Former Russia manager reveals how close Tottenham Hotspur came to signing Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
The former manager of the Russian national team, Leonid Slutsky, has revealed that Tottenham Hotspur came very close to signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia before his move to Napoli.
The Georgia international moved to Naples last summer from Dinamo Batumi for a fee of around 10million Euros. He was playing in the Georgian league a year ago but is now one of the finest players in his age bracket.
The 22-year-old is a leading figure behind Napoli’s near-certain Scudetto-winning season, having scored 14 goals and providing 16 assists in 34 games across competitions.
More than just his stats, Khvicha’s dribbling ability, acceleration, and vision in the final third are immaculate. According to Slutsky, he is already a player that will fetch a nine-figure sum if Napoli were to sell him.
Terrible work by Spurs
According to the former Rubin Kazan manager, a club where Khvicha played for nearly three years before his contract was terminated in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Spurs came very close to signing him. He told Sky Sports:
“A year ago, there was very serious interest from Tottenham. It was almost a done deal. He had the same quality, the same style of play. But we have a phrase in Russia.
“If a bad player moves to a good team, he can become a good player. If a good player moves to a bad team, he can become a bad player. If you start playing at a different level in Serie A, that is going to help your development.”
This is honestly an unforgivable offence by whoever botched this deal for us. If Spurs backed out of a deal, then it is truly a disaster. Khvicha did not randomly burst onto the scene at Napoli.
Okay, he did to some extent. But he was showcasing the same skills, the same level of creativity and incision in Georgia and Russia. If we did the hard work of scouting him, it is truly surprising why we would not go through with it.
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Perhaps we were thinking we have Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Bryan Gil for the time being… this particular transfer miss will hurt. Given how highly-rated Kvaratskhelia now is, it would take a miracle to bring him to N17.
