Harry Redknapp opens up on how Levy wasn’t prepared to pay £16m for future superstar

Harry Redknapp has revealed that he desperately wanted to sign Eden Hazard for Tottenham and he would have set the club back just £16 million, but chairman Daniel Levy ‘wasn’t prepared to pay’ the asking price.

The then 21-year-old placed himself firmly on the map after a stellar 2011/12 campaign with Lille, in which he put up 20 goals and 18 assists.

Hazard, 30, who now plies his trade with Real Madrid after securing a move exceeding €100 million (£88m), allegedly came close to joining Tottenham from Lille in 2012, but signed for London rivals Chelsea instead.

Redknapp, who was Spurs’ manager during that time, took a keen interest in Hazard after keeping an eye on his performances, and was made to feel even more excited about him after speaking to Joe Cole, who gave his then-teammate impressive reviews.

The manager even met with the winger and his agent and convinced him to make the move to North London almost a decade ago.

Redknapp admitted on BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast: “Eden Hazard was the one I really wanted badly when I was at Tottenham.

“Joe Cole rang me, he was at Lille and he said, ‘[Hazard] is the best player I’ve ever played with, he’s just incredible’. I said, ‘Joe, you’ve played with some good players at West Ham, Chelsea’.

“So I went over there [to France] and watched him and he was fantastic. I met him in a hotel room with his agent. He was keen to come to Tottenham.”

Although Hazard appeared to be convinced of securing a move to N17, Redknapp has since revealed that a move was ultimately scuppered due to chairman Levy being unwilling to pay the asking price to secure his transfer.

“At the time, Daniel [Levy] wasn’t prepared to pay,” Redknapp added. “I think he was about £16 million at the time but Daniel wasn’t prepared to pay the money. I would have loved to have him.

“In that spell, when he went to Chelsea, he was a fantastic player.”

Spurs Web Opinion

This one will just have to go down as yet another transfer that got away from Spurs. This would have been one of those impressive coups that don’t happen too often, and we can only wonder how he would have got on here instead of at Chelsea.

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