Sandro says Tottenham players unhappy with Gareth Bale replacements and recalls Harry Redknapp memories

In part two of a Ladbrokes exclusive, former Brazil midfielder Sandro talked about his memories of playing for Tottenham under Harry Redknapp.

Click on the link for part one in which he told a great anecdote about Benoit Assou-Ekotto and reveals how he ended up signing for Spurs.

Bale left Spurs and was replaced by seven players…we didn’t like it

The pressure on the current squad is completely normal because Harry Kane was such an important part of things. It’s like when Gareth Bale left us, everyone else feels the pressure…this is normal.

That summer, Bale left us to join Real Madrid, and I think he was replaced by something like seven players. To be fair, we didn’t like it, you know? If I’m being honest, we didn’t like it because it was just too many players coming in during one window.

At Tottenham, we were – we are – a family. We like to help each other. But seven players? We couldn’t help everyone – it was just too many. I never like it when a club buys too many players in one window, because it’s hard for everyone to fit in. When it’s two or three names, the boys can all chip in and help the new players settle…they could follow us. But in that year, it felt like we had to follow them, because there were so many of them. It was crazy!

I nodded at Redknapp’s instructions but didn’t understand a word!

I got on with Harry Redknapp very well, but of course, I’ve got many stories of times where we didn’t exactly get on! The one that springs to mind for me most came against Fulham – we played against them in the FA Cup. To be honest, I just couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. If he was giving me specific instructions, I didn’t understand them.

English, I could understand. But Harry speaks very differently, so he’s quite difficult to understand. So when we’re in the dressing room and he’s telling me to do this and do that, I’m nodding to him, as if I’ve taken in everything he said to me, but, to be honest, I didn’t understand a word of it.

So I step out onto the pitch and it turns out I was playing in the wrong position. In that game in particular, Harry wanted Luka Modric to play behind me, and I was going to play further up front alongside Rafael van der Vaart. For me, that seemed strange, because I always played in the number six position. So Modric came over to me early on and said: “Sandro, this is my position for today.”

And I said “No, this is my position. Go away!”

After that, Van der Vaart came and spoke to me in Spanish, so I could understand what he was saying, and he explained where the manager wanted me to play.

We lost the match 4-0. We get to Monday morning and Harry starts complaining to us about the performance, particularly in midfield. He’s not happy with us at all, and then Van der Vaart explains to him…

“Gaffer, you can’t say anything because one player in this room was on the pitch and he didn’t know which position he was supposed to be playing in…this is unbelievable!”

And I just thought ‘oh my God.’ When he said that, I just had everything shouted at me from Harry Redknapp. Louder and clearer than I’d ever heard him before. In this moment I understood everything!

I felt I wasn’t on the same level as Spurs stars

The interest from Tottenham came from when I was playing with the national under-20s side in a tournament where I was captaining Brazil. Everybody started to say my name over here in Europe, and I think Tottenham approached me straight away. I just fell in love.

When I heard that Tottenham were interested in me, I was so happy, because it was a dream for me to play in the Premier League, so I just said yes straight away. At that point in my career, I really felt like I was flying, to be honest, because I was already playing with the national team, so I was in a really good place.

The deal ended up taking a little bit longer than I expected, but that actually ended up being a good thing for me, because it meant I had more time to learn about the club, watch the games and get to know the style. Everyone asks me why I have this relationship with Tottenham, and I always say the same thing. The way everything worked out for me, I fell in love with the club and felt like a part of the set-up before I’d even kicked a ball for them.

I was anxious, excited, all of these things, to come and represent the club – and right from my first game I fell in love with the fans. It was a magical moment for me, I’ve always said that.

In the beginning it was difficult for me, of course, because of the language barrier, But there were some great guys in that dressing room and some great characters. People like Peter Crouch, Michael Dawson, Ledley King. I can’t speak highly enough of everyone there. They all gave me confidence and lifted me up.

To move from Brazil, at that age, it’s not easy. The level, and the standard in the Premier League…everything was so much higher to what I was used to. And at times, I’d get frustrated in training because I just felt like I wasn’t on the same level. But I felt the love from my team-mates and from Harry Redknapp, and I felt like I was improving every single day.

There would be times when I’d knock on Harry’s door, asking him for more game time, because I didn’t play many games at the beginning of my time with the club. So I started to complain about the manager, but he just told me to be patient, and explained I still had so much to learn. It was a frustrating time, but he assured me my time would come, and of course it did.