Alious
After bursting onto the scene with Ipswich in the First Division and the England youth teams, midfielder Kieron Dyer was a highly sought-after young player.
When Ipswich failed to secure promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs, several top clubs made bids to sign Dyer.
Newcastle ultimately won the race, with a £6.5 million bid that Dyer says was not his first choice move.
According to Dyer, both Arsenal and Leeds United had bid £5 million for him, and he felt he would have preferred to join one of those clubs.
Dyer claims Arsenal saw him as a right-back, while West Ham’s Harry Redknapp viewed him as a right wing-back.
Meanwhile, both Newcastle’s Ruud Gullit and Leeds’ David O’Leary saw him as a midfielder, which Dyer felt was his best position.
However, Dyer says he didn’t have much time to think about the move, as his Ipswich manager told him Newcastle had accepted a bid and he needed to travel to Newcastle for a medical immediately.
Dyer’s agent had informed him of the Newcastle deal, so he felt he had to accept it at the time, even though Arsenal would have been his “dream” move.
Despite this, Dyer went on to have a relatively successful career at Newcastle, making over 250 appearances, scoring 38 goals, and being named in the 2002-03 PFA Premier League Team of the Year.
However, he admits that if he had more time to think about it, he likely would have held out for a move to one of the other interested clubs like Arsenal or Leeds.
Alious
