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So you couldnt find an article then that refutes Ashton´s.
Good lad
Wow. You're lowering the bar, even for your own standards. Where have I claimed that we have a transfer team, where have I claimed anything?
I'm calling you out because you're cocksure about something we know nothing about, spamming and arguing.
You're pathetic right now.
I think you realise you have fucked up.
Haha, definately not....in fact, he´s shit
Aspiring to regular top 4 for Champions League and an FA cup or two is exactly what we should be doing. Arguing over the merits of 5th and 6th because we managed it in another year of transition whilst being so poor is where we're at. Just a little bit more ambition, prudence and/or competence could have seen us play Champions League another 2-3 times.
Strange how looking at the league tables of recent years does not make everybody realise just how important the first 3-4 games are.
Wrong Bender, we're after Sven
Tottenham transfer secrets revealed: Daniel Levy is one of football's fiercest negotiators... here's how his extraordinary bargaining has infuriated rival teams
By NEIL ASHTON FOR MAILONLINE
- Daniel Levy incensed West Ham with his deadline day negotiating methods
- He refused to let Emmanuel Adebayor join a perceived top four rival
- His tactics meant Tottenham got a world record fee for Gareth Bale
- Click here for all the latest Tottenham Hotspur news
PUBLISHED: 15:06 GMT, 6 February 2015 | UPDATED: 18:41 GMT, 6 February 2015
Around an hour before kick-off in the north London derby, Daniel Levy will welcome a delegation of Woolwich officials into his spacious boardroom at White Hart Lane.
The conversation with Woolwich’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis will be polite and cordial, barely scratching the surface before Levy sits down for pre-match brunch with a table full of Tottenham executives.
Later this month, when David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady walk up the stairs of the West Stand on February 22, the atmosphere will be a little bit more chilly.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy relishes the negotiating battle that comes with player transfers
Levy blocked a loan move for striker Emmanuel Adebayor to rivals West Ham United on deadline day
Levy's tactics when talking to West Ham irked Hammers executives David Gold and Karen Brady (right)
West Ham are tired of Levy, irritated by his negotiating tactics on transfer deadline day after he refused to allow Emmanuel Adebayor to move to Upton Park. They are in no rush to deal with him again.
Levy has an extraordinary reputation within the game and he is always willing to come to the table in the transfer window, so long as the terms are in Tottenham’s favour.
As one owner of a Barclays Premier League club told Sportsmail in the aftermath of deadline day: ‘Daniel likes to squeeze your balls until your eyes start to water’.
Levy comes alive in the window, spending hours on the phone to a network of agents.
Leon Angel, plus Gareth Bale’s representative Jonathan Barnett and his assistant David Manessah are all on speed dial as he plots Tottenham’s next move.
Levy was anointed by Tottenham’s principal owner Joe Lewis, who is also his godfather, when his investment vehicle ENIC bought the club from Sir Alan Sugar in 2001. All three are ruthless businessmen.
He is at the training ground most days, arriving anywhere between 8-8.30am to begin work.
Levy rises early, responding to text and WhatsApp messages long before he leaves the family home in Totteridge, north London, for the journey to the training centre.
It is there, at their magnificent new hub on the outskirts of Enfield, that Levy spent the day setting up deals by telephone and email last Monday.
He appointed Franco Baldini as technical director in 2013, partly to detach himself from the frenzied atmosphere at the club on deadline day. Two years on, he cannot resist.
‘Daniel never raises his voice or shouts, even when transfers or deals are at their most delicate stage,’ revealed the club’s former director of football Damien Comolli.
‘That is why he always wins, because others lose their temper or start shouting. He is a calculated guy and he is prepared to wait and wait.
‘Most people get nervous or anxious, but he enjoys the challenge. He is an excellent negotiator.’
When Robbie Keane went on loan to West Ham in January 2011, an argument over removal cost amounting to £5,000 nearly scuppered the deal. Levy squeezes the pips on everything.
Damien Comolli (right) praised Levy for his composure when negotiating transfer deals for Spurs
He spends hours in his vault on the first floor during the transfer window, pacing up and down a spartanly furnished office hypothesising over potential transfers on a notepad on his desk.
Last Monday, when Levy swept into Tottenham’s training centre, he was ready for business. Deals were there to be done.
Delle Alli, who has earned comparisons to Frank Lampard in the scouting reports filed for the club’s new head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, was already on his way for a medical.
By then his football-mad son Josh, who works in the City for an investment bank, was asking people he has come across in the game whether Alli was good for the money. The day was starting to take shape.
West Ham and West Brom had both made enquiries for midfielder Etienne Capoue. Roma wanted to get something going for central defender Vlad Chiriches.
Tottenham signed 18-year-old Dele Alli on transfer deadline day before loaning him back to MK Dons
West Ham and West Brom had both asked about the availability of midfielder Etienne Capoue (left)
Central defender Vlad Chiriches (left) had also caught the interest of Italian club Roma in Serie A
The pace picked up again when that nuisance Emmanuel Adebayor cropped up again in conversation.
There was an air of anticipation because Levy somehow had to convince the £100,000-a-week forward to swap a Capital One Cup final against Chelsea on March 1 for a relegation battle with QPR.
Rangers were desperate, calling up and offering to pay £75,000 towards Adebayor’s salary for the rest of the season.
Predictably he didn’t fancy it.
Later that afternoon, around 3pm, Adebayor’s agent Darren Dein, the son of former Woolwich vice-chairman David, believed he had devised a plan to suit all parties. West Ham would take him.
It is at this moment, against the advice of practically everybody involved in the decision-making process at White Hart Lane, Levy refused to cede any ground.
In the past, during negotiations to move to the Olympic Park for a year or to tenant Upton Park during the rebuilding of a new super-stadium at White Hart Lane, Brady felt he attempted to push her around.
Anyone who has ever come across West Ham’s chief executive will tell you that Brady is a formidable lady. She can look after herself.
When Levy negotiated with Real Madrid for the Gareth Bale deal, Tottenham got a record transfer fee
Bale (left) eventually signed for Real Madrid from Tottenham for a transfer fee of £86million
West Ham were offering to pay 50 per cent of Adebayor’s wages, £50,000-a-week, but Levy was well within his rights to point out the offer on the table from QPR. West Ham needed to up the ante.
With the clock ticking on deadline day, Levy also made it clear that he did not want to sell to a perceived rival for fourth place in the Barclays Premier League, or to leave his squad weaker than when the window closed.
Others felt differently, concerned that Adebayor’s dreadful attitude would affect the team’s rhythm in the run up to the Capital One Cup final at Wembley. Levy re-iterated that he calls the shots.
His behaviour, along with his bargaining position, infuriated West Ham and it prompted some stinging criticism from Gold via social media when the window closed at 11pm. There are no winners here.
There have been times when Levy has used reverse psychology, working a situation to his advantage to get the best possible deal for Tottenham.
In the summer of 2013, Real Madrid offered £55m up front for Bale. Levy told Tottenham’s board that he would not sell the forward, but Bale’s heart was already set on a move to the Bernabeu.
What followed was unusual for Levy, but he played the role of the junior partner in negotiations with Real’s president Florentino Perez in spectacular fashion.
Levy played him like a fiddle, deferring to Perez when he agreed to fly out to Madrid on a private jet on two separate occasions to negotiate the terms over Bale’s transfer from Spurs.
Levy wants to see more homegrown players such as Harry Kane (centre) play in the Tottenham first team
When he emerged from dinner on the second occasion, Perez had agreed to pay a world record fee of £86m to sign Bale from White Hart Lane.
The dispute between the two clubs over the precise figures is because the transfer fee will be substanially less if Real can pay quicker than the five-year schedule agreed by Levy and Perez.
Occasionally Levy’s staff see a softer side and they were surprised when he agreed to take the ice-bucket challenge after he was nominated by Andre Villas-Boas last year.
Levy responded by nominating Perez, citing the departures of Luka Modric and Bale to Real Madrid over the past few years as the reasons behind his decision.
He can be generous too and he once delivered a Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (but not a 4S, which is more expensive) to Martin Jol’s home as a gesture of goodwill when Spurs were performing well under their Dutch coach.
Mostly, though, he is working on the serious business of making Spurs competitive and he has an almost pathological desire to reassert themselves in the top four.
With the rapid progress of Harry Kane and Ryan Mason, he wants John McDermott, academy manager and head of coaching, to bring more young players into the first team.
Levy has also been delighted to see Ryan Mason (centre) make his way into the Tottenham senior squad
The decision to sign Alli from MK Dons is another sign that Tottenham are once again investing in raw talent.
In a few months time the transfer window will be on his radar and he can start to prepare for a serious turnover of playing staff before next season.
As ever, Levy will walk away with the feeling that he has the upper hand
So, just to clear things up, once again.
There is no transfer team
It was not Eales negotiating despite playing a "key role"
It is not Baldini negotiating
It is not Mitchell negotiating
It is not a secretary
Or some staff
It is our Chairman, Daniel Levy who negotiates our transfer dealings with Chairmen from other clubs
Thats why they are chairmen. Maybe some of you work in companies where its ok to send Steve from the canteen over to sign for a parcel.
That doesnt work at this level though.
Um that article is solely about deadline day when one would expect Levy to be most involved. It also notes what I said that he hired Baldini so he would have less of a day to day role.
Your argument is so weird. It's like saying that Obama and Cameron are the sole people from the U.S. and UK involved in negotiating the Iran deal. Any business, government, or football club has a hierarchy of people who speak and negotiate positions. Levy is certainly the highest and most important voice at Tottenham but to think he is the only one who negotiates is massively unlikely and refuted by facts like Eales' involvement and the numerous times Baldini has been sent abroad to seal deals.
So are you now stating that Pooch didn't say he was 'not worried'?
Now that would be shocking!
ochfacepalm:
I have no issue with us aspiring to be better and understand that being so close makes it harder to stomach when we fall short. The point is that their fans are still not happy regardless as their level of expectations are higher.
They're still calling for the manager's head every time they drop points at home, still questioning their transfer policy, still questioning the manager's decision to only play in a certain way etc.. etc... etc...
So using them as example of some bastion to aspire to is fucked up imo.
Plus they're the fucking scum, have a word.
Ummm, no its not. It opens like this which should give you an idea its not based on one single day:
Around an hour before kick-off in the north London derby, Daniel Levy will welcome a delegation of Woolwich officials into his spacious boardroom at White Hart Lane.
The conversation with Woolwich’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis will be polite and cordial, barely scratching the surface before Levy sits down for pre-match brunch with a table full of Tottenham executives.
Later this month, when David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady walk up the stairs of the West Stand on February 22, the atmosphere will be a little bit more chilly.
The article later procedes with:
Levy comes alive in the window, spending hours on the phone to a network of agents.
You missed the last line of that sentence though, oddly, which sates:
Two years on, he cannot resist.
Oh dear....Berahino > Nuclear War
Eales played a big role it says in the article you posted. Nowhere does it say he was negotiating transfers. Baldini doesnt negotiate deals either. He uses his network and contacts to find "talent"...now he has been fired.
Rather that than Joey Barton which some on Spurs Vital are advocating!
Now that would make me passionate!
Ashton and Credible in the same breath....
He spent some of the window in Levys office....ArtyB did not
To be fair to arse and it hurts me saying all this when they had David Dein and Arsene Wenger they bought well, developed well and got the stadium done. They continue to be top 4 every year and that is considered by their fans to be underachieving which shows where they are as well as having the clout to sign players like Sanchez.
Go back to the 80's and we were as big as them, on their level, we are not right now it's a painful fact. The stadium and new facilities will help but Newcastle also have a big stadium so that alone will not get us there.
The reason why I like Poch is because he is a developmental manager and if we want to catch the likes of Arse we need to play the long game. Poch works and develops Young players and we have a fuck load the of talented young players.
This will only work if we don't sack the manager, keep hold of our best players and support Poch in the market in buying players to cover our weaker areas like a cover striker for Kane and a DM. A squad cannot have holes in it.
Arse do have issues no doubt but their stability has given them a good platform. As for franchise yes I am glad we ain't one like Islington Arse, Stratford Ham, BermondseyWall but we could have been Stratford Hotspurs, thank fuck we dodged that bullet.
Will this and will that...so Ashton is just surmising what might happen, none of this entire paragraph can be used as proof of anything other than Ashton's very fertile imagination...
Not still pissed then!
See previous conversation with Joe Clash!
For what it's worth I thought you were an arse, pissed or not!
Great post sir
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