Ex-Tottenham Hotspur right-back Alan Hutton has spoken about Luka Modric’s bad start at the club in an interview with Coffee Friend (relayed by FourFourTwo).
Hutton played alongside Modric for a number of years, with the Scottish right-back having made 66 appearances in all competitions for Spurs between 2007 and 2011.
Modric joined Spurs in 2008 from Dinamo Zagreb for a fee in excess of £15m which, at the time, was pretty high, especially for a player coming from Croatia (SkySports).
Modric went on to make 160 appearances for Spurs in all competitions, slowly developing into one of the world’s best central midfielders under Harry Redknapp’s guidance.
The Croatian midfielder earned his move away from North London by joining Real Madrid in 2012 for £30m, a fee that looks like pennies now, given his service to the club.
The 35-year-old has made 392 appearances in all competitions for the Spanish club, lifting four Champions League trophies and even winning the Ballon D’or in 2018 (Transfermarkt).
However, it wasn’t all glory for the midfielder, as Hutton described Modric’s tough start with Spurs in the Premier League.
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He said: “Modric took a good while to settle in England. He came in for about £16m, which was quite a lot of money for a player from the Croatian league.
“He didn’t look particularly big, strong, or fast and he struggled to adapt to the pace and physicality of the English game.
“In the first few weeks, a few of the boys were saying ‘I’m not sure about this guy’.
“But, slowly, he started to settle and everything changed. He got his first season out of the way and then he started to look the part.
“Soon we were watching him in games and in training and thinking ‘Wow, what a world-class player’.
“He could control games and do things with a ball nobody else could.
Hutton also explained how Modric wasn’t the only star at the time: “Gareth Bale was a standout.
“He was a young boy, only about 18 when he signed, but you could tell then he could be a superstar.
“I don’t think I realized just how good the squad were at the time. Growing up and even as a young player, my focus was always Scotland.
“I didn’t really watch too much English football. Then I came down to Spurs and even the likes of Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas. All these guys, I was like ‘Wow, this is a good team.”
SpursWeb Opinion
Being around at 8 at the time, I remember Modric’s slow start but it wasn’t long until he started to shine. Modric is, without a doubt, one of the best players to ever play for Spurs. He is not only a Spurs great but he is a football great.
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