Kieran Trippier has revealed that it was Kyle Walker who first informed him of Tottenham’s interest in signing him when he was still at Burnley.
Trippier enjoyed a fantastic 2014/15 season in the top flight after winning promotion from the Championship the previous season.
Despite Burnley ultimately lacking the required quality to maintain their Premier League status, Trippier was one of the few from the side who stood out.
He was subsequently snapped up in the summer by Tottenham and the right-back admitted that it was impossible to turn down the Lilywhites once they made an approach.
Speaking to The Beautiful Game Podcast (as relayed by Football.London), the England international said: “I’d had a taste of the Premier League, playing in every game. I felt comfortable at that level.
“Then when a team like Tottenham come in for you it’s hard to say no.
“Even though I knew Walks was there at the time I felt I had to take that next step and play as high as I can for as long as I can because you always want to play at the highest level.
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“Then I made the move, and you can’t turn Tottenham down. I knew it would be difficult.”
The Atletico star also insisted that his relationship with Walker was always good despite the pair competing with each other for the right-back slot.
The 29-year-old revealed that Walker was the one let him know that Mauricio Pochettino was a fan of him, despite the fact that Trippier would eventually come in to compete for the first-team right-back slot.
He added: “I know what you’re saying in the sense of when you go to a new club and there is that competition and how you communicate with each other, but I knew Walks from before I joined.
“I remember when I was at Burnley and we played Spurs. He mentioned to me that ‘the manager really likes you’.
“We’ve always had a good relationship, even if I played. The first year I knew I wasn’t going to play many games. Walks was flying. I knew it would be difficult.
“I played in European games and maybe nine or 10 games in the Premier League. I just had to wait for my time.
“Me and Walks have a great relationship, with England and at Spurs. We used to go out for dinner with a few other of the boys.
“It’s easy for me to sit here and say we had a great relationship and people might say ‘yeah right’, but genuinely we do. Even when he was playing for 15 games on the bounce, you didn’t see me complaining. We just got on with it.
“I have nothing bad to say about him. Nothing but respect for him.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I believe Trippier would have flourished in the current system that we play under Jose, which would have taken an element of defensive responsibility off him, and allowed him to bomb down the right flank. As poor as he was defensively last season, in hindsight we probably made a mistake in letting him leave. He was a great attacking threat for us with his ability to make great runs down the right-back and his world-class delivery into the box.
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