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“It didn’t feel right”: Former England striker explains why he turned down a move to Tottenham

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Gabriel Agbonlahor reveals he snubbed a move to Tottenham

Former England and Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor revealed that he turned down a move to Tottenham during his days with the Villans (h/t Birmingham Live).

Agbonlahor spent more than a decade with Villa and also had a couple of loan spells at other clubs. The striker had a couple of great seasons with them and also played a few times for England too.

Gabriel Agbonlahor spent all his career with Aston Villa
Gabriel Agbonlahor at Aston Villa (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

However, he never left Villa despite attention from other clubs. Agbonlahor was speaking to The Athletic and suggested that offers were there from Tottenham (h/t Birmingham Live):

“It was the season that Martin O’Neill left when Spurs came in for me. I discussed it with my agent and we agreed that Spurs were a big club.”

This was back in 2010 with Martin O’Neill leaving the club despite making them a decent mid-table outfit.

Agbonlahor, however, decided against the move as Spurs had a lot of competition for places and he didn’t think it was right (h/t Birmingham Live).

“But it didn’t feel right. I was in the Villa team every week, getting into the England squad and it’s my home team who I supported. Back then Spurs were only on a par with us. They also had four brilliant strikers, so why would I want to move?”

Too much affection for Villa

The forward went on to say that he had a lot of affection for Villa and decided against the move(h/t Birmingham Live).

The retired footballer is only 33 but decided to hang up his boots. He still is Villa’s leading scorer in Premier League history and at one time was one of England’s brightest talents .

Our team in 2010 was packed with some incredible players. Gareth Bale was making a name for himself while we had a lot of firepower too.

Jermain Defoe snubbed Juventus for Tottenham return
Jermain Defoe scored several goals for Spurs during his time

Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch were our options up top. While we had a lot of quality out wide too with the likes of Steven Pienaar, Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend.

Agbonlahor’s struggles started right from this season as he finished the campaign with just five goals. He did manage 12 overall in 2011-12 but that was the last time he reached double-digits in a campaign.

Agbonlahor followed Villa when they went into the Championship and stuck for two more seasons before retiring.

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It was probably a good thing for him not to move here as we had a ton of forward talent. Crouch and Defoe were great as a pairing while Pavlyuchenko also had some fun moments in a Spurs shirt.

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