Tottenham Hotspur failed to sign Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish 18 months ago.
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy is one of the best in the business when it comes to negotiating, but he got it very wrong with Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish.
Grealish is one of the Premier League’s in-form players at the minute after scoring in the 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion this past weekend.
With three and a half years on his Aston Villa contract, the 24-year-old could be worth a fortune to the West Midlands club in the near future.
You can’t knock Tottenham for trying to sign him in 2018, but Levy’s approach to it now looks a tad embarrassing.
Grealish was heavily linked with a move to Spurs the year before he led Villa to Premier League promotion.
It was one of the transfer sagas of that summer and, according to The Independent, Tottenham’s opening offer was only £3 million and Josh Onomah.
Aston Villa had money problems at the time and selling Grealish was definitely on the cards, but offering £27 million less than their asking price – and Onomah, who spent the season at Villa Park on loan – looks relatively silly in retrospect.
Refusing to spend the £30 million on signing Grealish looks a big mistake by the North Londoners, but an even bigger one might’ve been that opening offer which could have perhaps set the tone for an impasse in negotiations.
Levy has pulled off some cracking bargains down the years, and Grealish, for £30 million, would’ve been right up there.
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