- Sep 15, 2007
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We were trying to offload a flop whereas we wanted their prized asset. Peace was vocally unhappy about the terms of the deal and it's not the 1st time we've heard about our deal structures being unacceptable to various clubs. Peace has every right to act like a 'dick' when at the end of the day SB is WBA most valued player.
Peace's story was that he was unhappy about the player fee being paid in instalments, yet that is now the football industry norm - so much so that it was also revealed by Spurs that Fazio's fee by WBA was structured that way.
From all we hear, Peace was simply trying to play hardball and ratchet up the fee beyond what we were prepared to pay (and what we had been told by WBA people would be acceptable)
End of the day, Peace knew Berahino had 2 years left on his contract and was refusing to sign a new one so Peace's best chance to sell at a decent price was the summer, he didn't and will be in a much weaker position now. Question is whether he will cut off his nose to spite his face.
Incidentally the art of negotiating is knowing when to accept an 'alright' deal, even when you think you should get a 'great' deal and more £'s - I'd suggest Levy accepted £30m for Modric from RM even though he thought he was worth more purely because he recognised he couldn't get RM to pay more. Sign of a good negotiator. Hope Peace has reflected on whether he did well last summer by rejecting Spurs offer