Tottenham Hotspur have had a whole host of incredible midfielders at their disposal throughout their history.
Luka Modric is perhaps the standout name, who used Tottenham as a stepping stone to sign for Real Madrid in 2013 and etched his reputation as one of the best midfielders the game has ever seen.
Antonio Rudiger raved about Mousa Dembele and named him as the most underrated player he has ever come across, which speaks volumes of how tremendous he was for Spurs in particular.
Sir Alex Ferguson wished to manage Paul Gascoigne but as the former Manchester United boss admitted, the English legend went on to sign for Tottenham and became a Lilywhites legend.
In 2018, Sam Allardyce saw a lot of potential in Eric Dier when he was still a defensive midfielder after he competed against Sergio Busquets and his Barcelona side as Spurs lost 4-2 in the Champions League.
Sam Allardyce compared Eric Dier to Sergio Busquets at Tottenham
Allardyce commented on Dier’s display after the contest, who was just 24 at the time.
Seven years ago, the former Sporting CP dynamo looked like he could become a top-class number six — capable of breaking up play expertly and anchoring the back four for both Tottenham and England.
Dier, who Brighton wish to sign as well as Brentford and Wolves went on to become a centre-back eventually.
But in 2018, Sam Allardyce told talkSPORT that Dier was just as good a midfielder as Sergio Busquets, who is widely considered the greatest player in his position in history.
“The praise about Busquets must be stopped, was never evident last night because he’s no better or worse than Eric Dier for me and Eric Dier. Busquets is a sitting midfield player that breaks it up, intercepts and passes it very simply and is intelligent. That’s what he is, he’s not much more than that but gets a huge amount of praise for it whereas Eric Dier does a similar job but sometimes, gets lots of criticism for it.”
Sam Allardyce also claimed Busquets was hailed for what Dier was slated for, explaining: “I’m only saying he’s got the capabilities of being that. If the rest of the team is as good as the Spanish and Busquets’ been a great player for Barcelona, don’t get me wrong but he’s a very effective, first-pick for every manager because he plays such a simple game and because he plays such a simple game, it’s great for the team and we laud him as a genius. Whereas our own, we don’t, we criticise and that’s all I’m saying.”
Sam Allardyce took back his Dier-Busquets comments
At the time, the former Leeds United boss’ comments generated plenty of headlines as the comparison was a staggering one to say the least.
But Sam Allardyce went on to admit on Sky Sports later that year that while Dier did outperform Busquets on the night, his claims were off the mark.
“I slipped up a little bit, but on the night, he was better than him.”
“In career terms, he’s not. But what I was doing was sticking up for Dier, after the amount of stick he’s been getting People saying he’s not good enough for England, people saying he shouldn’t be playing. There’s been a lot of negative comments in the press.”
