Jose Mourinho rejected chance to sign PL star for just £28m at Spurs

Former player, manager and consultant scout, David Pleat, has revealed Tottenham decided against signing a player who has since risen to the top of the Premier League.

Pleat has an incomparable eye for talent

David Pleat is synonymous with Tottenham transfers, having scouted some of Tottenham Hotspur’s greatest talents in recent years.

Most notoriously, it was Pleat who scouted and recommended Spurs went ahead and signed Dele from MK Dons. He additionally was involved with the scouting of Jan Vertonghen and Cristian Eriksen.

However, a common occurrence is now discovering the plethora of talent Pleat recommended, who Tottenham declined to sign.

Previously, Pleat has mentioned recommending Jarrod Bowen when he was at Hull City, Ivan Toney while still at Peterborough and James Maddison while at Coventry. Luckily Maddison made it to Tottenham eventually, but the others may be considered missed opportunities.

Now Pleat is discussing another player he recommended to Spurs who has since gone on to be one of the Premier League’s most prolific forwards.

Watkins was considered too expensive

David Pleat has been speaking on SkySports News about how he recommended that Tottenham sign Ollie Watkins from Brentford while they were in the Championship.

Pleat said (SkySports): “I remember (Jose Mourinho) once asked me about Ollie Watkins. At the time the price from Brentford was £28m, which Dean Smith took the opportunity at Villa.

“Jose decided it was too much money to pay for a cover forward for Harry Kane. In the end, he went for Vinicius, who didn’t do too well. We had 1 or 2 players that came as cover for Kane … they weren’t too successful, but they were cover players.

“We never really had the succession ready for Harry Kane when the inevitability came that he would leave the club. Maybe now Solanke will do it, hopefully.”

Could Watkins have backed up Kane?

After Harry Kane established himself as Tottenham’s main striker, finding a backup for him became an ever-present challenge. He provided so much across the pitch, it was impossible to find a player capable of filling his boots during periods of injury. Arguably the most successful cover for Kane ended up being Son Heung-min, who often rose to the occasion to carry the team in Kane’s absence.

Ollie Watkins may feel like a missed opportunity and £28m is a fraction of what he is worth now, but Watkins has developed into the player he is because he had the opportunity to play consistently at Aston Villa. Had he joined Tottenham, he may have suffered the same fate as Carlos Vinicius and Vincent Jansen, who both joined Tottenham after stand-out seasons in the Primeira Liga and Eredivisie respectively.

Hindsight is 20-20 and not signing a player who is now clearly as talented as Ollie Watkins, now seems like a foolish decision. However, it is unreliable to try to predict the success of even the best-scouted transfers.

That being said, Tottenham’s current transfer strategy of finding highly talented U21 age-group players like Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, may be a lesson learnt from rueing missed opportunities like Watkins.

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