Tottenham Hotspur made a move for John Stones a year ago today, and his decision to stay at Manchester City has ultimately paid dividends.
Tottenham were desperate to find another centre back before the transfer deadline on October 5th, 2020.
They ended up signing Joe Rodon from Swansea City weeks later, given an extended domestic deadline.
Tottenham missed on a number of centre backs along the way, including Manchester City star Stones.
The Daily Star reported that Tottenham launched a bid to take £47.5million star Stones on loan.
In 2019-20 season, Stones started just 12 league games. Ruben Dias had been signed in the summer of 2020, which was seen as pushing Stones down the order.
Tottenham tried their luck, with Jose Mourinho keen on a season-long loan deal, but Stones didn’t want to move to London.
Stones snubbing Tottenham paid off
Few could have really expected Stones to thrive as much as he did after snubbing Tottenham.
Stones ended up taking Aymeric Laporte’s role in the Tottenham side, forming a superb partnership with Ruben Dias in the heart of Pep Guardiola’s defence.
Stones was so good that Guardiola called him ‘excellent’. Pep even suggested that Stones had ‘turned his situation perfectly’ having been out of favour.
The former Everton man pushed himself back into the England starting lineup, and enjoyed a superb Euro 2020 campaign.
Stones ended last season as a Premier League winner once again as well as reaching the Champions League.
Maybe Stones would have been back with England if he had joined Tottenham, but those other successes wouldn’t have come.
A bold decision has paid off for Stones, though he must now get back into the City side again with Laporte in strong form of late.
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