Tottenham Hotspur’s Fernando Llorente has explained how a late phone call from Mauricio Pochettino persuaded him to join the club instead of Chelsea.
The 32-year-old had appeared to be set on joining English Champions Chelsea from Swansea City before an eleventh hour move from Spurs for the former Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla striker.
“I'm very happy because at the end everything came out perfect,” Llorente is quoted as saying by IB Times.
“Tottenham are an amazing club with a wonderful project and I think I fit in very well. I want to put my contribution on it and hopefully I can score many goals to help the club to achieve their targets.
“The truth is that Chelsea have been after me for a long time but at the end you know how this works. At the very last minute Pochettino called me and convinced me [to join Tottenham].
“The Tottenham project is impressive. They have done very well in the last few years and I think I fit very well with this project. I think I can help them a lot.
“It is clear that Pochettino played a very important role in the decision. I have known him since he was playing in Spain.
“There is even a nice anecdote because I made my first-team debut (with Athletic Club Bilbao) against him at San Mames.
“He was at the end of his playing career and I was at the beginning of mine. Then he was the Espanyol manager and I faced him several more times.
“Now I play under him at Tottenham and I really want to give my best.”
