With the transfer window opening it seems like a good time to bump the Levy thread
The man deserves some real credit for how our club are doing, including his good work in the transfer market.
Was just thinking how some other clubs are facing a nervous January, to some extent of their own making. Saudi Sportswashing Machine with Ba, Arsenal with Walcott (following many similar situations in recent years) and West Ham with Diame. Saudi Sportswashing Machine and West Ham both signed players with very low release clauses, they both developed into key players for them and now it seems likely that they will lose the players for very small fees. Not deals Levy would have made I think, something to think about the next time someone in frustration states "just give him what he wants Levy, for fudges sake!".
Walcott is another one, slightly different situation. In my eyes this is partly caused by Arsenal offering even young players massive wages. Walcott is reportedly on £90k a week or something like that. Obviously offering him the improved contract he feels he deserves will cost massive amounts. Compare this to us signing Modric or Bale who were on fairly low wages. After a couple of seasons with us both players signed new contracts, Modric even signed a 6 year deal. Undoubtedly both players got significant wage bumps for signing, but we also got the extended contracts. Still neither player were on as much as Walcott reportedly is on already at this stage in his career. Another thing to think about imo when a deal Levy does drags on and people can't understand why we can't just offer the £60-70k p/w the player wants, not just the immediate cost to consider.
We're currently competing with clubs with much larger budgets than ourselves, and we as fans have come to expect that we compete at this level. We've done so while making the long term investment of a state of the art training centre, and while spending money on the even bigger long term investment that is the stadium. We really can't afford many slip ups in the transfer market, a Campbell or Rebrov situation could set us back years - the ripple effects could last even longer. We must make the clever signings, we must get good value on as many deals as possible, it's the only way we can keep competing while we wait for the stadium project to be completed.
Walcott signed for Arsenal in '06, Bale for us in '07. I doubt anyone would argue that Bale isn't the better player, yet we have him on lower wages and a contract that will run for another 3 years come the summer (I think), while Walcott is now in the last half a season of his. This, although just one example, to me isn't a coincidence, and these long term effects of making the good deals while waiting to sign another day when a good deal isn't there to be made seems to me to be key to our continued success and development as a club.
