Redknapp reveals Tottenham came close to signing Suarez and Arsenal legend

Posted Friday, October 10, 2014 by Talksport.co.uk

Former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has revealed his regret at missing out on Luis Suarez before he made the move to Liverpool.

Redknapp says he received a glowing reference on the striker, then at Ajax, from Ruud Gullit when he was in charge of Spurs back in 2011.

But he was initially unsure about the Uruguayan and when he finally decided he wanted to sign him, the asking price became a problem for the north London club.

Suarez went on to sign for Liverpool and became a huge hit at Anfield, scoring 69 goals in 110 appearances before making a big-money switch to Barcelona in the summer.

"Despite all that has happened in his career since, one of the biggest regrets of my life in management is not taking Luis Suarez to Tottenham when we had the chance," recalled Redknapp in his new book, A Man Walks On To a Pitch, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail.

"'You've got to take him, Harry,' Ruud Gullit told me. 'He's fantastic’.” Just when I was on the verge of taking the plunge, the price went up.

"In the end he was sold for £22.8million to Liverpool. We wouldn't have paid that."

Redknapp has also revealed how close he came to signing Patrick Vieira for Spurs in 2009.

Despite his legendary status at Arsenal, Redknapp claims the Frenchman was unfazed by the negative attention the switch to their north London rivals would inevitably attract and was ready to make the move to White Hart Lane.

Vieira, then at Inter Milan, eventually decided to stay put in Italy for a few months before he moved to Manchester City in January 2010.

"I met him at his house in Hampstead and he had no fear about what people would think or what reception he would get. He had enough confidence in his ability to just brush it away," Redknapp said.

"I remember talking to Daniel Levy, our chairman, about him. He said the crowd would be hostile. I knew that - but if he had enough bottle to want to put on our white shirt after all that had gone before, I thought it said something about the man."