Graham Roberts thinks that signing Joe Rodon instead of Milan Skriniar was a major mistake made by Tottenham.
Following the departure of Jan Vertonghen last summer, Jose Mourinho was in desperate need of a centre-back to replace the Belgian with Spurs generally short in that department.
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He quickly identified Inter Milan’s Skriniar, who’d impressed in both Serie A and the Champions League under Antonio Conte, with Spurs keen on bringing him to the Premier League.
However, the two clubs were some way off agreeing on a fee, meaning the Slovakian remained at Inter, which led to Mourinho bringing in Joe Rodon from Swansea on the EFL Deadline Day in October.
But the Welshman was severely underused, starting just eight games in the Premier League, with Mourinho’s preferred centre-back pairing the unreliable Eric Dier and Davinson Sanchez, who’s poor form played a huge part in Spurs’ failed top-four bid.
Meanwhile, Skriniar continued to be a regular at the San Siro, and made 32 appearances as Inter ended their long wait to lift Serie A, whilst the defender has already impressed for Slovakia at Euro 2020 and topped off a fine performance in their opening game by scoring the winner against Poland.
And Roberts, who’s previously spoken about the defender’s qualities, told This is Futbol that failing to sign Skriniar was an error from the club:
“Mourinho wanted Skriniar, everybody knew it, and we went and bought Joe Rodon. There’s your problem.
“It’s ok to say, ‘we run this football club and we have a committee’, but the committee will always go with the chairman, because if you don’t, you haven’t got a job.”