Tottenham Hotspur made an extraordinary effort to stop Mesut Ozil swapping Real Madrid for Arsenal last summer.
According to the
Daily Telegraph,
Spurs attempted to insert a clause in the deal that saw Gareth Bale
move to the Santiago Bernabeu that would prevent the Spanish giants from
selling four named players to any other Premier League club this
season.
Along with the aforementioned Ozil, those players were Angel di
Maria, Karim Benzema and Fabio Coentrao, all of which had attracted
interest from rival clubs in England during the summer transfer window.
However, Tottenham failed to reach an agreement with Real Madrid, who
ended up securing Bale's services anyway, luring the Welshman from
White Hart Lane for a world-record £86million fee.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was unable to convince Ozil to head in the
opposite direction because of his desire to play in the Champions
League, and talks with Coentrao broke down over his astronomical wages.
Without directly aiming to obstruct north London rivals Arsenal from
signing Ozil, Tottenham simply wanted to prevent any other Premier
League club from acquiring him if they couldn't.
However, Arsene Wenger was able to convince the Germany international
to move to the Emirates Stadium, joining the Gunners for a club-record
£42.5million fee on deadline day.
Ozil hasn't had quite the impact that many Arsenal supporters had
hoped, but has shown glimpses of promise during his debut campaign in
England. Wenger has already suggested that the playmaker will be better
in 2014/15.