Chelsea offered Spurs £30m plus Alex in an attempt to sign Luka Modric.
That would represent the £40m reported last last night.
But when Spurs' chairman Daniel Levy stuck to his guns, Chelsea decided to turn their attention to LIverpools' Raul Meireles.
Alex was expected to be shifted out of SW6 to Juventus, but the option of going to Spurs held up that deal.
When it became clear Spurs were not playing ball, Chelsea failed to resurect the deal with the Italian club, leavin g Alex with no option but to start at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea had hoped that Spurs' desire to land a top class centre-back would have turned the deal in their favour, but the nortrh London side opted instead to go for Bolton's Gary Cahill.
Sadly for them, Cahill's representatives could not strike the right deal and England defender stays up north.
So while Spurs kept Modric, they did not get a key position filed.