Google the words "Harry Redknapp almost signed" and you will be met with a wealth of quotes from thearchitect ofJordan's 8-0 victory over Bangladesh,listing just about everyone you've ever heard of in football as 'the ones who got away'.
ApparentlyPatrick Vieira,Santi Cazorla,Asmir Begovic,Joe Cole,Gennaro GattusoandDavid Beckhamall slipped out of Redders grasp at the eleventh hour.
The latest signature shy nearly-mento haunt Harry's dreams of what might have beenare Barcelona forwardLuis Suarez and Chelsea talismanEden Hazard.
"He makes @LFC history!" - @LuisSuarez9 at his brilliant best#PLMoments pic.twitter.com/ApE9gbWxto
Speaking to known outrageous-transfer-story-encouragerJim White ontalkSPORT,Redknapp claimed that while at Tottenhamback in 2012, he was a whisker away from sealing the deal with two of the game's titans, only to settle for ummm... Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen on free transfers instead.
"We got Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen on free transfers “ we were short, we had injuries at centre-half and I had no striker.
If we had gone out [and invested] then... Luis Suarez was the player we were looking at.�
Like you're mate down at the pub who doesn't know when to bow out of an exaggerated tale, the former Pompey boss upped the stakes and boasted about how he met with Hazard, who he says was definitely, really very interested in the move to White Hart Lane and not just saying that to the crazy man who followed him to the airport.
Eden Hazard says Manchester City and Liverpool are the main threats to Chelsea's Premier League title chances: https://t.co/ueRHHDoboR pic.twitter.com/lMD21JL6ZY
I met [Eden] Hazard and spent three hours with him in a hotel in Paris “ I met him at the airport and he was dead keen to come to Tottenham.We were right down the road with Hazard and Luis Suarez was the best player in the Premier League when he was at Liverpool, he was fantastic.
If we just got one of those in, we had a team that could have challenged for the title.�
Okay Harry...