Sigurdsson: I won’t fail now
GYLFI SIGURDSSON has promised no repeat of his Tottenham failure at Everton.
The Icelandic playmaker also says he has no regrets about the way he left Swansea, despite pulling out of their pre-season tour at less than an hour’s notice.
Sigurdsson, 27, is Everton’s record signing following a protracted £45million move from south Wales. A deal looked set to go through more than a month ago after he pulled out of that Swans’ tour of the USA.
Swansea boss Paul Clement had long been resigned to losing Sigurdsson, but earlier this summer warned the free-kick specialist to remember his failure at Spurs before rushing to leave the Liberty Stadium.
Sigurdsson was expected to be a big success at Spurs after joining them from Hoffenheim for £8.8m in 2012 following a successful loan spell at Swansea, but could not establish himself at White Hart Lane and returned to the Swans two years later.
Sigurdsson said: “What was I – 20, 21 maybe? So I’m far from being the same player now that I was back then.
“But I really did enjoy my time at Tottenham. I’m not going to lie. It was a fantastic experience. Of course, I could have probably stayed on but I wanted the chance to go back to Swansea and play football again. That worked out really well.”
Sigurdsson believes he left Swansea on good terms, despite pulling out of the tour.
“The clubs were close to agreeing something, so there was maybe no point in flying out there just to fly back the day after,” he said.
“But then that was kind of the story of the summer. They were getting close, and then nothing happened.”