Klinsmann Signing 1994

Very interesting article on our signing of one of our great players, Juergen Klinsmann, especially as we are less than 30 hours from the current window closing.

I am having to do it in segments due to the limited words you are allowed per article.


One of the defining transfers of the Premier League era was very nearly scuppered in a press conference room at Elland Road, about a week before it was ever openly discussed.

In the summer of 1994 the Czech striker Tomas Skuhravy was due to sign for Leeds United from Genoa, and the deal was so far advanced that the media had been asked to assemble to introduce him to the world.

The Italian club had a replacement all lined up: a good one too – German chap, World Cup winner, played for Monaco, striking blond hair. You’ll have heard of him. But the Skuhravy move collapsed at the last minute, which meant red faces at Leeds and, for Genoa, no replacement required.

Jurgen Klinsmann was on the move, though. “I was lucky that after scoring five goals at the World Cup 1994 in the US I received several offers," he tells the Totally Football Show, “but there is no need to mention their names." Spoilsport.

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Klinsmann had been in France for two seasons, and while he was in America for that summer’s World Cup, he had decided a fresh challenge was in order, at least partly because he didn’t particularly rate his boss.

“I’d become disillusioned with the manager Arsene Wenger," he said in Hans Blickensdorfer’s snappily-titled book ‘Jurgen Klinsmann’. “He is probably the most intelligent and cultured of those managers working in France, but in my opinion, too nice for the toughness of professional football. It became increasingly clear to me that my career couldn’t end in Monaco."

Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and AC Milan all made overtures. Everton and Aston Villa were fired by the newly-acquired money, confidence and chutzpah that came with the Premier League; both were keen.

As were Tottenham. But rather than fixing eyes on Klinsmann, that summer they simply wanted…someone. The previous season had been punishing, a Teddy Sheringham injury and FA charges over financial irregularities combining to ensure they only narrowly avoided relegation. Spurs not only thought they would start the 1994/95 season with a six-point deficit, but out of the FA Cup too, as a result of those charges. So Sugar decided they had to make a big splash.

They tried for Chris Sutton but baulked at the £5million Blackburn ultimately paid. They sniffed around Jean-Pierre Papin. There was even talk of manager Ossie Ardiles pulling some strings to get Diego Maradona, but one-too-many brushes with the doping controllers put the kibosh on that one.

The name Jurgen Klinsmann hadn’t really been mentioned in public. Broadly because it hadn’t been mentioned in private, either. Accounts differ slightly as to how the possibility of him joining Spurs first came up: writing in his autobiography (officially titled ‘What You See Is What You Get’, but it might as well be called ‘Needless To Say, I Had The Last Laugh’), Sugar says he was loafing on his yacht in Monaco when Klinsmann’s lawyer Andre Gross called him out of the blue to offer the German’s services. Klinsmann suggested to Blickensdorfer that Sugar called him, and invited him to said yacht.

Either way, negotiations were seemingly incredibly brief. Klinsmann was happy to accept Tottenham’s wage structure of £8,000-a-week and Sugar recognised the £2million fee was a bargain. Klinsmann confirms that was the very first time he spoke to anyone at Spurs, and that the deal was done there and then. “Yes, that is true. And [Sugar] made a fantastic cappuccino on his boat."

At the time, Sugar suggested that the transfer had been in the works for a while. “We started our negotiations while Klinsmann and Germany were still in the World Cup," he said. “Then when they were knocked out, Klinsmann went off on a couple of weeks’ holiday. We kept going with our talks but only in the last 48 hours has it all come to a head." This was probably to give the impression it was all part of the great businessman’s grand plan, rather than something concocted on the fly, because pretty much everything that’s been said in later years – including by him – contradicts that.

Still, part of a plan or not, Sugar couldn’t believe his luck. But he quickly became paranoid that someone would gazump him before things could be wrapped up. So he arranged for a Sky TV camera to happen upon him and Klinsmann emerging from Monaco’s stadium after they had finalised the deal with the club, reasoning that ‘once I got Klinsmann shaking my hand at the dockside live on TV, it would put paid to any snipers trying to hijack the deal.’