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Reading were close to smashing their transfer record late last night with a record £10million plus bid for Gylfi Sigurdsson.

In a sensational move, manager Brian McDermott attempted to bring the ex Royals star back home this week.

Sigurdsson, sold for £7.5million in 2010, is a cult hero at Madejski Stadium.

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And boss McDermott confirmed: "We tried to bring him back. We had spoken to Spurs and we made three offers.

"I thought at one stage we had a real chance of doing a deal, but unfortunately, we couldn't manage to do it.

"Gylfi is a Tottenham player, but we've known him since he was 13-years-old and it would have been great to bring him back."

If Royals stay up this season it is likely that they will look again at bringing Iceland star Sigurdsson back in the summer.

McDermott had been working tirelessly this week with director of football Nick Hammond and owner Anton Zingarevich to bring in more players.

He added: "I haven't had a lot of sleep in the last three days.

"After the Chelsea game I watched the tape back and went to bed at about 3.45am - I got up at 7am and then came to work. Then last night I left here at 11.15pm."