As I've explained on many occasions this cannot be true because the Villa takeover started before the transfer window and such deals always suspend sales of assets. Bruce wouldn't have been told so what he said is irrelevant.
And as I’ve told you on many occasions the deal would’ve happened if we’d paid the initial asking price. We were in for Grealish before the takeover talks started, it’s why the initial price was so low and then rose once talks began.
No. We might have made a bid before the talks were announced but they couldn't have accepted it whatever it was.
If we had paid the £15m fee instead of offering £3m plus Josh Onomah, Grealish would be a Spurs player.
Why would a club who had already started takeover discussions sell their only good player to the first bidder? It doesn't make any sense at all. Even I think Grealish would have been a steal at £15m so there would have been many clubs in for him at that price.
Top man, Avram Grant. Lost a cup final to us in Chelsea's runner-up season. 2nd in the league, lost the final of the Champions League to Utd on penalties and the League Cup to us in extra-time. Even lost the Charity Shield, just to complete the set. One of Michael Ballack's famous "nearly" seasons. He lost the Euros with Germany to add to it that summer. Had previously gone one worse with Leverkusen in 2002. 2nd in the Budesliga, lost in the German Cup final to Schalke, lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid and lost the World Cup final to Brazil.
"It's fair to say we were in such a bad position financially that if Tottenham had have done their work early, then I’m sure he would have been a Tottenham player," said then-boss Bruce. "Before the takeover came in, everyone was for sale – that’s how difficult the situation was." Note how he mentions before the takeover. As for why no one else was in for him, you can ask that question about many players. Why didn't anyone else battle West Ham for Soucek? Pretty sure we signed Son without any competition. Dortmund didn't seem to have to fight off many teams to sign Haaland and he had a release clause too, making it a lot easier to actually begin talks with him. It's actually quite rare for players to have multiple suitors at any given time. Teams often prefer avoiding bidding wars.
Brighton nearly signed Soucek before West Ham. Southampton and some German teams tried to sign Son, but his dad wasn't having it. Various teams wanted Haaland, but he was only interested in Dortmund because of their development of youth players and agreement to the clause.
What Bruce said is irrelevant because he wouldn't know about the takeover. Villa had put out feelers to prospective buyers when they lost the play off. Selling Grealish after that would have been bonkers.
I don't think any teams actually made a bid for Son outside of us. I also don't think anyone else matched Haaland's release clause other than Dortmund too. Interest may have been there but don't think anything was followed up. I think Newcastle had an interest in Grealish but they never made a bid.
The manager of the football club wouldn't know about the takeover? Not sure about that. Just about every media outlet reported of Grealish being up for sale, I don't know why you keep dismissing it all to be honest. The manager, player, media etc all expected the deal to happen. Grealish was there for the taking, we just didn't take him.
Pochettino tried to sign him for Southampton according to Pochettino! He also turned down Dortmund on a couple of occasions. Raiola has said that various clubs had the opportunity to talk to Haaland, but he wanted Dortmund. Utd's sources say that they pulled out because of the agent's demands and the sell-on clause. They were definitely close, though.
It is Steve Bruce. Unless they're being taken over by a chain of pie shops, then I wouldn't bet on it.
Takeovers are secret and info is on a need to know basis. The manager would definitely not be on that list at the beginning. Everyone was up for sale as they needed a plan B to avoid bankruptcy if the takeover failed. But they couldn't actually accept any bids. Levy would have known all that so went with effectively not showing his hand at all which was actually quite sensible.
We made about 3 or 4 bids for Grealish over the course of the window though, Levy wouldn't have done so if he was under the impression they couldn't be accepted. We just lowballed too many times and Villa's new owners eventually told us to go away in so many words, can't say I blame them either.
