Former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has revealed that he wanted to sign Kim Min-jae, who has emerged as one of Europe's top centre-backs this season at Napoli, for Spurs but the club weren't in a position to let him at the time.
The Roma boss is going up against the highly-rated South Korean defender when his side face Serie A leaders Napoli on Sunday.
His team go into the match as underdogs given how impressive their opponents have been this season, with Kim one of many players to catch the eye.
Mourinho revealed that he tried to sign the centre-back when in charge at Tottenham before Napoli snapped him up in 2022, but that Spurs didn't let him spend the money required to do so.
“I can tell you a story about one of their players. I spoke to him on FaceTime and wanted to buy him at Tottenham, but Tottenham didn’t help me,” Mourinho explained.
“The player cost €10m, Tottenham offered €5m. A deal could be done for €7-8m, but at that time Tottenham couldn’t spend money. I spoke to the lad two or three times via FaceTime, he really wanted to come, but he couldn’t come."
It would have turned out to be quite the bargain if Spurs gave Mourinho what he wanted, with Kim ultimately costing Napoli €18m last summer and proving to be worth every penny.
He has been linked with some of the world's biggest sides in recent months, including Manchester United but won't leave Napoli for anything less than a €45m release clause. However, Napoli are already looking to give Kim a new deal.
On this edition of Oh What A Night, Sean Walsh and Jude Summerfield look back on Tottenham's last two Premier League games and discuss latest transfer business. They talk Arnaut Danjuma, Pedro Porro and Nicolo Zaniolo. If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
Source : 90min