Darren Anderton has claimed that Alan Sugar once locked him in his house to stop him from leaving Tottenham to join Manchester United.
The former England international spent twelve years at Spurs between 1992 and 2004, making over 350 appearances for the north London club, although things could have been much different had a reported move to Old Trafford gone through in 1995.
1995 Ferguson made an approach for Tottenham winger Darren Anderton, but the player signed a new contract with the North London club. He then made a bid to sign Dutchman Marc Overmars from Ajax #MUFC.
— Man United 1878 (@Man_Utd_1878_) January 24, 2018
Anderton claims that the interest from United arose after he scored a last minute equaliser for England in a 3-3 draw with Sweden in 1995, and he told the Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? podcast: “That was when United came in. After that game was when Pally (Gary Pallister) went, ‘Do you fancy coming to play for us?’ as we were all having a game of snooker back at the hotel. He just said, ‘Can I give the gaffer your number?
“‘Yeah, why not?’ It was a little bit daunting to be fair. It was more daunting for my brother, who answered the phone.”
The issue for Anderton came the next day when he went to speak to the then Spurs chairman, Alan Sugar, who apparently wasn't too happy about the move, as Anderton claimed: “The next day I went and saw Sir Alan Sugar and he didn’t let me leave his house without signing a new contract to get rid of that clause. It was a bit panic stations."
Reflecting on missing out on his chance to join United, Anderton said: “I regret not winning all those trophies and playing in that team would’ve been amazing, but at the time I was so happy at Spurs.
“Euro 96 was coming, I didn’t want to go somewhere else and maybe have a bit of a struggle and not be part of that."
Anderton would go onto make 30 appearances for England, and featured in every game of England's run to the semi-finals at Euro 96. He also won the 1999 League Cup while at Spurs, before leaving the club for Birmingham in 2004.
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- 90Min