Tottenham’s new signing Radu Dragusin has turned down another club besides Bayern Munich to join Spurs in January.
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis confirmed that he failed to make a late approach to buy the centre-back, as Bayern also tried unsuccessfully to take up Spurs’ offer.
Genoa, who owned Dragusin at the time, had previously claimed that Bayern had offered a better financial package than Spurs, but now De Laurentiis says Napoli have put forward a more lucrative offer.
“I offered him more than anyone else: no one offered him the amounts we would have provided,” Area Napoli quotes him as saying.
“Genoa replied: ‘Bayern Munich are here too, but the boy really wants England’. It wasn’t a question of money, because it doesn’t always work like that when you’re trying to sign a footballer.
“If they tell you that the talent you want to hire is being seen elsewhere, pushing for certain leagues, you can’t help but stop. We did everything we could, but his choice was different.”
Both Napoli and Bayern had to admit defeat as Spurs completed a £26.7m deal for Dragusin.