Former Spurs Director Admits ‘Failure’ Over Kevin Prince Boateng Signing

Ex-Spurs Director of Football Damien Comolli has admitted on ?Sky Sports that the club made a mistake in signing Kevin-Prince Boateng back in 2007, saying it may well have been the club’s fault that he was a flop at White Hart Lane.

The Ghana international made just over a dozen Premier League appearances in the two years before he moved away from London, failing to make any kind of real impression on the first team before moving to Portsmouth.

From the south coast, Boateng moved to Italy with AC Milan, where he established himself as one of the better midfielders in Europe before his €10m move to Schalke in 2013, although a falling out with club officials has seen him suspended from the club for the last six months, with no signs of that ban being lifted.

“There is one player I regret who didn’t work out, and I think it was probably our fault, is Kevin-Prince Boateng when we signed him from Hertha Berlin for Spurs.

“He came in when he was only 19. I think he has incredible talent, incredible potential as he showed later. He played in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, he won the league with AC Milan, he played several games in the Champions League, he played for Schalke and he became a really very, very good player.

“When he came, I think he was not ready to move to the Premier League, he was not ready to move to a different country. We just looked at the talent. We forgot to look at the individual off the pitch, and that was probably our failure more than his.”

The ‘individual off the pitch’ is currently training at former club Milan while he runs down his contract at Schalke, having failed to secure a move away after reportedly failing a medical at Sporting CP over the summer.

Source: 90min