Former coach says signing Tottenham star can turn his club into champions

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Ivan Perisic can become a Hajduk Split legend and a Croatian league champion if the winger completes an emotional return from Tottenham Hotspur.

That is according to Zoran Vulic, the former Hajduk Split coach who worked with a baby-faced Ivan Perisic as he began his footballing journey on the banks of the Adriatic.

According to Gianluca di Marzio, Perisic’s career could yet come full circle. The veteran wideman is considering terminating the final year of his £160,000-a-week Tottenham Hotspur contract in order to pick up where he left off all the way back in 2006.

“He is not interested in any offers (other than Hajduk),” a source tells Croatian publication T-Portal.

Perisic, the report adds, ‘will do everything’ to make his dream transfer become a reality.

Hajduk have not won the top-flight title since Perisic’s first spell at the club nearly two decades ago and Vulic believes that, if that long drought is to come to an end, one of Croatia’s favourite sons could be the man to drag them across the line.

Ivan Perisic leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Croatia homecoming

“I expect that he will come and do in Split what (Marko) Livaja did,” Vulic tells Index, Livaja firing Hajduk to a pair of Croatian Cups.

“God, just let him come and sign!”

“Hajduk has to fight for the championship every year, with or without Livaja and Perisic. Simply, that is Hajduk’s duty. Whether they succeed or not is another question, but Hajduk must attack first place every year.

“Last season, we had a great chance (to win the league). It’s our own fault that it didn’t happen. And with the arrival of Perisic, I think that Hajduk’s chances are seriously increasing.

“But a lot has to coincide. Many talk about the Dinamo (Zagreb) crisis, I don’t really see that crisis. There is Rijeka, then Osijek, who have has invested a lot. I am sure that the league will never be more interesting.”

Perisic once ‘promised himself’ that he would return to Hajduk before hanging up his boots. At the age of 34, time is running out for him to do just that.

Tottenham, meanwhile, may opt against standing in his way. Perisic was very much ‘Antonio Conte’s man’, after all. And there is not such an obvious place in the Spurs side these days with Ange Postecoglou expected to move away from Conte’s wing-back system.

Tottenham also have Destiny Udogie ready to take Perisic’s place.

“It was similar with (striker Nikola) Kalinic. He played against Juventus (for Hellas Verona) and then, the very next day, he was in Split,” Vulic adds.

“Every player in such a situation who comes to Hajduk does not do it for money, but for his heart. If (Perisic) comes and refuses huge money because of Hajduk, he will only grow even more in the eyes of the fans.”