It is human nature to eternally wonder what might have been, and football fans are no different. Liverpool fans will likely never escape the existential condition of Brendan Rodgers finding two roads diverging in a yellow wood, and choosing Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli to replace Luis Suarez, for example.
While Liverpool fans have been bemoaning this reality since it happened, there have been plenty of amazing moves that almost went through unknown to the viewing public, only to surface years later. We're thinking Diego Maradona to Sheffield United, and Zinedine Zidane to Blackburn.
In his Sunday Independent column this morning, former Irish international Stephen Hunt has thrown light on another. When he was flying with Reading in the Premier League, Spurs declared an interest in signing him.
It ultimately fell through, but Spurs explored a couple of different possible moves, including a potential swap deal with one Gareth Bale. Hunt tells the story in his intro:
Nothing came of it, but there was definite interest and a couple of ideas were put to my agent. There was even talk of Spurs allowing Gareth Bale to leav in the opposite direction.
Well, what a lucky escape for Tottenham and Real Madrid when that fell through!
In fairness, this was back in the 07/08 season, in which Bale was struggling as a left-back with Spurs. He was in the midst of his absurd run of failing to win a game in the Premier League, and in his first 24 games with Spurs, he wasn't once on the winning side.
That was as a left-back, however. Andre Villas-Boas arrived, played Bale further forward, and after the Welshman gave Inter Milan's Maicon a nervous breakdown in the Champions League, the rest was history.
You can read the Hunt's full column in today's Sunday Independent.
