They rarely make definite statements during negotiations.
I'm pretty sure that there would have been a leak out there from our side questioning the validity of Valencia's claim. The evidence is as follows:
1) Valencia say they are not selling for a penny less that 26m (before AND during negotiations)
2) Valencia say the only thing holding the deal up is the structure of payment (during negotiation)
3) Most (nearly all tbh) media outlets report the fee at 26m immediately after deal and for months following.
It's just recently that we're suddenly hearing it could be less. All the evidence points to it being 26m but in installments.
If we only paid 13m and another 13m in performance depend fees then why hasnt levy's PR team put this out? They put out that we paid 26m for Lamela with an extra 4m in performance fees.
I just don't see that we'd keep the fee that would make Soldado look like less of a flop under wraps like this.
Personally i think we paid 26m...but in the infamous Levy installments (over something stupid like 5 years). Valencia stated many times they're not going to sell for a penny less than his release clause. They also stated (during negotiations) that the only thing stopping the deal going through was the payment structure.
The £13m plus £13m varible is completely incorrect.
It was a conversation between Jason Burt and AVB, where I believe AVB misinterpreted/misrepresented the installment plan (which is normal payment terms) It is 2 payments of £13m.
Either that or Spurs have just lied in their recently published annual audited accounts, where it states the total contingent liabilities for the whole squad is £12.58m (and Lamela is known to represent about £5m of that) - A contingent liability, for non-accountants out there, are liabilities that may be incurred by an entity depending on the outcome of a future event, which this scenario would fall into, if any of the future payments are performance related.
You can either believe that Valencia have lied to the public and Spanish government in their accounts and Spurs have lied in their accounts, or that Jason Burt was given incorrect information (this rumour started 6 months ago, he was the only person that ran with it) and hasn't checked it out, and now a couple of other papers are picking up on it.
And before some wise-**** says well those are the accounts up to June 2013, it is stated in black and white in the Post-Balance Sheet Events.
From twitter.com/HotspurRelated
Atletico Madrid fans are attempting to launch a viral fan campaign to stop the Spanish club signing Spurs' Roberto Soldado. #THFC
Fans of the La Liga Champions are reportedly using the hashtag #UnAtletiSinSoldado across social media to stop their club buying Soldado.
One Atletico Madrid fan page cites this as the reason the clubs fans do not want them to purchase Soldado. #THFC pic.twitter.com/uSHPAy3cDp
Does look deliberate but I'm sure he didn't mean it to land there
Interesting point I picked up from last night. The BBC pundits were talking about Klose and how he doesn't excite but is a poacher, before producing a graphic showing the location of each of his 16 World cup goals. IIRC the furthest strike that produced a goal was from the penalty spot. I think it shows that if the setup is right, then a poacher like Soldado can really produce
People moan about Lennon not putting in proper crosses, but balls played across the box on the ground are far more dangerous than those lofted ones.