Joe Cole has stated that ‘history changes’ if Tottenham had signed Virgil van Dijk instead of Liverpool, as he told the All to Play for Podcast.
During the January transfer window, Liverpool signed Van Dijk in a world-record deal, as Cole claimed that Spurs were ‘in the running’ for him, at the time.
18 months after Van Dijk put pen-to-paper at Anfield, he and his Liverpool teammates were creating history by winning their sixth European crown at the expense of Spurs.
Since that day, it has been pretty different for both clubs, with Jurgen Klopp’s side adding a Premier League title to their cabinet.
Whilst Spurs just continued to spiral and ended up sacking Mauricio Pochettino months after that heartbreaking defeat in Madrid.
Nonetheless, Cole thinks things would have been a lot different if Van Dijk went to North London instead of Merseyside a number of years ago.
“There was a point when Van Dijk went to Liverpool,” said Cole. “Apparently, Tottenham were in the running for Van Dijk.
“Imagine you take Van Dijk out of the Liverpool team and you put him in that Tottenham team, then history changes because he’s that good.”
From being in their first-ever Champions League final to now competing in the newly-formed Europa Conference League.
It has been a decline that has hurt many Spurs supporters and one they will be hoping stops now that Antonio Conte is in the dugout.
The Italian will need money to invest in order to get the club back on track and that means a lot falling on Daniel Levy’s shoulders.
Conte is proven everywhere he has been and like Jose Mourinho, he will be hoping that Spurs isn’t the first club where he fails to win a single trophy.
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