Ex-Tottenham Hotspur striker Teddy Sheringham has revealed that former Spurs chairman Lord Alan Sugar told him to ‘f*** off’ just before he left the club to join Manchester United.
The striker explained how things got ‘heated’ and the pair ending up ‘having a row’ during contract negotiations ahead of Sheringham’s North London exit.
The forward, after spending five years at Spurs between 1992 and 1997, eventually jumped ship to Manchester United, which seemingly did not go down well with Alan Sugar.
It was met with great sadness from Spurs fans given the striker had scored an impressive 112 goals in all competitions for the club.
Tottenham, to no surprise, were keen to offer the forward a new contract but could not agree on the terms and he was then picked up by Sir Alex Ferguson to do the hard task of replacing cult-hero Eric Cantona at Man United.
Sheringham most recently spoke about the saga on an episode of A League of Their Own when he was asked how Sugar acted during the time (as quoted by The Sun).
He said: “They [Spurs] offered me a four-year contract when I was about 30.
“I said I wanted a five-year contract, we were humming and harring about that and it got a little bit heated.
“And then he changed his mind, he said, ‘In fact, no I don’t think you’re even going to play for another four years, so we’re going to offer you a three-year [deal]’.”
“And we just end up having a row and I said, ‘Well I want to go then’. And he went, ‘Go on then, f*** off,’ and I went ‘All right then I will’.”
“[I] put in a transfer request and lucky for me Man Utd came calling and said, ‘Come and play for us’.”
SpursWeb Opinion
None of this surprises me, at all. Unfortunately, this was a common case with Spurs at the time – we were a feeder club. Sheringham, Berbatov, Carrick, and that’s just to Man United. Sheringham did come back, however.
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