Former Tottenham striker Mido revealed how close he was to signing for Real Madrid and how Daniel Levy flew in on the cheap to complete the deal (h/t Daily Star).

Levy has transformed the side into Premier League contenders and Champions League regulars, and Mido spilled the beans on the chairman’s transfer dealings while speaking to the Sky Sports Transfer Talk Podcast (h/t Daily Star)

The Egyptian was quoted by the Daily Star as claiming that Tottenham wanted him back after his initial loan spell from Roma as Dimitar Berbatov had a couple of poor games.

The former Spurs man further added:

“Martin Jol panicked and was like ‘you have to come back, you have to come back’ so after the Super game against Inter I want to go tomorrow to Tottenham, you finish this deal.

“Anyway, Daniel Levy came to Roma on easyJet. It’s true! We arrived after we signed the deal and Mino was like come on, run, run, run I thought it came with a private jet.

“He said ‘no, to get a good seat’. But that’s Daniel Levy, it’s the key to his success isn’t it?”

Mino Raiola did not want his client, Mido, to sign for Spurs as La Liga giants Real too were looking at the Egyptian striker.

Once the player landed, he had a few calls from his agent who claimed Madrid wanted Mido as a replacement for Julio Baptista.

“I said ‘I’ve just signed for Tottenham’ so he said ‘pass the phone to Daniel Levy’.

“He took the phone and Daniel Levy was like ‘aha, he was laughing, and he said ‘no problem, he’s not going anywhere’.”

Levy is known to drive a hard bargain and Mido’s revelation proves that our chairman will go to any lengths to get the player he wants.

Read more: Tottenham willing to bid £10million for Celtic star as Scottish giants exit Champions League

Tottenham might not have signed a player this summer but Levy has done a lot of good work over the past windows to help us get to where we are today.