In the latest episode of the Last Word On Spurs podcast, Ricky Sacks, Lee McQueen, Alasdair Gold and Darren Lewis have been reflecting on the north London club’s season and looking ahead to the 2020/21 campaign.
One topic of conversation on the recent episode, which was titled ‘Spurs Secure Europe‘, was Christian Eriksen. The Danish international first confirmed his desire to leave Tottenham following their Champions League final defeat in 2019, but Spurs were unable to move him on until January, as he completed an £18 million move to Inter. However, Gold suggests that the Lilywhites were hoping to receive a much more significant fee for the former Ajax man, which perhaps harmed their chances of signing Bruno Fernandes.
Here’s what the Football.london journalist had to say about the 28-year-old on the podcast:
“They were trying for Fernandes, but I think the biggest issue was they couldn’t shift Eriksen. They didn’t get a big enough offer that summer for Eriksen. As far as I’m aware, they got no real serious offers for Eriksen. I suppose if you’re a club, and Christian Eriksen, you knew he was going to be available in a year’s time for absolutely free, you probably weren’t going to go for the kind of money that Spurs [were looking for].
“Spurs apparently were looking for similar money to the [Eden] Hazard deal; Hazard went to Real Madrid in the last year of his contract. Spurs being Spurs, were saying, ‘well we’ve got a younger player who you’ll get years out of.’ And with that price tag on his head, no one came near, and I think that was more what scuppered Spurs being able to just go the extra mile with Fernandes.”
TIF Thoughts…
Considering Eriksen was valued at £81 million by Transfermarkt when he completed his move to Inter, you can certainly see why Spurs were holding out for a bigger fee, but eventually accepted the lower offer as the Danish international was, as Gold alludes to, out of contract at the end of the 2019/20 season.
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However, considering Real Madrid paid £103.5 million for Hazard (as per Transfermarkt), you can perhaps see why Spurs were hoping to get a lot more from Eriksen leaving, especially when you consider that the midfielder contributed a superb 69 goals and 89 assists during his time with the Lilywhites, although he hasn’t really hit the ground running with Inter thus far.