Over the years many players have come out about how they were close to joining Tottenham Hotspur and the move never concluded and recently another of highly respected footballer has come to light about how he was close to moving to White Hart Lane. Watford icon Troy Deeney has spoken about how he was moments away from wearing the Lilywhites badge in 2019/20 season, after his side were relegated from the English top tier.
Deeney reveals close call with Spurs move
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TalkSport, Deeney described the details of conversations he held with then-Lilywhites gaffer Jose Mourinho and how the transfer almost materialised. He went on to claim how the North London duo of Arsenal and Spurs were interesting in attaining his signatures, with the former Chelsea manager coming the closest to signing him.
Deeney went on to explain how Spurs priority target at that time was Brazilian striker Carlos Vinicius, but the Portuguese manager was clear that if the move for Vinicius fell through, Deeney was the first alternative.
The honesty presented by Jose was appreciated by Deeney, who was excited about the prospect of moving to Hotspur Way despite his role, which would demote him from being a star man at Watford to a mere rotation at N17.
Deeney’s Spurs near-miss
Reflecting about the closeness of the transfer and the conversations, Deeney said:
“Yeah, I had a chat with Jose. I didn’t speak to Mikel, that was more board-level interest at Arsenal. They were dealing with it, thinking about how we could make it happen. Obviously I wasn’t going to these places looking to start, so it was kinda like the clubs were thinking, ‘Yeah let’s do it, as long as [his attitude is right].”
-> Tottenham star excited to play alongside “fantastic” Premier League veteran “defender”
“They wanted Carlos Vinicius. He was their man target. And it got to the point where, if that didn’t happen, they’d bring me in. I had a chat with Jose and it was like, ‘What do you want to do? How do you want to do it?’ And Jose wanted to check that I could deal with going from being a main man [at Watford] to being one of the squad. I was thinking about Fernando Llorente who went there previously, who kept scoring when he played. I said all I’m going to do is push Harry Kane to be the best version he can, and be his biggest cheerleader. Playing for Spurs was massively beyond my dreams.
“Jose was straight with me, about Vinicius being a better fit and that they wanted to get that deal done. Unfortunately for me, they did sign him.”
-> Tottenham interested in signing another Bournemouth star after Dominic Solanke
Spurs went on to sign Vinicius, which retrospectively didn’t turn out as expected, and for Deeney, his legacy at Watford remains etched in black and yellow with 140 goals and 62 assists to his name.