Damien Comolli has revealed that he came close to signing West Ham United star Dimitri Payet during his time as director of football at Tottenham.

Comolli was in charge of the North London club's football department between 2005 and 2008 but departed from Spurs before he could bring the French player to White Hart Lane.

"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 €4million'," Comolli told the London Evening Standard.

"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 €10million'.

"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."