Damien Comolli has revealed how he tried to sign West Ham star Dimitri Payet for Tottenham.

Comolli, Tottenham's director of football from 2005-08, has revealed that the north Londoners came close to signing him when he was just 20.

Comolli told the London Evening Standard: "When I was at Spurs the Saint-Etienne president telephoned me one day and said, 'Listen, we're on the point of signing this player, Dimitri Payet, from Nantes for 4m Euros'.

"That was an enormous amount of money for Saint-Etienne.

"He said, 'I wondered if you'd be interested in buying him for Tottenham in two years' time for 10m Euros'. I said 'yes'.

"I didn't think the player was ready at that point to play for Tottenham but I thought that after two years at Saint-Etienne he would be ready — so I said it was something that I'd be interested in.

"As I left Tottenham and ended up at Saint-Etienne it never materialised.

"But back then Payet was already a player that I liked a lot, having seen him when he was young at Nantes."