OK well I have set my stall out on what I have disliked about Levy.
With regards to Berahino, I do not believe the facts point to the fact that he has fudgeed up. There are 3 parties involved, 2 of which wanted to do a deal and 1 who didn't. We tried multiple times and to assume that Levy thought he could bluff Peace is a little non-sensical because he didn't do the same with N'Jie or Song in this transfer window alone. If you are the selling club it is in your interests to drag out to the last possible moment to drive as high a price as possible. If a chairman/club is willing to do that then there is nothing Levy could do to prevent that.
We clearly have different opinions then - and in the case of Clint and Son the analogy did not apply because we paid well over the odds compared to the price another club in the same league would have paid. It was not in WBA interest to drag this out because they wanted the money for replacements. Pulis's comments bear this out and it is backed by the director's comments today.
Again, people say that we should have just paid the £25m/£28m or whatever to get the deal done, and we should have offered it sooner. Again, I will say that is not how transfers work.
http://www.skysports.com/transfer/n...ansfer-works-from-the-scouting-to-the-signing is a link that I have posted numerous times. Note how it says that when you place a bid it is usually when you think you have a good chance of winning and tha tnegotiations go on for a long period beforehand. So it stands to reason that our interest was before when our first bid was received. We talked to the relevant intermediaries and acted based on the information given.
It seems to have worked for Liverpool in the case of Benteke and for City's transfer of Sterling - which are the closest we can get to the Berahino attempt.
Now on to the topic of Levy low-balling and giving ridiculous payment structures. The only evidence of this is based on what WBA have said. However, what Spurs have said in return is that the payment structure followed that submitted by WBA for Fazio. Is it not fair that the payment structure that they deem reasonable also be used as a first basis for a proposed payment structure. What is wrong with that? Also Levy's payment structures don't seem to have been a problem with Son and N'Jie this window. Also, Levy is prepared to pay up front i.e. Dembele. So again, why is it that Levy is being honed out for criticism.
The evidence for this are the comments of a dozen clubs with whom we conducted major transfers in the past years.
We have missed out (I don't agree with fingers burned) on transfers not solely because of Levy. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. Again I come back to what possible reason does Levy have for doing this and why does he not do it consistently? Why did he choose the Berahino deal to do it and not the N'Jie or Son deal this window alone? Why did he not do it for Lamela, Soldado etc..... People say there is a consistency in the way Levy does his deals but there is not! There is a consistency in the deals that have failed in that he has tried until the last day!
Again totally wrong analogies. Seville were skint and needed the Soldado money and we actually paid over the odds for the other three - as proven by the comments of both Roma and Lyon presidents.
As for the guess that no other club has a similar record, I posted up numerous times the timings of our transfers to show just how many of our transfers have happened after the season has started. If we are going to have a conversation based on fact, please can someone critical of Levy bring up some of the other clubs dealings to show that it is completely out of kilter. I bet that it won't be.
I bet it will... How many big money deadline day buys do you remember the top 6 getting in the past 5 years? How many Moutinho or Berahino situations did they have?
In no way am I saying that Levy is perfect, but the amount of vitriol and criticism that is levelled his way on this one deal is OTT. We missed out on a target because the other club did not want to sell. That is all. Move on, it's not the end of the world and it does not deserve the amount of criticism that is thrown his way. If people cannot balance that then I suggest you try and identify an alternative Chairman that with the same resources as us has managed a better transfer strategy. Even the mighty Chel53a and Emirates Marketing Project were doing deals late in the window. It's the rational strategy for a selling club to adopt particularly if you play in the same league as the club that is buying.
I guess we will need to agree to disagree. As I said, this relates to one transfer and I guess the reason many of us got such a bad taste in the mouth is because Poch was practically pleading how important a backup for Kane was.
I agree.. let's move on; though if (GHod forbid) Kane gets a bad injury before Christmas you can pretty much be sure that this thread will be back on the hot seat
