Marco Silva was in charge at Sporting when Eric Dier was sold to Tottenham Hotspur.
Eric Dier’s £4 million move to Tottenham Hotspur will go down as one of the great bargains in recent seasons.
Spurs bought him from Sporting Club de Portugal in 2014, and saw him become an instant hero by scoring the winner over West Ham on his debut.
A lesser known connection is that Sporting’s manager at the time was current Watford boss Marco Silva, who takes on Dier’s Tottenham this weekend.
Silva spoke about Dier in his pre-game press conference, expressing regret at losing him, and admiration for what the player has gone onto achieve, now a regular England international.
He told Football London: “What he has achieved with Tottenham and with England is not a surprise for me. In that moment he was a big miss for me when he left during pre-season.
“I tried everything to keep him, because he would have been an important player for me, given how I like to play.
“He had a dream in that moment though to come to Spurs and the Premier League.”
Dier took a bit of a gamble leaving Sporting at the time, giving up on his Portuguese adventure, having made the decision to try and establish his career abroad.
His ‘dream’ move to Tottenham could surely not have worked out any better.
Now he has the chance to demonstrate to Marco Silva exactly what he lost.
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