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laurence_1999
Mar 20, 20208 min read

The top players we've been linked to but never signed


With it being at least six weeks until our next game thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, I thought I'd do an article and chose to talk about the top players that we have been linked with but never signed.

Wayne Rooney

In the summer of 2004, Wayne Rooney was tipped to become England's new hero with way he'd started his career and in August 2004, we submitted a £20,000,000 bid for 18 year old despite the addition of Patrick Kluivert earlier that summer. It was rejected and reportedly caused discontent in the squad as Bobby Robson's days appeared to be numbered whilst Craig Bellamy would reportedly have considered a transfer request due to his game time being shortened. Shortly afterwards, Robson was sacked and Rooney joined Man Utd for £25,600,000.

Wayne Rooney

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Graham Carr got a lot of criticism towards the end of his time at the club but he had spotted the highly-rated Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang whilst he was at St Etienne and showed interest in the Gabonese striker in the summer of 2013, a year after playing at Northern League club Heaton Stannington's ground ahead of the 2012 Olympics. In an interview in 2016, he claimed that we offered him a higher wage than Borussia Dortmund but Jurgen Klopp had led them to two Bundesliga titles, a German Cup title and a Champions League final since joining them in 2008 so he chose them over us. I think he would've been a better option than Loic Remy (especially if we bought him) but he would've probably had to have been more clinical with his chances, given our team, compared to Dortmund and then eventually, Arsenal.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Luka Modrić

Towards the end of the 2007-08 season, Luka Modrić was a top transfer target for Kevin Keegan and despite his agent (who was a fan of his) telling him he was confident he'd be joining Tottenham, he persuaded him to come to Newcastle and see if he was interested in joining us instead. We gave the Croatian a tour of our training ground and it seemed like we'd be signing him only for Tony Jimenez to pull the plug by claiming he wasn't ready for the Premier League. Shortly afterwards, he signed for Spurs but whilst he'd have been written off early on by our fans (especially if social media was popular) after a slow start, Harry Redknapp's appointment changed his career (as well as Gareth Bale's) and in typical fashion, his first Premier League goal came at St James' Park (but we did beat them 2-1 to be fair). Eventually, after an injury hit 2009-10 season, he really kicked on and earned a move to Real Madrid in August 2012 for twice the money he joined Spurs for and as well as four Champions League and one La Liga title, he also won the player of the tournament as Croatia finished runner-ups in the 2018 World Cup and the best men's player of the year award two months later.

Luka Modric

Bastian Schweinsteiger

Another one from the summer of 2008, Bastian Schweinsteiger was seen as James Milner's replacement after the board accepted a £12,000,000 offer from Aston Villa, despite Keegan wanting to keep the future England international. Keegan's assistant, Terry McDermott, revealed in his 2017 autobiography that when the offer was accepted, the board suggested signing Schweinsteiger and Kevin agreed we had to give it a go but when he rang up Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the former West Germany international admitted he couldn't stop laughing after the board only offered a pathetic €5,000,000 and claimed that even €50,000,000 wouldn't be enough to sign Schweinsteiger. Eventually, the midfielder brought in was Ignacio Gonzalez, who was only signed because Dennis Wise was impressed by him on YouTube, this (and the signing of Xisco) was against Keegan's wishes and despite meeting the board in a desperate attempt to sort things out, he walked out. Meanwhile, Schweinsteiger continued to win trophy after trophy with Bayern Munich and was seen as a "football god" by the Bayern fans and how we thought we could sign him is anyone's guess.

Bastian Schweinsteiger

Zinedine Zidane I think it's commonly known that when Blackburn were interested in signing Bordeaux midfielder Zinedine Zidane in 1995, owner Jack Walker questioned why manager Kenny Dalglish wanted to sign him when they had Tim Sherwood. He was also offered to us for £1,200,000 but someone from the club had watched him play and claimed that he wasn't good enough for Division One, within a year, he won the Ligue 1 player of the year and then signed for Juventus before a world record £46,600,000 move to Real Madrid in 2001, where his amazing volley sealed them the Champions League title in his first season as he become a Los Blancos legend in his five years in the Spanish capital. Safe to say that rejecting him wasn't the finest moment for whoever was scouting him at the time.

Zinedine Zidane

Mohamed Salah

This has been talked about in the past and when the fact we didn't sign Mohamed Salah on a season long loan in June 2011 was talked about, our fans talked as if the Salah of now could've been our's. The Egyptian claimed that we were about to make an offer for him but many reports have suggested we weren't willing to pay the £500,000 loan fee, at the time, had we gone through with it before seeing him do well in his first season, destroying teams alongside Hatem Ben Arfa before potentially signing permanently, he would've likely ended up leaving and getting better coaching as Alan Pardew hasn't been the biggest fan of flair players.

Mohamed Salah

Rivaldo

In 2002, it was reported that Bobby Robson wanted Rivaldo and he claimed he would be our player in a matter of weeks but after winning that summer's World Cup with Brazil, he joined AC Milan and we probably dodged a bullet as he only netted five goals in twenty-two Serie A games before being released in September 2003.

Luis Figo

Eight years after scoring a consolation in Barcelona's 3-2 defeat at St James' Park, Luis Figo was in talks to join us as his contract with Barca's arch rivals Real Madrid expired. The stumbling block in this deal was the 32 year-old wanting £90,000 a week, we did end up signing Michael Owen and giving him a bigger salary later that summer but we were signing a 25 year-old who had a superb career for Liverpool before things didn't work out for him in Madrid in a deal that was ambitious but turned out to be a big mistake. Figo's peak years were also behind him as he only scored nine league goals in four years at Inter Milan before retiring in 2009 but still finished his career with four consecutive Serie A winner's medals.

Luis Figo

Jan Vertonghen

Jan Vertonghen is the start of a trio of current Spurs players and whilst this could well just been more rubbish from the Daily Mail, it was reported that Alan Pardew wanted the Belgian in January 2012 when Steven Taylor was ruled out for the season, although we finished fifth the season, it's one we really could've done with at the time, especially when we went and shipped five each at Fulham and Tottenham then four at Wigan, having already done the same at Norwich a week after Taylor's injury. We were linked with the Belgian again that summer and Pardew reportedly scouting him towards the end of the season but he joined Tottenham and we failed to sign a centre-back, leaving us with just Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson and an injury prone Steven Taylor until the arrival of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa in January but even that was because of Coloccini wanting a move back to Argentina, although a move to San Lorenzo didn't materialise until we released him in July 2016.

Jan Vertonghen

Toby Alderweireld

Another Belgian centre-back who used to play for Ajax but now is at Spurs and this time, it's Toby Alderweireld. He was made surplus to requirements by Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2014 but had started all of Belgium's World Cup games and with Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa unfancied by Alan Pardew, we needed a centre-back to replace the Frenchman. We had been linked with him at the same as we targeted Vertonghen but he joined Southampton on loan for the season instead and we were left with just three centre-backs as Yanga-Mbiwa joined Roma on loan whilst we'd also allowed Jamaal Lascelles a year on loan at Nottingham Forest after he signed for us permanently from them that summer, both of them (plus Vertonghen and Alderweireld) would eventually show how good they could be with the right coaching. Steven Taylor picked up another long term injury four months later, which left us with only an ageing Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson and even had to play Daryl Janmaat at centre-back, crazy to think that was our centre-back depth then when you look at what we have now.

Toby Alderweireld

Dele Alli

A more known transfer rumour that came to nothing, Dele Alli had been watched by Graham Carr as a 17 year old and in January 2015, it was reported that we had a deal in place to sign him before loaning him back to MK Dons. Unfortunately, wages proved to be a stumbling block and it was Tottenham who signed him before loaning him out. That said, there's no way he'd have had as good a career as he has done had he joined us and been coached by Steve McClaren, given that we signed Georginio Wijnaldum that summer and still went down but if we signed him and still appointed Rafa Benitez before going down but keeping him, he could well have turned out similar to what he has in real life, given how good players like Ayoze Perez and Jamaal Lascelles have been for us since getting relegated with us.

Dele Alli

George Weah

When Kevin Keegan stunned everybody by letting Andy Cole join Man Utd in 1995, he identified George Weah as his replacement. But despite the Liberian claiming that he'd joined us had he known about Keegan's interest, he joined AC Milan and we waited until the summer to replace Cole and missed on European football but when Les Ferdinand replaced him, we enjoyed two second place finishes before Kenny Dalglish sold him to Tottenham. I do think that had we signed him, Alan Shearer may never have joined.

Ibrahim Ba

During Ruud Gullit's time here, Ibrahim Ba was reportedly close to joining us from AC Milan for £5,200,000 but failed a medical due to a long term knee injury. However, Bobby Robson was interested in the winger during the 2000-01 season to help to supply crosses for Alan Shearer but he no interest in leaving Milan for us, he then subsequently went to Marseille on a short term loan before joining Bolton, Çaykur Rizespor and Djurgården before returning to Milan and only making one substitute appearance in the Coppa Italia and then retiring as injury problems got the better of him. But never-the-less, we signed Laurent Robert instead and he was probably a better player

Ibrahim Ba

Virgil Van Dijk

In the same summer that we missed out on Alderweireld, we also missed on who you could say was his future replacement at Southampton after he joined Tottenham following his season long loan there. Virgil Van Dijk had an impressive first season at Celtic but was hoping for a move away that summer. Alan Pardew wanted him but Graham Carr wanted to look elsewhere for Yanga-Mbiwa's replacement but as I mentioned earlier the Frenchman was let go without a replacement and judging on how well he has done without Pardew's coaching, Van Dijk must've been glad he stayed in Scotland for another year before his impressive displays at Southampton led to his £75,000,000 move to Liverpool and the rest is history.

Virgil Van Dijk

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