the way Mane had forced that move offered hope that he was gettable.
Continuing the theme of being outbid by a rival, however, Liverpool came in with an offer of a £34 million and wages of around £90,000 a week. Spurs did end up paying £30 million for Moussa Sissoko a couple of months later but that was a very different deal as the payments were staggered and it was a signing completed on deadline day, with Newcastle expecting to sell the midfielder during the window. Mane, by contrast, joined Liverpool on July 1, right at the start of the window and for a hefty up-front fee — neither of which were generally associated with Tottenham at the time.
Spurs spent a combined £28 million on Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou that summer which, coupled with how good Mane has become, is why for some at the club at the time there are still regrets about him joining Liverpool instead. Spurs finished second the following season, and some feel they would have won the title had they got Mane.
That same summer of 2016, we saw another of the recurring themes during the Levy era: offering far less than the fee the selling club are hoping for. On this occasion, Tottenham bid £12 million for Wilfried Zaha, which was dismissed as “ridiculous” by his Crystal Palace chairman, Steve Parish. Zaha was a player Pochettino really admired but his long-term contract at Palace meant a deal is never thought to have been close. Spurs were similarly rebuffed for him in 2018 and then again the following year.
Also in 2018, they tried and failed to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa, whose financial difficulties made them seem appear easy prey. An offer of £25 million was nowhere near what Villa were after, however, and according to one source, “they grew a pair of bollocks and stood up to it”.
By the time the purse-strings were loosened last summer and Tottenham made serious moves to sign Paulo Dybala, Juventus decided at the last minute that the striker was not for sale. There were also issues over Dybala’s image rights, which feel a world away from the days of Rivaldo’s camp sending Hoddle that letter.
Now, as we enter a period of huge financial uncertainty, making the right signings will be more important for Tottenham than ever.
There will be hits, there will be misses, and inevitably, there will be some deals they can’t quite get over the line.
