£46m ace says he snubbed Tottenham in 2021, now could join at last

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During the summer of 2021, Tottenham Hotspur agreed a £46 million deal in principle for Villarreal defender Pau Torres (AS). That was the easy bit.

Convincing the player himself to accept their offer proved to be a far greater challenge; the Spain international looking forward to Champions League football with his hometown club.

“I was informed of Tottenham’s interest,” Torres told Marca. “But I was clear from the first moment what I wanted, and so I decided calmly. I decided that the best thing for me was to continue at Villarreal.

“We have many challenges this season that I am passionate about. It didn’t take long for me to decide. This is only the fourth time Villarreal (have) reached the Champions League, which shows how hard it is (to qualify).

“It was a dream to play in this competition with my boyhood club.”

Tottenham Hotspur could finally sign Villarreal’s Spain international Pau Torres

When Villarreal went 2-0 up against Liverpool in the Champions League semi-finals – having already knocked out Bayern Munich and Juventus – the La Liga side found themselves in a position Torres would not have imagined even in his wildest ‘dreams’.

Liverpool’s second-half fightback, then – turning a two-goal deficit into a 3-2 lead in the space of just 14 minutes – felt like the rudest of rude awakenings. Back down to earth with an almighty bump.

The harshest of reminders that, while Villarreal might have stunned both Bayern and Juventus en route to the last-four, there remains a glass ceiling separating one of Europe’s B-list clubs from the biggest prizes and the biggest stages.

Torres, the memory of that remarkable European run fading, now feels like a man who has achieved all he can on the Castellon coast. Villarreal have gone from the Champions League semi-finals to the UEFA Conference League in a matter of months. They also head into the World Cup break ninth in La Liga. As such, n immediate return to Europe’s elite club competition, let alone the semi-finals, feels increasingly unlikely.

90Min claim that Tottenham are planning to renew their interest in the silky 25-year-old centre-half in the New Year. Villarreal are bracing themselves for a sale, too.

And if the opportunity to play Champions League football in the yellow of Villarreal was a deciding factor in Torres rebuffing Spurs’ advances a year ago, then what is there to stop him this time?