Daniel Levy’s long-term flaw has finally come back to bite him at Tottenham – Our View

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Daniel Levy is a divisive figure at Tottenham for a reason.

Some fans absolutely adore him for how far he’s taken the club in the past few years and how much he helped the transition into the new stadium, while others find themselves often getting frustrated at his lack of spending and stubborn nature when negotiating a deal.

Levy has always been known as one of the toughest negotiators in the game, so much so that Alex Ferguson once described dealing with Levy as “more painful than my hip replacement.”

Mostly, it works out brilliantly for Tottenham, but being so stubborn in negotiations is bound to make you a few enemies, and it looks as though his long-term flaw has finally come back to bite him.

Indeed, Spurs’ pursuit of Christian Eriksen this month has been highly publicised, and while Tottenham reportedly want to get a deal done, it’s going to be made harder for them.

Fabrizio Romano detailed earlier this week  that Inter had offered Spurs unique terms to sign Eriksen, and they’re not ideal

Romano says Tottenham are the only team that will be asked to pay a loan fee for the Danish midfielder, and it sounds as though Levy’s hardball tactics last year put them in Inter’s bad books.

“So €4m and a loan fee for Eriksen, why is this? Because one year ago when Inter were negotiating with Tottenham for Eriksen, they asked and said ‘we want to pay for this player €15m, his contract is expiring in six months.’ But Daniel Levy until the last day of the window said €20m or nothing, and then hey paid €20m and €7m to his agent,” Romano said.

Levy’s negotiating tactics have finally come back to bite him.

The worst case scenario is that Spurs miss out on a signing because of this, and if they do choose to proceed with signing Eriksen, it’s going to cost them more than it probably should have done.

The tables have been turned on Levy here, and Inter are now seemingly holding him to ransom in the same way he did with them last year.

Perhaps if Levy had been a bit more flexible when selling Eriksen, he could have got him back for a better deal.

Levy’s ability to get what he wants in negotiations is a good thing for Tottenham the majority of the time, but it seems as though his chickens are coming home to roost with this one.