In a new book ("Total fodbold") launched last week by Frank Arnesen, the former Danish international who served as sports director at Tottenham in a brief period from May 2004 to June 2005, Arnesen reveals that he back then wanted to bring in Morten Olsen, who at that time was employed as Danish national team coach, to take over Tottenham.
"Tottenham were looking for a new head coach the summer I joined the club, and I wanted Morten Olsen, but I wasn't allowed to hire a coach from Denmark or the Netherlands. It was a requirement. If it didn't go well in the first three or four months, then I would come under extra pressure because I had chosen a coach from a country I was attached to, Daniel Levy thought. There was no reason to risk it", writes Arnesen.
After his active career, Olsen joined Brondby IF, whom he led to the Danish championship title and the UEFA Cup semi-final. He also saved FC Köln from relegation in the German Bundesliga and won the Double with Ajax. Ironically, he was sacked in all three clubs before the Danish FA hired him as national coach in 2000.
And it was based on these merits that Frank Arnesen wanted to lure his old friend to Tottenham. Today, Morten Olsen is flattered with the interest that his results produced.
"The job is now such that one is noticed if one's team does well, if the performances are good. So, of course, it's great to hear when others show interest. But I would not have accepted it if the offer had come. It would have arrived in the middle of my contract for Denmark," he says to eb.dk. and underlines that he would never leave for another club or country when he was under contract.
Morten Olsen remained national coach for Denmark until 2015, when he chose not to extend his contract, as Denmark lost in the playoffs for the 2016 European Championships to Sweden.