Mauricio Pochettino has expressed his disappointment at Tottenham’s decision to sell Gylfi Sigurdsson back to Swansea in 2014.
The North London outfit beat Liverpool to Sigurdsson’s signature in 2013 days after it was confirmed they had made Andre Villas-Boas their new manager only to sell the Iceland international back to Swansea 12 months later.
Sigurdsson started in Pochettino’s first match in charge of Spurs during a pre-season friendly in America against Seattle Sounders, but he was forced to withdraw the creative midfielder in the first half after receiving a phone call from the board informing him that a deal had been agreed to sell him back to Swansea.
The 27-year-old was effectively involved in a swap deal that saw Ben Davies come the other way, but Pochettino has now revealed his disappointment in the deal, labelling the Swansea star as a ‘perfect’ player for his style of play.
“I think after he moved to Swansea and we saw his development at Swansea, he was a perfect player for us,” The Guardian quotes Pochettino as saying. “But, at that moment, it was a club decision and his decision to move to Swansea and find another way.
“Every time we meet him and see him, he shows his ability – not only as a player but like a man. All the people here talk very highly about him. It’s a shame but sometimes in football you never know what will happen in the future. There are no regrets.
“When we arrived at Tottenham we had 34 senior players and it was difficult to assess them all in the first few weeks, because we did not have enough time. The decision when we were in Seattle was for him to play the first friendly game. I remember he was in the starting XI to play that match and I had a call to say: ‘OK, the agreement is done with Swansea.’ When the club and player decide to move, there is nothing you can do about that.”
Despite Swansea’s struggles in the league this season Sigurdsson has still managed to excel, with four goals and as many assists in 13 league appearances this season. In fact, he has been a constant performer for the Welsh outfit since returning in 2014 only seven players have played a direct hand in more league goals than the Icelandic midfielder (39).
For more stats on Gylfi Sigurdsson, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
