Ex-Chelsea star Ola Aina was supposed to join Tottenham, his father claims

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Ola Aina made just three Premier League starts for Chelsea before moving to Serie A with Torino – what could he have achieved with Pochettino’s Spurs?

The father of former Chelsea youngster Ola Aina has admitted to Al Jazeera that the highly-rated right-back was denied a dream move to Tottenham Hotspur earlier in his career – the club he supported as a boy.

At long last, Chelsea are giving youth a chance with academy graduates Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James establishing themselves in the first team since Frank Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge as the manager.

But Lampard’s homecoming came too late for Aina.

Serie A outfit Torino already had an option to sign the 23-year-old permanently and, after an impressive loan spell in Italy during 2018/19, they took up that chance, announcing a £9 million permanent deal over the summer (Goal).

Aina left Chelsea having made just three Premier League appearances for The Blues and it’s tempting to wonder how things would have panned out if he’d joined a Tottenham side who, under Mauricio Pochettino, turned Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Danny Rose, Kyle Walker and Harry Winks into first-team regulars.

“He was meant to sign for Tottenham,” Olufemi Aina has admitted, “They had him over for about three weeks, then on the day he was supposed to sign, they kept acting funny.

“As a big Spurs fan, it was heartbreaking. Luckily, Chelsea officials were still calling us daily, so we decided, ‘Why not go where you are wanted?'”

In the summer of 2017, Spurs sold Kyle Walker to Manchester City before signing Serge Aurier in his place.

But maybe Pochettino would have been minded to promote Aina instead of signing the much-maligned Ivory Coast international, had the Nigerian international been waiting in the wings at Spurs rather than Chelsea.

He’s going from strength to strength at Torino these days however and, with Tottenham still a little short at right-back, there’s no reason to give up on his dream move just yet.