Michael Dawson has opened up on his decision to swap Tottenham Hotspur for Hull City in 2014, with the former Spurs captain admitting that it was the wrong call.
While Dawson may not make anyone’s list of the top 20 players Tottenham have had in the Premier League era, few players were as revered by the Spurs faithful as he was.
The England international, who made 236 appearances for the Lilywhites over nine years, wore his heart on his sleeve and was a real leader at the back for the North Londoners.
The centre-back departed Tottenham ahead of Mauricio Pochettino’s first season in charge, and in hindsight, he admits he made a mistake.
Michael Dawson reveals Mauricio Pochettino was happy to keep him at Tottenham
The Tottenham fan-favourite has now confessed that he left N17 too early and that he should have stayed at the club for a bit longer.
He explained that a number of factors, including the possibility of not getting regular game time, convinced him to leave, but he admitted he almost immediately regretted his decision.
Dawson told Hollie’s Hotspurs: “Emotional, a challenge and a chore. Was it the right time? It was the wrong decision in hindsight, but we don’t have got a crystal ball.
When asked about whether he would have liked to have played under Pochettino, the 41-year-old said: “100 per cent. I did pre-season with Poch, and he was a great guy, he didn’t say he wanted me to leave. I could have stayed, but was I going to play? A lot of things came into the decision to leave.
“I remember driving home from Hull, the day after I signed and remember thinking, ‘I wish I could phone Daniel (Levy) to tell him to take me back’. Nothing against Hull, it just wasn’t the right time for me to leave Spurs, but as I said, there were too many things in my mind that swayed me to make that decision.”
Another of Dawson’s former Spurs teammates regrets leaving
Just like Dawson, another one of his former Tottenham teammates has admitted multiple times over the years that he made a huge mistake by leaving the Lilywhites when he did.
Spurs hero Rafael van der Vaart has said that leaving Tottenham in 2012 was the worst decision of his career.
Van der Vaart has admitted that his fallout with Andre Villas-Boas was the main reason for his departure, with the Dutchman revealing that the Portuguese coach informed him that he would not be his first choice at number ten.