Speaking on the Here We Go Podcast, Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Tottenham have been offered unique terms to loan in Christian Eriksen.
The journalist was once again discussing Spurs’ interest in their former player after weeks of speculation, and this time he had quite a big update on the situation.
Indeed, Romano says that Tottenham have been offered the chance to loan Eriksen in, but if they are to loan him, they have to agree to a different payment structure than any other club, due to the fact Daniel Levy played hardball with them last summer.
“There is nothing official yet between Inter and Tottenham, it’s just between intermediaries working, trying to find a solution for the player and the clubs,” Romano said.
“Tottenham are interested, but they know it is really really difficult to sign Christian Eriksen. Inter are interested just because they want to sell the player, so they are absolutely open.”
The journalist then went on to detail the unique terms that Tottenham had been offered.
“What Inter said to these intermediaries is that if Tottenham want to sign Christian Eriksen they have to pay a loan fee and not just the salary, and the salary of Eriksen is an important salary because from now until the end of the season you have to pay €4 million (£3.5m) after taxes, it’s just for six months, because the full total is €8 million (£7m).”
“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.
“Imagine the commission was €7m with €20m as the final fee, so it was a huge commission for a player who is not playing now, so they are in a difficult situation, but they want a loan fee from Tottenham and also the salary paid from the club, and this is only for Tottenham because other clubs have to pay the salary, but not the loan fee, so it is up to Tottenham to decide.”
It seems as though Levy’s negotiation tactics have come back to bite him.
It makes sense for Inter to harbour hard feelings over their dealings with Spurs this time last year, but this still feels like it’s a little unfair.
Inter clearly want rid of Eriksen, but they’re making it difficult for Spurs to sign him seemingly just out of spite.
It remains to be seen whether or not this deal gets done or how much the proposed loan fee is.
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