But Cockney club stopped short at making an official bid.
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Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has confirmed that there was interest in star striker Christian Benteke during the summer transfer window, but Andre Villas-Boas stopped short at actually making a formal bid for the player, the Birmingham Mail reports.
Lambert confirmed that the London club had made an enquiry for the Belgium international and that their interest had unsettled the 22-year-old.
Benteke had handed in a transfer request upon hearing of Tottenham’s interest, however, no serious offer was made and Lambert was able to quickly convince Benteke to change his mind over his future plans by getting him to put pen-to-paper on a new bumper four-year deal.
“I was on holiday. I was not bothered. I knew what was happening, I was never really bothered because I knew he was never going to go anywhere,” Lambert said.
“I didn’t worry about it. I knew myself what was going on, so I was not going to get caught up in something that was never going to transpire.
Lambert believed that the constant rumours must have affected the striker, but he admits that he was never really in doubt that the player would end up staying put.
“Nearly every team alive were meant to be coming in for him,” said Lambert.
“Some teams you don’t bother with. Unless I hear it from someone’s mouth that’s totally different, but you can read speculation all you want.
“It won’t really faze me until I hear it from somebody else. It never really prayed on my mind what was going to happen.
“I think there were a lot things going on and he’s probably getting it from all directions your head starts to go. what’s happening here. He was asked a lot of questions.
“I’m pretty sure it was the speculation that got to him. Speculation whether it’s wrong or right, if people have seen it in black and white in front of them they think ‘Oh, it must be true.”
“But you hear the crowd again, they are brilliant with him.
“I said to him: ‘you keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.’
“I think it was out of character. He has a good family behind him and he’s not that type of guy at all. He’s a nice, really humble guy and if he keeps working hard we can see where his career ends up.”
“It took me a day – then it was finished,” he added. “How? I bolted the door! I had Mike Tyson in one corner and Benteke in the other!
“He’s a really good guy and I never had a problem. I never said anything that will shock you, I just had a chat with him to try and see where he was.
“With the transfer thing, he’s 22-years-old, which is still really young in football terms, but he was good about it.”