Tottenham Hotspur star Christian Eriksen is basking in the glory of carrying his side to next year World Cup in Russia. Having demolished Ireland with a sensational hat-trick to lead Denmark to a 5-1 win, the Danish playmaker is on his way to cementing his ‘world class’ status.
No wonder then that the Tottenham fans are enjoying every moment of his success and living his moment of adulation. If there is someone not enjoying this, it must be those from Italian side AC Milan.
Why? As per reports from Sports Mediaset (h/t Calciomercato) the San Siro giants had a chance to sign the stylish playmaker in 2008 but refused to go ahead with their interest. Eriksen was plying his trade at Odense at that time, who demanded €800,000 for the player.
Milan, however, dithered on the asking price and finally decided to not go for the deal. Instead, they signed Alexander Merkel, whom they believed was a better player than Eriksen.
I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing Merkel because, with all due regards, the player flopped at every place he went to. His time at San Siro was not worthwhile while his further stints at both Genoa and Udinese also bombed.
The 25-year-old Kazakh-German is currently playing for VfL Bochum in Germany’s second tier and Milan must be wondering what they did, back in 2008.
The Rossoneri will no doubt be kicking themselves about missing out on such a bargain. The Danish star arrived at Tottenham Hotspur with huge expectations and has since blossomed under Mauricio Pochettino’s tutelage.
The 25-year-old arrived at White Hart Lane four years ago, as one of the seven signings to offset the departure of Gareth Bale.
Eriksen has gone from strength to strength at the club under Pochettino and is a key player for the Argentine manager. The fact that he missed just 5 Premier League games out of 125 in his regime shows the true worth of the playmaker.
No wonder then that AC Milan would be ruing the decision to not sign Eriksen!
https://youtu.be/wBqv_Cl9Fu0
He wasn’t even 16 and a half in the 2008 summer transfer window – a million quid (what he went to Ajax for that year) is a lot of money for a 16 year old now and certainly was back then – a real speculative pop on their part. How many players can you gaze back to them being kids and say ‘we could have bought them for peanuts’ when they become stars in their 20s? Pointless story.