Former Spurs transfer guru names three big stars the club just missed out on

Tottenham‘s former head of elite identification, David Webb, has revealed that the North London club came close to signing Sadio Mane, Dayot Upamecano and Moussa Dembele during his time at the club.

As Spurs fans will be only too well aware, the club have come close to signing several world-class talents over the last decade only for any deal to fall through.

The likes of Joao Moutinho, Willian, Luis Suarez, Jack Grealish, and Paulo Dybala are some of the famous names that fans might look back on and wonder about.

It was also reported back in 2017 that Tottenham came close to signing Mane from Southampton, only for the deal to fall through because of the Senegal international’s wage demands (Daily Mail).

Webb, who was in the aforementioned role at Spurs from 2015 to 2017, has now confirmed that this was indeed the case and that Mauricio Pochettino was confident that his relationship with the forward would help in getting a deal over the line.

When asked about some of the players the club missed out on, he told talkSPORT: “Moussa Dembele and Dayot Upamecano.

“This was at the time that I was there, they were the two standout world-class players.

“Sadio Mane was definitely another one at the time, but Liverpool pipped us to the post.

“Pochettino at the time obviously had that relationship with him from Southampton.

“That was definitely a factor, Tottenham were pretty close, but Liverpool came in. I imagine that was down to finance and not wanting to pay the fee.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Tottenham’s recruitment during that time (2015-2017) was generally excellent.

All clubs will undoubtedly have deals that they are not able to get across the line for one reason or another during every transfer window.

It does not make sense to be too critical of these decisions, given that we made some solid signings during that time.

For example, we might not have signed Son Heung-min if we had been successful in our pursuit of Mane.

Related Topics