Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s agent Christian Emile has confirmed that Tottenham were one of the clubs who expressed an interest in his client before his switch to Napoli this summer.
Kvaratskhelia has enjoyed an outstanding start to life in Italy, having already notched up eight goals and 10 assists across all competitions so far this season (Transfermarkt).
The 21-year-old has arguably been the best player across Serie A this campaign and his performances have been a huge reason why Luciano Spalletti’s men sit five points clear at the top of the table.
Spurs were backed to make a push for the 21-year-old during this summer’s transfer window (Gazzetta dello Sport) but Gli Azzurri ended up signing him for a cut-price fee of just €10m (£8.7m) (ESPN).
Emile has now explained that some clubs in England, Italy and Germany were hesitant to meet Rubin Kazan’s asking price for Kvaratskhelia in the past, owing to the winger’s underwhelming goal and assist numbers in the Russian top flight.
When asked about the rumoured interest of Spurs and Juventus in the Georgian international, Emile told Fabrizio Romano’s YouTube Channel: “All those clubs you mentioned were interested in Kvaratskhelia, more so the clubs you heard in the media in Germany, England and Italy. This was true.
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“They were all interested in him. Eventually, when his name came about and we started proposing him more and more, people consider quality. Clubs saw the quality.
“However, there’s a difference between understanding the quality and putting the money down. At that time, Rubin [Kazan] were asking [for] £20 million. Now everyone can say he’s worth much more than that, even at that time he had been playing senior football for three years.
“He was scoring four or five goals per season, assisting four times per season. For a young boy in a strong league, it’s not bad. Ok, it’s not fantastic but it’s not bad.
“But I think clubs were not so secure to spend this £20 million in the Covid times, they don’t have much background information about him because he’s not coming from a big football country.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It was always clear that Kvaratskhelia was quite talented but nobody, not even Napoli, would have expected the youngster to have as much of an impact as he has.
I can understand why Spurs were hesitant to make a move for the 21-year-old as his numbers in Russia were not particularly impressive, and it was not clear if he would be able to succeed in the Premier League.
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