It has been a while since Daniel Levy put his hand into his pocket and dipped into the transfer window, with Spurs becoming the first Premier League side in history not to sign a single player across an entire season.
In fact, Tottenham’s last signing was Lucas Moura back in January 2018, when the Brazilian transferred from PSG.
Moura had spent five good years in the French capital, but felt it was time for him to move and seek first team football.
However, the winger has now revealed that he turned down Manchester United twice before joining the Lilywhites.
Back in 2012, then a Sao Paulo player, Man United made an approach for Moura, and the player even agreed terms before changing his mind at the last minute.
Instead he opted for a move to PSG, as a number of top class Brazilian stars were already at the club.
Fast forward to 2018 and Man United came in for Moura again, trying to secure him on loan.
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Lucas preferred a permanent deal and so opted for Tottenham, but he didn’t waste too much time making United pay for their mistake as he banged a brace against them at the start of this season.
Moura said (Four Four Two – quoted by Football London): “Representatives of Inter were in talks with Sao Paulo, but Manchester United were the ones I came very close to joining.
“Everything was agreed, but then there was a last-minute call from Leonardo, who told me about this ambitious new project. PSG were buying top-quality players and there were a few other Brazilians involved, too.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but I spent five great years in Paris and developed as a player and a human being. I will always be grateful to PSG.
“As far as I know United wanted a loan deal. Then Spurs offered a permanent contract, which was key because I wanted my future to be clear.
“Signing for Tottenham was a great gift for me, a wonderful moment of my career. As soon as I heard about their interest, I was really anxious to join the club.
“I’ll never forget the day I came to the training ground for the first time to talk to Mauricio Pochettino about the move. By the time I left, I knew I wanted to be in that team.”
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