Tim Sherwood believes Antonio Conte had the option of bringing Christian Eriksen back to Tottenham but chose not to.
Eriksen left Tottenham in 2020 after seven years at the club to join Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan, with whom he won the Serie A title. He, however, suffered a cardiac arrest during their opening game against Finland in the Euros 2020. Fortunately, he recovered completely after being fitted with a cardioverter defibrillator device.
Euro 2020 marked a watershed moment in Eriksen’s career, as the Italian FA informed him that he needed to remove the defibrillator device if he wanted to play in Serie A again. This resulted in the termination of his contract. After a brief hiatus from football, he returned to the Premier League with Brentford on a 6-month contract in January 2022 and had an impactful season for the Bees.
After his short spell at Brentford, he was linked with a stunning return to Spurs but it was reported that Daniel Levy and the player could not come to an agreement and the player instead joined Manchester United on a free transfer.
However, former Spurs manager Tim Sherwood in this week’s Kelly and Wrighty Show claimed that Conte had the chance to sign Eriksen in the summer but passed on it because he ‘doesn’t want that type of player‘. He said:
“You think they need that (about Tottenham needing a creative player).
“But the manager doesn’t want that. He had the opportunity to take Christian Eriksen back there. He had him at Inter Milan. Eriksen started 13 times. He doesn’t want creativity.
“Some of the greatest players we have ever seen at Tottenham are Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne.
“They can’t play for Antonio Conte. He doesn’t want that type of player. It’s not what he is looking for.”
That’s a surprising claim considering that Conte just a few weeks ago before the match vs Manchester United admitted that he would like to work with Cristian Eriksen again. He said:
“For sure, Christian is a player I enjoyed working with him, he is a player I would like to train again and have in my squad, but you know very well that the transfer market is very difficult.
