Sir Alex Ferguson accuses Tottenham over Zeki Fryers deal Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has accused Tottenham of "blatant manipulation" over the signing of defender Zeki Fryers and wants the Premier League to investigate the deal. Fryers left United for Standard Liege for a small compensation fee in August, after Spurs baulked at paying £6m. But now Spurs have signed the 20-year-old from Standard for a reported £3m. "I'm disappointed in Tottenham. I think it's a blatant manipulation of the situation," said Ferguson. "I think the league should look into it and I think they should stop his registration until they examine it." However, United are yet to make a formal complaint to the Premier League, who declined to comment on the matter. Tottenham told BBC Sport that they only made a second approach for Fryers after being made aware that the player was "homesick" in Belgium. A Spurs spokesman said: "Zeki enjoyed his time at Standard - however, when Standard sacked their manager in November Zeki wasn't part of the new manager's plans which he accepts and understands happens in football. "Unfortunately, a combination of this and the fact he had become homesick meant he wanted to return to England. "His representatives made contact with clubs in England. This afforded us a second opportunity to sign the player and as per Fifa's solidarity contribution mechanism, Manchester United will receive 5% of the transfer fee we have paid." The story dates back to pre-season when Fryers - capped by England at Under-16, 17 and 19 level - trained with Spurs with a view to a permanent move to White Hart Lane. But under league rules for players under 23 who have rejected the offer of a new contract with their clubs, Tottenham - or any other English club - would have had to compensate United. If no compensation fee were agreed, it would have been decided by a tribunal, with United reportedly holding out for £6m. When Tottenham pulled out of the deal, Fryers was released to Liege for a smaller fee dictated by Fifa's compensation system. "They tried to buy him from us at the end of last season," said Ferguson. "They then took him on trial and said they couldn't afford him and all of a sudden he signed for Standard Liege. "I expected him to go to Tottenham in the January transfer window. The league should look into it." Fryers, who made six appearances for Manchester United's first team, will initially link up with Spurs' development squad and provide cover for first choice left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20915309 ================================================ that is ridiculous tbh .. FA need to change the rules to stop cheap clubs like spurs exploiting the system .. doing all that to avoid paying UTD any compensation
Every club does this sort of thing, including Man Utd. I don't understand why Sir Alex has come out with this to be honest.
Can't see what they've done wrong, United are filthy rich what difference is a bit of 'compensation' going to do?
Probably the smallest possible amount we could pay just to stop them embarrassing us. It would be nothing like what they would have gotten were they an English club and protected by the academy rules. This. IIRC when we signed Pogba Le Harve accused us of poaching, whilst simultaneously being accused of poaching another player by another club, a few years after we accused Chelsea of poaching Mikel from us and a year or two after Chelsea were accused of poaching Kakuta from Lens. It happens all the bloody time, and 99% of the time the accusations are just one club making noise to try and get some more money for a player they are going to lose anyway. And the 1% of the time it's actually true it's usually Liverpool doing the stealing... The rules are what they are - clubs use them however they can to dodge the compensation issues and players use them to engineer the move they want when. We're as likely to do it as anyone else - SAF is probably just annoyed Spurs thought of this approach before he did! Claiming the rules should be changed just to protect us smacks of certain Liverpool fans, and their pathetic whining about how Suarez was stitched up by the same rules they were perfectly happy about when they were used to ban every other player for the previous 19 years.
Daniel Levy is a very good businessman and he learned from one of the best in Joe Lewis. They played this one very well. Fergie should be applauding them rather than throwing a hissy!
Saffa is really losing this Xmas. Rvp killed, Newcastle a wee club, levy a dirty so and so.... How he gets away with it I don't know! Anyway he is still pissing the Prem as usual and pissing all over other clubs and the F A in the process
He's just got to an age where he couldn't give a **** about what anyone else thinks. With Sir Alex it's all verbals and quickly forgotten which is probably why he gets away with it. Worse things happen in football. A club that has always been a big fan of casual racism deciding, out of the blue, to fabricate a racist accusation against a referee springs to mind.
If we have bent the rules it is only pay back for Utd's disgraceful tapping up of Berbatov (and to a lesser extent Carrick). We never gave permission for Berb to negotiate so Ferguson justs invites him up anyway. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I have no idea whether we tapped Berbs up or not but we did pay 30million for him. Surely you agree that you got the better end of that deal!
It was one of the main reasons you paid over £30mill for him, you were determined not to but once Levy found out Fergie was giving Berbatov a tour of their training ground and City offered £35mill, which Berba turned down, which left little choice but to give us a deal on our terms. Being uncooperative would've led to you being reported fined and suspended from buying players. Levy did the same with Chelsea over Arnesen, you don't get £5mill and an agreement that they can't buy our players for 2 years for a DoF unless you've got the other club by the short and curlies. Anyway how come the last thread was closed after someone said the exact same thing as Fergie?
