No he didn't. Listen to it. He was told that it was £40m by journalists and didn't check what the figure was. Those are his words, not some created headline.
He start the answer by saying he's heard it was £40mill but he was not sure and had heard nothing from Levy on it, given that the papers were full of the story all day it's no wonder he'd heard about the rumour.
No he wasn't. He said he was told by 'one or two people' that it was £40m, he didn't say he was told that by journalists. Regardless, the point is that Levy turned down a huge offer, only to be forced to accept a lower one for the same player when he made it clear that he didn't want to play for Spurs anymore. P.S. He didn't want to go the Chelsea flower show
No Piskie, the point is that Levy turned down an offer from Chelsea and accepted one from Real and you have no idea what either was. Losing some money to ensure that a key player didn't go to a rival side would be a sensible move anyway or have you learned nothing from your series of sales over the past few years? How's van Persie doing? please log in to view this image
Well we would have flogged him to Juve but he didn't want to go. In the end we allowed him his wish, to join Utd. Whilst Spurs held Modric hostage despite him saying he wanted to go to Chelsea. I guess that's the difference in class between our clubs. Chelsea almost certainly offered more than Real and the irony is that he might well end up there for less than Real paid for him.
If we're going to simply accept the highest rumoured bid then we surely have to accept that Modric was sold for £33mill. £7mill difference to get the player for an extra year, piss off the team that tapped him up and not strengthening a rival that we went on to finish above and are currently above in the league? Seems like a worthwhile sacrfice.
That we sell players to Real Madrid instead of to clubs that we're in competition with? Yep, I'd say that is a stark difference, just not in class. Intelligence would be more accurate. Held him hostage! What a drama queen!
So selling Carrick, Berbatov and Keane to the club they wanted to go to proved we were a selling club but not selling Modric to his preferred club shows we have no class? But you selling Henry, Adebayor, Cole, Song, Toure, Nasri, Fabregas and RVP simply shows how classy you are?
So you still think that Alex was worth £10m? And where is this £10m player now? £30m plus Alex doesn't equal £40m in any sane mind now does it. Oh and the Mail is quoting that Modric was sold to Real M for £33m instead of £30m. And finally ... Arsenal would have got more than £25m for RVP had they sold them the year before (when they said he was not for sale) so presumably you think the Arsenal board should have sold him sooner too?
No, holding a player against his will was classless. Modric had to spell it out in no uncertain terms to Levy that he no longer wanted to play for Spurs. And it wasn't because he wanted to go and hang out with Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh
Not really, at that point RVP had still not shown that he can complete a full season, no sane club would have paid that amount for RVP at that point.
Are City and Chelsea sane though? Torres £50m and Robiniho (excuse spelling) £32m suggest not...There were rumours all last summer (the one before he left) of City wanting him and being prepared to pay over £40m. In a previous post I pointed out to piskie that Modric helped to get 4th last season...this helped persuade Bale to sign a new contract (along with a few others) and BAE to stay. It also helped us to sign Vertogen, Lloris, Dembele and Dempsey... If Modric had left the previous season to go to Chelsea we may not have finished 4th so these signings may not have happened....so not selling him then was the right decision. Personally I think Arsenal were right ... they have only sold when the players made it clear they were going to cost them money... my points were just to illustrate to piskie that he was missing the point (in my opinion) and weren't aimed at arsenal.
Those clubs were not interested in RVP at that point, though. It was all about Nasri and Fabregas then. Even they knew that RVP was not worth the money, also he was not half the player he is today back then.
Spuds dumped out of the FA cup by Leeds Maybe this will be the start of their bottle job this season . . .
