Charlie Adam was the subject of a transfer tug of war between Tottenham and Liverpool back in January 2011, Sir Kenny Dalglish has revealed.
Sir Kenny was in charge of Liverpool for the second time when the transfer battle took place, with the Reds hoping to sign Adam, the midfielder, from Blackpool.
He was enjoying a remarkable season at Bloomfield Road as the club attempted, unsuccessfully, to fight off relegation from the Premier League.
Adam ended the campaign with 12 goals and eight assists to his name, and was one of the nominees for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.
Liverpool ended up buying Adam at the end of the season following Blackpool’s relegation, but the £6.75million signing never fulfilled expectations at Anfield.
Despite eventually capturing their target, Liverpool were actually defeated in their initial attempts to sign Adam – six months before the transfer went through.
Throughout the 2010/11 winter transfer window, Liverpool put in two bids for the player, and although Adam submitted a transfer request, Blackpool refused to sell him.
They allegedly valued their key man at around the £14million mark, with Liverpool’s highest bid of £10million falling well short of the asking price.
But it was not only Liverpool that wanted Adam, with Sir Kenny also revealing Tottenham were battling to sign the midfielder that transfer deadline day.
In his Sunday Post column, Sir Kenny writes: “I did want to sign Charlie Adam for Liverpool from Blackpool in January, 2011.
“Tottenham were also sniffing around for the Scottish midfielder’s signature at that time.
“We worked on it until the last day, but we knew with a few hours to spare that Blackpool were not going to sell, and we had to wait until the summer to get him.”
Adam eventually joined Liverpool six months later, but is regarded as something an Anfield flop. He left the club after just one season, moving to Stoke where the 33-year-old remains.