AVB reveals how winger signed for rivals after watching CL game in his office

Former Tottenham boss, Andre Villas-Boas has spoken about two transfer targets that the Lilywhites missed out on during his time in North London.

With Gareth Bale departing to Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 for a then world-record fee, Tottenham replaced the Welshman with seven new signings that summer, with Erik Lamela being the only one of those still left at the club.

However, the team did not quite manage to click on the pitch that season, with Villas-Boas receiving the sack halfway into the campaign.

The Portuguese coach has since rebuilt his reputation with impressive spells in charge of Zenit Saint Petersburg and Chinese outfit Shanghai SIPG and is now doing well at the helm of Marseille.

It could have been so different for the 42-year-old in North London as he revealed that the club just missed on bringing two players he was keen on adding to the squad in Willian and Joao Moutinho.

This will likely not come as news to most Spurs fans, with the Willian transfer saga receiving a lot of publicity in the British press at the time.

However, Villas-Boas has now admitted that the Brazilian was in his office ready to sign on the dotted line before the Blues snatched him from under their noses.

The former Tottenham boss told COPA 90 (as relayed by Goal.com): “I think [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy won’t appreciate it too much, but we had Willian in our office watching the Champions League game together before he leaves the room and signs for Chelsea that night.

“We missed [Joao] Moutinho, who now becomes famous of course because of Wolves, because of a one-minute deadline.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The Champions League game he is referring to (having watched with Willian in his office) is not the final between Chelsea and Bayern that cost Spurs their place in the competition as that took place in the summer of 2012. In hindsight, I believe that missing out on Moutinho cost us much more than missing out on Willian. We only got Eriksen that window because Willian snubbed us and the Dane certainly went on to be a terrific servant for us.

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