Former Dinamo Zagreb president Zdravko Mamic has claimed that Tottenham had tried to sign Alen Halilovic and Tin Jedvaj to replace Gareth Bale.
Mamic told Arena: “Our biggest failure were transfers of AlenHalilovic and Tin Jedvaj. When they were 16, Tottenham sold Bale to Real for €100m and wanted to buy them for €25m. I met [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy in London.
“We started negotiations at €10m and finished at 25, and signed a deal. As I returned to Zagreb, I presented that deal to the Halilovic and Jedvaj families and they agreed.
“But after a few days, Halilovic’s father changed his mind saying Alen was not happy with the deal. I went crazy and called the whole thing off. And Dinamo lost because we sold them a couple of years later for much less money.”
After Bale had departed to Real Madrid in 2013, Tottenham were looking to recruit the Croatian duo to fill the void left by the Wales international according to Mamic.
Halilovic went on to earn himself a move to Barcelona two years later. After he failed to establish himself at the Catalan giants, he was sold to German club Hamburg and is currently on loan with Las Palmas.
Jedvaj was sold to Roma and after also failing to settle into life, was sold to German club Bayer Leverkuson a year later.
