Tim Sherwood recalls that Guardiola was once linked with a Tottenham move

Tim Sherwood has revealed that there were suggestions when he was playing at Tottenham that Pep Guardiola could arrive at White Hart Lane.

Guardiola will undoubtedly be remembered more for his managerial exploits than his playing days but he was certainly no mug as a player, having won five league titles and a Champions League trophy with Barcelona.

Barring brief spells in Italy and Asia towards the end of his career, the Spaniard spent his entire career with the Catalan giants, playing 263 times for his boyhood club.

It has been reported on several occasions over the last few years that the former defensive midfielder almost moved to the Premier League in the twilight of his playing days (Independent).

Sherwood has now explained that Sam Allardyce held talks with Guardiola over moving to Bolton and revealed that there were also rumours doing the rounds at the time about a potential switch to Spurs.

Tottenham’s former interim head coach said on the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast: “I don’t know if you knew, but Sam had a conversation with Pep about potentially signing him at Bolton so maybe we can.

“When I was a player, it must have been around the same time because when I was a player at Tottenham he was linked to come to play for Tottenham, but I was there and he wasn’t good enough.”

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Guardiola was perhaps a little ahead of his time as a player and was one of the first deep-lying playmakers in history, which was not a role that a lot of teams were familiar with back in the day.

I suspect that the 52-year-old would have been more successful as a player if he had come through a decade later than he did.

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