Striker reveals Edu blocked him from joining Tottenham in 2013

Peruvian football icon Paolo Guerrero has revealed that Arsenal’s departing sporting director, Edu, once stopped him from joining Tottenham Hotspur by deceiving him with a false promise.

Edu blocked Paolo Guerrero’s Tottenham move

Edu, who confirmed on Monday that he will be leaving Arsenal after five years to take on a new role under current Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, reportedly stopped Spurs from signing a famed South American star.

When the Brazilian was working as the director at Corinthians, he is said to have blocked Paolo Guerrero from returning to Europe, soon after the striker had returned to South America following 11 years in Germany.

Tottenham allegedly made an offer for the centre-forward in January of 2013, but Edu stepped in to block the move.

Guerrero claims Edu deceived him

The 40-year-old, who went on to be Peru’s all-time goalscorer with 40 goals from 122 appearances, revealed that he wanted to move to White Hart Lane on loan, but Edu sold him a lie.

Guerrero claims that the former Corinthians director promised to make him the highest-paid footballer in South America, but did not live up to his word.

The Peruvian told the D&T programme (as relayed by TEAMtalk): “When I arrived at Corinthians, I said to myself: ‘I win the Club World Cup and I’ll go back’ [to Europe].

“Did I have opportunities to return to Europe? Many, but Corinthians didn’t want to sell me or didn’t want to negotiate. The last offer came from Tottenham, which was a loan-purchase option.

“I went with the proposal to talk to Edu, who is now Arsenal’s director, and I said ‘I have this, please’. His response was: ‘Do you want the crooked thing to kill me, Paolo? Rest assured that here you will be the highest-paid footballer in South America’.

“He didn’t comply. I didn’t renew with Corinthians because the proposal they made me wasn’t within what I thought I deserved. I believed that because I was Peruvian, they were not valuing me.”

Tottenham will not be ruing missed transfer

Guerrero went on to have a decent career in South America after his failed Spurs move, scoring a decent amount of goals for both Internacional and Flamengo.

However, his numbers certainly do not leap off the page and there would likely not be too many regrets at N17 at the failed transfer.

In fact, the fact that Spurs wanted to sign the Peruvian on loan suggests that the Premier League side saw the deal as a short-term fix.

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