According to BBC Sport’s Guillem Balague, Ansu Fati had a “long chat” with Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou ahead of his move to Brighton.
Balague suggested that Spurs were initially favorites to sign the young talent and a deal was said to be nearing completion.
According to Balague, the persuasive skills of Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi played a crucial role in convincing Fati to join the south coast club.
De Zerbi assured the player that he is an important part of Brighton’s future plans.
He wrote:
Tottenham were favourites to sign him and a deal was close to being done after Ansu had a long chat with manager Ange Postecoglou.
Ultimately though, it was the persuasive skills of Brighton coach Roberto de Zerbi that brought him to the south coast of England.
The two men hit it off right from the start and what pleased Ansu was that De Zerbi took time to explain to him that he considered him to be very much part of his plans.
David Ornstein’s account of how the transmission failed differs from Guillem Balague’s.
Last month, Ornstein said that, despite reports to the contrary, Spurs dropped Ansu Fati and not the other way around.
Ornstein revealed that Tottenham have received the opportunity to sign Ansu Fat from several clubs, including Chelsea.
However, Postecoglou decided to pursue a different profile as a striker, focusing instead on Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson.
Speaking on The Athletic Football Podcast, Ornstein shared what he knows about Fati’s move to Brighton:
“Clearly Ansu Fati was seen as Xavi and Barcelona as among the names they were willing to part with.
A number of clubs were offered him including Tottenham and Chelsea, they considered it, in the case of Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou was keen to pursue a different profile of forward, it appears that is Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest.”
Spurs ended up signing Brennan Johnson from Nottingham Forest for £47.5m late on deadline day.
