Christian Eriksen has told the Manchester Evening News that Tottenham failed to make him an offer over a return to the club, with the Dane since swapping Manchester United for Spurs this summer.
Eriksen, 30, was a free agent this summer before penning a three-year deal with Manchester United. It comes after his short-term deal at Brentford came to an end, and he chose to leave the London club on a free transfer.
So, Eriksen had a choice. Other Premier League clubs were interested but the front-runners were Spurs or United. Of course, Eriksen spent six and a half years at Tottenham – clocking up a huge 305 appearances in total.
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He also played for Antonio Conte at Inter when he left Spurs in January 2020, winning Serie A. So, a reunion with Spurs and Conte was likely – but he has chosen to join Manchester United. Now, he says how close he came to Tottenham.
“It was only talk. They never really came with anything so it wasn’t really a thing for me to go back to Tottenham at the time and Man United were very early on, very positive and I had good conversations.”
Eriksen: Tottenham failed to make offer over return
Ultimately, it might have come down to the fact that Eriksen would not have fitted into Conte’s system at Spurs. His 3-4-3 system has no space for an attacking midfielder, with Harry Kane dropping deep to feed Son Heung-min.
The romance of a return to Tottenham would have been tempting for both Spurs and Eriksen. But he would not have suited Spurs at this moment in time. A move to Manchester United makes more sense on paper for player and club.
Of course, Conte could have changed his system to incorporate Eriksen. But the only foreseeable option would have seen him go from a 3-4-3 to a 3-4-1-2, which means Richarlison or Dejan Kulusevski would have been dropped.
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