Daniel - glad he's on our side

[SteveH]

Good read http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...dinary-bargaining-infuriated-rival-teams.html

 

[thinktank]

Is Levy the biggest Troll in football?

Tottenham's Daniel Levy is one of football's fiercest negotiators... here's how his extraordinary bargaining has infuriated rival teams

By Neil Ashton for MailOnline

Published: 15:06, 6 February 2015 | Updated: 15:07, 6 February 2015

Around an hour before kick-off in the north London derby, Daniel Levy will welcome a delegation of Arsenal officials into his spacious boardroom at White Hart Lane.

The conversation with Arsenal’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.

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. Much of his time recently has been spent focused on the new stadium development.

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.

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.

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 Arsenal 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 progress at White Hart Lane, when Levy refused to cede any ground.

In the past, during negotiations to move to 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 has 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.

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 to 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 will 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.
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.

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.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ing-infuriated-rival-teams.html#ixzz3QywKKh6o

 

[KingKay]

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Good read, yes, but so are many fictional books. I think there is a lot of guess work behind that article. One short simple part of a sentence gives it away, for me. He checks his WhatsApp?!? How on earth would the writer know what message apps Levy uses, or checks first thing in the morning?

 

[Bulletspur]

Love him or hate him, but there is only one Daniel Levy and he is Ours!

 

[Flynn]

They missed the stealing VDV from Lolpool story. I love that story

 

[Blockbuster]

Until next Transfer window when he sells our best player and we get left with a chump as a replacement....
couple of seasons later the cycle will repeat.

Levy has brought himself some time though, I reckon he has to prove himself in these next 2 Transfer windows.... they will be vital to the long term success of THFC.
if he follows previous form, we won't exactly go backwards nor will we move forwards.

 

[yiddopaul]

Be interesting to know the real reason Ade to West Ham fell through. I suspect they simply couldn't afford his wages.
West Ham are not (as far as I'm concerned) our 'footballing' rivals. They are only rivals in that they are a London team. The only way they will ever be our rivals is if we get dragged into a relegation fight. They hate us more than we acknowledge them.

 

[Blockbuster]

Be interesting to know the real reason Ade to West Ham fell through. I suspect they simple couldn't afford his wages.
West Ham are simple not (as far as I'm concerned) our 'footballing' rivals. They are only rivals in that they are a London team. The only way they will ever be our rivals is if we get dragged into a relegation fight. They hate us more than we acknowledge them.

I reckon we could''t secure a replacement surely?

 

[yankspurs]

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’.

 

[yankspurs]

Good read, yes, but so are many fictional books. I think there is a lot of guess work behind that article. One short simple part of a sentence gives it away, for me. He checks his WhatsApp?!? How on earth would the writer know what message apps Levy uses, or checks first thing in the morning?

Could be deductive reasoning. WhatsApp is the cheapest/free way to text international. His godfather(according to the DM apparently)/boss lives in Florida.

BTW, whats this about Levy's son. He works in a bank? The kid doesnt look a day over 16 when they show him with Levy in the directors box on tv!

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

The best Chairman in the prem.

 

[avonspurs]

All supposition. No definitive quotes - just guess work.

 

[Montasura]

@Archibald&Crooks is gonna have a field day in this thread!

 

[parklane1]

I would not swap him for any other chairman, he has done a great job.

 

[CornerPinDreamer]

isn;t it funny that these articles appear at the same time as stuff about us having a new policy of recruiting raw players and lower cost signings..

BSoDL pr campaign..

 

[marvel]

Would rather he excelled at strengthening the squad as opposed to getting money for deadwood and star players to be honest

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

@Archibald&Crooks is gonna have a field day in this thread!

If he wants a fight, he knows where to find it. A&C don't scare me, I have an army of BSoDL behind me.


(He's behind me isn't he)

 

[JohannTHFC]

Sounds like BDSM

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Kinky