Former Barcelona chief Ramon Planes admits he tried to sign Marco Asensio for Tottenham.

Asensio joined Real Madrid from Real Mallorca back in December 2014 after the Spanish giants agreed to pay a fee of just £3.5million for the 18-year-old midfielder.

Planes worked as technical secretary at Tottenham between 2014 and 2015, when Mauricio Pochettino was in charge, and recommended the club move for Asensio.

“I watched a Zaragoza-Mallorca game and was amazed by a player called Marco Asensio," he said on Radio Marca.

“And in the same car park at La Romareda, I called my superiors at Tottenham to tell them that he had to be signed.

“In view of the experience, I wanted to speed up the signing of Pedri so that the same thing didn't happen to me."

Planes signed Pedri from Las Palmas while running things with Barca.