Sofiane Hanni’s transfer to Spartak Moscow, which many thought might trigger Quincy Promes to Southampton, took a while to materialise, but the Algeria international got there in the end.
That wasn’t before Burnley tried to hijack the deal, allegedly forcing the Russian Premier League champions to rush the deal on the 31st of January instead of waiting a bit longer until their transfer window closed later this month.
However, speaking to Le Soir in Belgium on Friday, the 27-year-old also revealed he had the opportunity to go to Swansea City and play under Carlos Carvalhal.
He said: “The Premier League is a great league, very interesting, but I don’t want to fight against relegation, but for titles. That’s what I’m hungry for and I need that to be happy”.
Furthermore, Hanni explained the reason behind Spartak Moscow getting the deal done before the 1st of February, and it wasn’t because of Burnley.
He said: “To be on the list for the Europa League, I needed to sign before the 1st of February, and therefore everything was sorted on the Wednesday.”
Unlike Swansea, the Russian side also compete in European football, which was a big plus for Hanni when he had a choice to make.
They’ll just have to make do with André Ayew instead.
There are worse alternatives, after all.
