BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
I think Levy is happy to do deals early if they're on terms which he believes are better than is likely to be considered 'fair' or 'market' and if there are no knock-on repercussions for for other deals. If he isn't able to get a bargain, or something better than fair/market, then he's happy to wait
In a number of circumstances though, I think it would be better to accept paying £20m for a £20m player and getting them early, rather than waiting to the last minute and seeing whether you can get it done for £15m
The thing you don’t seem to be acknowledging is the gazumping aspect. We have to wait so that we don’t get Willian’d, and a lot of the time it’s about that, rather than trying to drive the price down. Sanchez wasn’t a cheap signing, and we didn’t wait until the last day to get him, we just made a good offer once we thought that any of our direct rivals with more money had already filled the spaces in their squad where he would fit.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Poch’s ‘be brave : take risks’ line got a slight rebuke from Levy. It was leaked that he was referring to moving players on quickly, and it just tipped our hand because clubs that would probably really like our players have waited, I wouldn’t be surprised in part knowing that we wouldn’t move until we’ve gotten them out. The early closure of the window doesn’t help as well, but overall when people are trying to frame Poch as being somewhat against Levy, Levy holding back the money etc, I don’t think that’s the case. Poch is a smart guy and I think recognises the moving parts to all of this.