£450,000-a-week man admits he agreed to sign for Tottenham, but the deal collapsed

: “Few people know, but in this period, I came to agree with Tottenham. Jorge Mendes called me and said he had talked to Mourinho and asked if I wanted to play in England. Sure! But it was not possible due to a change in the regulations.”

At the time, Hulk was earning playing for Shanghai SIPG, so it surprises us that Mourinho gave Mendes the green light to ask the forward if he wanted to join.

Unfortunately for Tottenham, regulations got in the way, as the South American claims.

We presume he means Brexit regulations, as believe those rules also stopped him from joining Wolves in 2021.

Now, the 35-year-old is back playing in his homeland of Brazil, where he has impressively scored goals in games for Atlético Mineiro this season.

Tottenham fortunate to avoid Hulk

In our view, Spurs are lucky that they were prevented from signing Hulk.

The powerful attacker is obviously an effective forward, although he is too old to be considered as a long-term solution for Tottenham upfront, while his salary demands may also have proved to be problematic.

Spurs still need to improve their attacking depth, as Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn struggle to match the performances of Kane, Son and Dejan Kulusevski.

However, they must do so in a sensible manner, and a deal for Hulk would’ve been anything but that.

The Brazilian is past his best, and in our view, younger options aged 25 or under should be targeted instead.