Spurs signed Roberto Soldado for £26m in 2013 but he scored just seven Premier League goals in two seasons at the club.
Roberto Soldado has admitted to the Guardian that his miserable spell at Tottenham Hotspur stands alone as the one big regret in his career.
The Spanish centre-forward was in the form of his life when he sealed a £26 million move to North London in the summer of 2013, having plundered a remarkable 81 goals in just three seasons at Valencia.
But, like so many of the players who formed part of that ill-fated Spurs rebuild following Gareth Bale’s world-record move to Real Madrid, Soldado proved to be a massive disappointment at White Hart Lane.
The wiry striker found the target just seven times in the Premier League from 2013 to 2015 and Spurs fans everywhere still wake up in cold sweats, reminiscing fitfully about Soldado’s penchant for slicing the ball over the ball from two yards out.
A club then managed by Mauricio Pochettino side took a £16 million loss when they sold Soldado to Villarreal after two dreadful years and the now-34-year-old has admitted that he wishes things had turned out different.
“I don’t regret going to Tottenham at all, and I was convinced it would go well,” he reflects.
“I thought, with my style, my form, I was going to fit well. But when I went… well, it was completely the opposite. If there’s one thing I won’t be totally at peace with the day I retire it’s how I played in England.”
Now back in La Liga with high-flying Granada, Soldado has never managed to replicate that outstanding Valencia spell at any of his clubs since that big-money departure from the Mestalla. His tally of league goals since the summer of 2015 stands at a measly 28.
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