Marcello Lippi: "I rejected the Spurs job"

Marcello Lippi has claimed that he has approached by Tottenham to become their new manager prior to Tim Sherwood being given the job.

Lippi is believed to have been approached by Spurs both before and after Andre Villas-Boas’ stint as head coach, but rejected the offer on the basis that he felt he would struggle with the language.

Plenty of other big names were linked with the Spurs post and the World Cup winning Italian coach is the latest to have claimed contact with Spurs chief Daniel Levy, among many other Premier League clubs over the years.

Lippi told the media, “I have been close with several Premier League clubs in recent years.

“Most recently was Tottenham. But I said no because I didn’t understand the language.”

Despite these linguistic differences, Lippi is currently manager of Chinese outfit Guangzhou Evergrande, where he has recently been joined by compatriot Alessandro Diamanti.

Lippi is one of Italy’s most successful managers ever having won five Serie A titles, the Champions League and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.