Martin Jol shares ridiculous reason Daniel Levy didn’t sign Luis Suarez for Tottenham

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Daniel Levy’s departure from the role of chairman has been the real talking point at Tottenham over the past few weeks.

After 25 years of service where he helped establish Spurs as one of the biggest clubs in world football, there are certainly some who believe that his exit will allow them to move to the next level.

It had been said that Premier League clubs had become sick of dealing with Levy due to his fierce stance during negotiations over transfers.

One of the many managers who has experienced working under Levy is Martin Jol, with the Dutchman in charge between 2004-2007.

Martin Jol shares why Daniel Levy didn’t sign Luis Suarez for Tottenham

Jol believes Levy was let down by recruitment staff at Spurs, with a number of key targets not moving to North London in the past for various reasons.

The Dutchman has previously coached Luis Suarez during their time together at Ajax, and told Football London he was stunned that Spurs did not look to sign him.

He went on to tell Football London that he was told they were not looking to complete the deal for £25m because Levy had been told the striker was too similar to midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart.

He said: “Daniel was unbelievable for Spurs, but not on the technical side. When you look at the players they’ve signed they had so many misfits. That is what I said to Daniel ‘why don’t you give me a phone call?’. I had Toby Alderweireld. I had [Christian] Eriksen made his debut for me.

“And I had Luis Suarez. I said ‘why didn’t you buy Suarez?’. He said ‘because my people said that he is almost the same type of player as Van der Vaart’. Huh? Suarez is a striker. With me, he played from the right, but I knew that Suarez was not the right winger, but I had Marko Pantelic as a number nine, so I used Suarez as a false wide player like [Mohamed] Salah. Suarez is a legend. It was £25million, but [Daniel] didn’t listen.”

Suarez came back to haunt Tottenham

After they decided to look elsewhere for a new attacker, Suarez made the move to Liverpool, where he established himself as one of the greats.

In his final three games against Spurs, the Uruguay international scored four goals and assisted another two in dominant victories both home and away.

He would also be part of a victorious Barcelona side against Spurs in the Champions League in 2018, although it was the North London side who would reach the final of the competition that year.