Harry Redknapp has sensationally claimed that he was close to signing both Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard while he was manager of Tottenham Hotspur
Speaking to talkSPORT, Redknapp was talking about the 2011-12 season, when Tottenham finished 1 point behind bitter rivals Arsenal to clinch the final UEFA Champions League spot, but were a whopping 20 points off eventual winners Manchester City who famously won the title on the final day of the season.
Redknapp believes that had he signed the two players he had identified as priority targets that summer, his team could have been title challengers.
Talking about Suarez and Hazard, the Englishman had this to say:
“I was managing a Tottenham team I thought could go on and win the title, I genuinely believed that.”
“If we had gone out [and invested] then… Luis Suarez was the player we were looking at.” he said.
“I met [Eden] Hazard and spent three hours with him in a hotel in Paris – I met him at the airport and he was dead keen to come to Tottenham.”
“We were right down the road with Hazard and Luis Suarez was the best player in the Premier League when he was at Liverpool, he was fantastic.”
“If we just got one of those in, we had a team that could have challenged for the title.”
Hazard would go on to join Chelsea the season after that, and has had some success with the London side, having led them to the 2014-15 Premier League title, bagging the PFA player of the year award on the way.
It is unclear exactly when Luis Suarez was targeted by Tottenham, but the stiker eventually joined Liverpool and the rest is history.
Suarez would go on to become the best player in the league, and eventually joined Barcelona where he is now part of one of the most fearsome attacking trios in recent memory.
Redknapp was sacked by Tottenham the following season, with Andre Villas-Boas taking over in the 2012 season, and is currently without a job having left the post of Jordan manager earlier this year.
