Premier League transfer news - Jose Mourinho wanted Zenit St Petersburg legend Artem Dzyuba at Tottenham Hotspur as Kane replacement.
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Jose Mourinho wanted to sign Russia international Artem Dzyuba as a replacement for Harry Kane at Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur, the striker’s agent Leonid Goldman tells Sport24.
With Kane ruled out for the long-term with a serious hamstring injury, Spurs went into the 2020 January transfer window desperate to bring in a new number nine.
Chelsea had no intention of allowing to Olivier Giroud join a London rival, however. Real Sociedad did not let Willian Jose go either. And Spurs ran into yet more problems when they tried to lure the colossal Dzyuba to England, with Zenit St Petersburg refusing to let their talismanic centre-forward leave midway through their title defence.
“Early January, I flew away on New Year’s Eve. Lying on the beach, (I received) a call from colleagues from the (Jorge) Mendes agency in Portugal,” explains Goldman.
Iberian super-agent Mendes, Goldman adds, was speaking on behalf of his client, the then-Spurs coach Jose Mourinho.
“(They said); ‘Kane is broken. Mourinho wants to buy a replacement – Dziuba’. I called Artem. He did not even believe at first. I said: ‘Everything is extremely serious, go talk to Zenit.’
“The club immediately made it clear that they would not let go of their leader in the middle of the season, so there was no specific documented offer. But the story of Tottenham’s interest is a billion per cent true.”
Dzyuba, of course, would have been the very definition of a short-term, quick fix. He did score 21 goals in Zenit colours that season, however. Who knows whether Dzyuba would have helped make up the six-point gap separating Tottenham from the Champions League places at the end of that season.
“When Harry Kane got injured at Tottenham, people contacted me,” Dzyuba himself told Russia24 at the time.
“Zenit said no. And that’s all. If Tottenham really wanted to sign me then I think they would have been more insistent. That said, the interest was real.”
Dzyuba, now 31, joined Turkish outfit Adana Demirspor earlier this month.