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Paulinho spent two years in England with Tottenham, but never hit it off.

A £17million signing from Corinthians, much was expected of the dynamic midfielder, but he could not deliver on the hype.

Spurs were, at the time, going through transition. Paulinho was one of the 'Magnificent Seven' bought in 2013 with the money made for the then world-record breaking sale of Gareth Bale.

And the new Spurs side, assembled by Andre Villas-Boas, could not hack it without their main man.

Paulinho played 30 Premier League games in that first season, scoring six goals, but Villas-Boas was sacked in December, with Tim Sherwood taking caretaker charge until the end of the season before Mauricio Pochettino joined the club from Southampton.

He was used sparingly in the league under Pochettino, playing more cup games than league matches and two years after joining, the Brazilian was moving on again, Chinese Super League outfit Guangzhou Evergrande pay £10million to end his Premier League misery.

The 29-year-old now plays for Barcelona, a move he himself described as "crazy", and scored in Brazil's final World Cup group game against Serbia to help them through to the last 16.

(Image: Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

And he has admitted that while his time in England with Spurs was a "disappointment" he does not have a bad word to say about the club.

Speaking to the Players' Tribune, Paulinho said: "When I eventually left to go play for Tottenham in the Premier League, I went through a difficult time in my second season, and a lot of people lost faith in me. But one person who always believed in me was [Brazilian coach] Tite.

"I would like to clear up something about my time at Spurs. I really cannot say a bad word about the club or the staff or the president. It is true that it was a very difficult period for me as a player, and there were times when I did not want to leave my apartment in London because I was so stressed about not playing.

"For a footballer, not playing is like a fish not being in the water. I felt as though I were suffocating. For whatever reason, I was not in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans. I didn’t fit his philosophy, I guess. But we never even had a disagreement.

"One day, I went to the club president and told him that if they got an offer close to what they paid for me, that I would like to move on. They were very professional about it.

"In the summer, Spurs got a permanent offer from Guangzhou Evergrande, and I thought, 'Why not?'"

You can read the full piece from Paulinho here.

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