- Tottenham chief Levy leaves club
- Spurs had chance to sign young Suarez
- Shocklingly passed up striker signing
Following Jol’s stint at Tottenham between 2004 and 2007, the Dutchman went on to manage Ajax from 2009 to 2010. In that time, he saw the rise of Uruguayan forward Suarez, who scored a remarkable 111 goals in 159 games there. The 69-year-old says that the north London team were interested in signing the ex-Nacional ace but eventually moved on as they thought he played in the same role as Tottenham’s attacking midfielder, Rafael van der Vaart. Jol played Suarez as a “false wide player like Mohamed Salah” as he had Marko Pantelic as a number nin. In the end, the 6ft striker joined Liverpool in 2011 and the rest is history.
He told Football.London “Daniel was unbelievable for Spurs, but not on the technical side. When you look at the players they’ve signed they had so many misfits. That is what I said to Daniel ‘why don’t you give me a phone call?’. I had Toby Alderweireld. I had [Christian] Eriksen make his debut for me. And I had Luis Suarez. I said, ‘Why didn’t you buy Suarez?’. He said, ‘Because my people said that he is almost the same type of player as Van der Vaart’. Huh? Suarez is a striker. With me, he played from the right, but I knew that Suarez was not the right winger, but I had Marko Pantelic as a number nine, so I used Suarez as a false wide player like Salah. Suarez is a legend. It was £25m, but [Levy] didn’t listen.”
Levy left his role as Tottenham’s executive chairman last week in a move that sent shockwaves around the Premier League following 24 years at Spurs. The 63-year-old played a huge part in ushering in their state-of-the-art stadium and making the club more financially sound, but not signing Suarez, when it appears they had the opportunity, is a big own goal. He went on to star for Liverpool and Barcelona, as well as becoming one of the best strikers of his generation. This is another case of what might have been for Tottenham.
While Tottenham enters into this new era without Levy at the helm, Suarez is still playing on at the age of 38 for Inter Miami. Meanwhile, Spurs are next in action on Saturday away to local rivals West Ham as the Premier League returns.
