Harry Redknapp says he was *this* close to signing Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard for Tottenham

Harry Redknapp says he nearly signed two of the Premier League's best players when he was Tottenham manager - but ended up with Louis Saha and Ryan Nelson instead.

The former Spurs boss took over at White Hart Lane in October 2008 with the club bottom of the table on just two points. He led them to a safe eighth-place finish that season, before finishing in the top four the following year. The team went on a surprise run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League - but Redknapp claims that it could have been so much better had he pulled off what would have been two stunning transfer deals. The ex-Portsmouth and West Ham chief told Talksport that signing Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard would have turned Spurs into genuine title contenders. [caption id="attachment_100109" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)[/caption]  

"I was managing a Tottenham team that I thought could go on and win the title, I genuinely believed that," he said.

"I took Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen on free transfers [in 2012] – we were short, we had injuries at centre half and I had no striker.

"If we had gone out [and spent money] then... Luis Suarez was a player that we were looking at.

And he says he got even closer to bringing Hazard to White Hart Lane. "I spent three hours with Hazard in a hotel room in Paris – I met him at the airport - he was dead keen to come to Tottenham. [caption id="attachment_100110" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hazard ended up joining Chelsea instead (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)[/caption]  

"We were right down the road with Hazard and Luis Suarez was the best player in the Premier League a few years ago when he was at Liverpool, he was fantastic.

"If we just got one of those in, we had a team that could have challenged for the title."

Instead it was Liverpool that bought Suarez in January 2011, before he joined Barcelona three years later. Hazard signed for Chelsea in 2012 - the same summer Harry was sacked by Spurs. Catch up with this week's episode of Football Friday Live: