Redknapp tried for Balotelli
Queens Park Rangers coach Harry Redknapp
The controversial striker followed Roberto Mancini to Manchester City in 2010 after falling out with, then coach, Jose Mourinho.
Redknapp has revealed how he tried to bring the 22-year-old to London, but has admitted it was for the better that his efforts proved unsuccessful.
"If all that nonsense with Carlos Tevez wasn't bad enough last season, he's [Roberto Mancini] now got Mario Balotelli sitting on the bench most weeks with a face like thunder," he wrote in his column in The Sun.
"I once tried to sign him (Balotelli) for Spurs before he went to City. I spoke with his brother and had a meeting with his agent after he'd had a fall-out with Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan. But we wanted him on loan and Inter weren't interested.
"And that's when I thought: 'If Jose can't handle him, what chance have I got?' Maybe it was a lucky escape because I don't think I'd have been able to handle the way he has behaved in England."
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