Antonio Conte has hinted that Tottenham could try to re-sign Christian Eriksen when his deal with Brentford expires in the summer.
Eriksen spent six-and-a-half seasons with Spurs before joining Conte at Inter Milan in January 2020.
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The now Spurs boss revealed that he met with Eriksen at the weekend after he arrived in London, but did not consider signing him in January.
“No, honestly no. I was surprised about the situation because in my mind, honestly, I thought Christian needed more time before coming back to play in England,” the 52-year-old said.
Eriksen has signed a six-month contract with Brentford so will be a free agent in the summer.
Conte says that he would like the opportunity to work with the 29-year-old again, having enjoyed success together during their time in Italy.
“For sure, Eriksen is part of Tottenham’s story,” Conte said.
“To come back here would be a good opportunity for him, for me and for the club.
“But now he’s signed for Brentford. Only six months, and we’ll see what happens.
“I’m the first person to be happy to see him again on the pitch because we spent a really good time at Inter Milan together. We won the league, we spent two important seasons together. I wish him all the best for the future.
“And you don’t know what will happen. It would be good for me to have him again, to work together again.”
Eriksen’s future in football looked to be in doubt following his cardiac arrest last summer.
He is in a fine place – Frank is thrilled with how Eriksen has settled in at Brentford
He officially signed for Brentford on Deadline Day and Conte has revealed that the pair met by chance at the hotel he is staying at.
“I was lucky because I met him on Sunday and it was good to speak with him. I saw him with his family and it was good,” Conte said.
“It happened that I met him in the same hotel that we were both staying. We were lucky to meet each other, we didn’t prepare the meeting. It was only a coincidence to see him. But I repeat, it was great for me to see him with his family.”
Eriksen trained with Brentford for the first time on Monday but will not be available to face Manchester City on Wednesday.
He has not played since Euro 2020 and is working on getting back to full fitness.
“We need to speak to him daily and that’ll be an ongoing process over the next one, two, three weeks,” said Brentford boss Thomas Frank.
“I would love to say it’s going to be in one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks’ time but I would like to see how he is.”
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