What do Eden Hazard and Willian have in common? Yes, they are both Premier League title winners with Chelsea, but they also both rejected moves to Tottenham Hotspur prior to joining the Blues.
Former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp once told the Daily Mail: “I spent three hours with Hazard in a hotel room in Paris – I met him at the airport – he was dead keen to come to Tottenham.”
Unfortunately for Tottenham, Hazard wanted Champions League football in 2012, which Spurs were denied when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to become kings of Europe that year.
Redknapp added in the Daily Star: “We could not quite persuade him once Chelsea reached the Champions League – by somehow beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich to win it.”
Fastforward 12 months to the summer of 2013, when Spurs thought they were about to sign Willian, who had even passed a medical with the White Hart Lane club, according to The Guardian, who published the headline “Tottenham express outrage after Chelsea hijack Willian transfer” as history repeated itself.
And Spurs might soon be hit with that painful feeling of deja vu once more because The Sun claim that Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is keen to sign Villarreal centre-back Mateo Musacchio, despite reports linking him with a £21m move to AC Milan.
Argentine Musacchio was subject of an offer from Spurs in 2014, but he claims the interest was snubbed by himself and his club.
He told Estadio Deportivo, as translated by Sky Sports in September 2014: “When you get offers they have to be good for the club and for the player. In this case it wasn’t good enough for either, so in the end it didn’t happen and I’m carrying on here.”
Since saying no to Spurs, Musacchio has started 38 La Liga games for Villarreal, as well as appearing in 14 Europa League matches.