Matt Doherty officially became a Tottenham Hotspur player on Sunday and the club have posted a video on Twitter making fun of old Arsenal-loving tweets he posted years ago.
The Republic of Ireland international put pen-to-paper on a four-year contract at the club, becoming Jose Mourinho's fourth summer signing following the arrivals of Joe Hart on a free transfer from Burnley, Southampton's Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Giovani Lo Celso; the Spaniard making last season's loan arrangement from Real Betis permanent.
Doherty, who spent 10 years at Wolverhampton Wanderers (including loan spells at Hibernian and Bury), joins Spurs for a fee believed to be in the region of £14.75m of which Bohemians, who Doherty represented before moving to Wolves in 2010, will receive a cut of the overall amount.
Let's give our latest arrival a warm welcome! 👋
📲 @mattdoherty20 #WelcomeDoherty ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/hlZXhG0EiH— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 30, 2020
Amid the confirmation of the transfer this weekend, old tweets from Doherty's Twitter page have re-surfaced where the right-back confessed his undying love for Tottenham's bitter north London rivals, Arsenal.
One tweet by Doherty, dated October 30th, 2012, reads, "I love arsenal forever and ever and ever", while another, posted on September 7th, 2013, simply says, "Yes I'm a HUGE Arsenal fan!".
On the day of his official signing for Spurs, the club posted this video, simply captioned '*Delete*', where Doherty is seen on a laptop removing the aforementioned tweets, making a sheepish, apologetic face to the camera in the process.
*Delete* 😬
#WelcomeDoherty ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/dNRuGv6DTI— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 30, 2020
Speaking about his new signing on the official Tottenham Hotspur Twitter page, Mourinho said: "I hate to play against him, so I'm so happy I won't play against him again! I'm so happy that we have him."
The nine-time capped Irish international has been commenting on his big move, telling the club's website: "I’m very proud to be joining such a big club.
“With the size of the club, the training ground, the fact that we’ve got the best stadium in the world and possibly the best training ground in the world from what I’ve seen – and the manager… once I knew there was interest it was a no-brainer for me to get myself down to London."
Doherty, who will wear the number two shirt at his new club, continued: "I think it would have been tough (to leave Wolves) if I was maybe going backwards or sideways but I feel like at Tottenham now I’m really taking a big step forward – just with the facilities, everything at the club and the manager here."
The 28-year-old added: "After 10 years, I know a lot of people at Wolves but it’s a new challenge now and it’s really a challenge that I feel like I need at this time.”
Spurs start the new Premier League season on September 13th, at home to Carlo Ancelotti's Everton.
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