Shocking revelation made by former manager of both clubs Martin Jol.
Tottenham Hotspur once offered flying Welsh winger Gareth Bale, who became the most expensive player in history when he was sold to Real Madrid, to Bundesliga outfit Hamburg for just £5m according to reports from the Mail.
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Despite his future success for the club, Tottenham were once less than enamored by the performances of Bale, who was seen as something of a curse due to the amount of time it took for Spurs to win a league game when the Welshman was involved.
Indeed, Championship club Nottingham Forest have also been rumoured to have been close to signing Bale before his performances exploded under Harry Redknapp, with a virtuoso display against Inter Milan in a Champions League tie at the San Siro being an obvious highlight of his time at the club.
It was Dutchman Jol who had initially seen the potential in Bale and swooped to sign him as a young left back from Southampton – but this report suggests that Jol had always seen Bale as a more attacking player and that it was Spurs’ insistence on playing him at the back initially which stunted his progress.
Once Jol moved on from White Hart Lane he took over at perennial Bundesliga underachievers Hamburg and was, apparently, offered the signing of Bale but his club could not afford the £5m fee being demanded by Spurs chief Daniel Levy – a decision that now looks to be a huge error by the Germans.