Just out of curiosity, what do you say Levy did wrong with regards to Berahino? Bearing in mind it was Albion that went public with it, not us. They also said he's not for sale and at the same time that the bid wasn't high enough - size clearing being irrelevant if he's not for sale, so sending mixed messages there. Given it was a transfer window and we bid for a player we wanted - what has Levy done wrong in your eyes?
I think he bids stupidly low in the knowledge the player will find out by some means whether via an agent or whoever in a bid to unsettle the player who in turn will put pressure on the club to accept an offer. He'll then make new offers at tiny increments knowing that the other team's chairman is now in a difficult position. I'm not saying he's the only one to do it but there's a reason he's got a certain reputation. The Routledge transfer was particularly sneaky.
Exactly. It was Peace showboating that's kicked this all off. "Look how tough I am! We're not going to be pushed around" etc. He could have discreetly turned down our offers and left it at that. But, no, he has to, not only go public, but shout it from the rooftops. Issuing statement after statement to show what a tough guy he is.
IMO Spurs have done nothing wrong in making a bid to buy someone during the transfer window as that's the point of the transfer window, so I don't see WBA problem. That is of course if Spurs have followed the correct transfer protocol - which is believe should be: enquire if player available to buy. If answer is no then enquiry ends. If it is yes then enquire what price he is available at. If price is agreeable then purchase price is agreed and then player terms need to be agreed. If the terms can't be agreed with agent and player then deal is off. If player terms are agreed the deal goes through. If price is not agreeable then "haggle" till it is agreed and follow process as above. If price can't be agreed then no deal can be made. But in reality this is what happens: club contacts a third party who then makes contact with a player's agent to see if he wants to move. This is done so as to avoid tapping up claims. Once the player's agent says yes the third party will tell the club to make a bid and at what price he thinks they could get him at (if buyout clause). The club then will tell third party to tell player's agent what wages they will pay! Then club make contact with player's club and make bid, player's club says no, player has a strop and hands in a transfer request or threatens to strike I they don't let him have "dream move". Player's club give in as don't want this disruption in changing room, or to have player run down his contract till goes on a free. What do you think Spurs have done ?
If that last question is for me (rather than Watford) I would say, on the available evidence, Spurs did what all other clubs do. No better, no worse. Unless WBA comes out with something that suggests we went beyond the normal process, then I would say we did nothing wrong at all. As NSIS says above, there was a lot of posturing from Peace and in my opinion mixed signals were given. He said not for sale but also that we didn't offer enough. Why the second statement if the first is true? Most of this is behind closed doors, so who is to say what really happened, but I think they are just pissed off that we bid at all and their chairman wanted his 5 minutes.
I'm not privy to the way these things are normally done. If what you're suggesting is the way it was approached, it was, as you seem to suggest, 'normal practice'. That being the case, Peace must presumably be aware of that fact. Once again, Peace was the one who went off shouting his mouth of about all this. Not us, not Berahino. Unless there something gone on here that we don't know about - and current evidence suggests that if that were the case Peace would have let the world know about it by now, I can see no other good reason for doing that other than showboating to try and prove how tough he is. Maybe Peace doesn't like the way transfer business is conducted nowadays, but that's not our fault.
Tottenham's offers failed substantially to reflect Saido's true value while the timing made no allowance for our own recruitment of a suitable replacement for a proven Premier League goalscorer. Seems they could have got him if they'd just offered what WBA were asking.
Absolute genius!! Of course, why didn't we think of that before. All you have to do is pay what the other person demands - no matter how ridiculous that might be - and you get what you want! Slightly contradicts his, 'The sale of Saido is not in our plans' statement though!.
That's better. Keep it short rather than writing a crap, unfunny essay and I might actually bother to read it. You might wanna drop the "windmilling" stuff for a bit though. Has it actually wound a single poster up or made anyone laugh yet?
You learning to windmill, too, Fossel? Tag along with Tricky and the boys and they'll sort you out. Love it!
