Christian Eriksen’s Instagram message to fans was as terse as his Tottenham departure

Christian Eriksen left London and Tottenham Hotspur for his new club Inter Milan on Monday, completed his medical, and introduced himself to his new legion of Italian supporters this week. What he hadn’t done is properly say goodbye to Tottenham fans.

Until now. Eriksen posted a farewell message, of sorts, to Spurs fans on his Instagram account where he basically tried to say that leaving the club was nothing personal. I’m, uh, not sure it worked.

Dear Tottenham fans @spursofficial

I dont know where to start!I didnt [sic] have time to say goodbye to everyone, even though i felt like i played a lot of games where everyone said and thought i would be gone the next day. I have so many unbelivable [sic] memories over the last 6,5 years i was at Spurs. I enjoyed being at the training ground every day and playing games in the stadium so much, but sometimes you just want to try something new! So, Spurs fans it has been a pleasure to play at your club and hopefully we meet again in the future!

All the best
Christian

It’s certainly an interesting (and in-artful) way of framing what felt at times like a pretty ugly divorce. Some of my Carty Free colleagues likened it to discussing an ugly contract dispute like he would “a package holiday or a type of cuisine.” It definitely doesn’t come across as a heartfelt thank you to supporters, especially with the “I felt like I played a lot of games where everyone said and thought I would be gone the next day” line.

But maybe I’m being too hard on Christian. It’s been clear for a long time that he’s wanted to try something new, like he says here. I get that. What this statement makes clear is that this probably wasn’t a difficult decision for him in the end, and while I’m sure he has and will continue to have fond memories of his time in north London, he’s been checked out for a long time. And maybe the wounds of what it took to get to Milan are just too raw at the moment to really reflect on his time at Spurs beyond just a sense of relief to be finally moving on.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s not the most adroit statement and it won’t do much to appease the Spurs fans who are still angry at the way everything ended between himself and Tottenham. Maybe with the passage of time we’ll get a more nuanced expression of his true feelings. For now, this is what we have: a thrown-together social media post that doesn’t nearly begin to cover what he meant to Tottenham Hotspur and its fans the past 6.5 years.