How Tottenham boss Levy made life difficult for everyone

Bundesliga

“He’s a great player, but that’s an order of magnitude – I know Manchester City dropped out at 140 or 150 million last year and I can’t imagine that those are amounts that FC Bayern want or can pay,” said Bayern boss Uli Hoeneß in January in the “Sport1 double pass” about a possible move from Tottenham striker Harry Kane to Munich.

About seven months later it is clear: Bayern want and can pay a similar amount. According to media reports, it is “only” 100 million euros plus 16 million euros in possible bonus payments, but the German record champions break a sound barrier in the German transfer market. A Bundesliga club has never spent 100 million euros on a player. The previous record holder was the signing of Lucas Hernández from Munich in 2019. The Frenchman came from Atlético Madrid for 80 million.

Tottenham boss Levy proves to be a tough negotiator in Kane poker

However, it is not a matter of course that the Kane deal will go through. Because: From the very beginning of poker, almost every media report mentioned how persistently Tottenham boss Daniel Levy negotiated. In the beginning, that may have been a hackneyed phrase for many. In the last few weeks, however, the 61-year-old has shown how he made the negotiations and life difficult for Bayern.

First, the negotiations started with exploring what amount both parties imagine for the fee. It was difficult for Bayern, however, because Levy apparently never spoke about specific numbers. The Munich managers therefore never knew until the end how far they were from the ideas of the Tottenham boss.

At the training camp in July at Tegernsee, Hoeneß even said openly: “He doesn’t name a number.” FC Bayern officials would have to “make Levy name a number.” He then added: “Of course he plays for time, he’s a savvy and, I think, super professional, I appreciate him very much.”

It remains to be seen whether this remained the case until the end. Because this peculiarity was not the only attempt to delay the transfer. About two weeks ago, when Bayern were still on their Asia tour, Tottenham had already returned to England from the Asia-Australia trip. Bayern boss Jan-Christian Dreesen and squad planner Marco Neppe had therefore arranged to meet Levy on Friday to negotiate the change in London.

Daniel Levy has been Tottenham’s CEO since 2001.Image: www.imago-images.de / imago images

However, these negotiations did not initially take place. The Spurs boss canceled at short notice. Allegedly because he was plagued by jet lag and therefore did not want to negotiate. The “Sport Bild”, for example, immediately speculated that this move was part of his negotiation tactics because he “didn’t want to be told by others” “when to negotiate”.

Tottenham boss relies on time game

Whatever the real reason for canceling the meeting, it bought Levy a full weekend. Dreesen and Neppe only traveled to London on Monday, July 31, flew at just after 10 a.m., negotiated and returned to Munich in the evening – without an agreement. The change should take about ten days and Levy should use other tricks to slow down the transfer.

For example in the first week of August. Bayern had just made their third offer of around €100m and wanted to hear back by midnight on Friday. Levy provoked twice in this context. On the one hand, he ignored the deadline and didn’t react at all. On the other hand, it has been leaked to the media that he has flown to Miami where his family is relaxing on vacation and he wants to visit them for the weekend.

“Bild” interpreted this action in such a way that Levy wanted to signal to the German record champions who was in charge of the negotiations.

After the agreement, the next drama about Kane follows

A few days later, on Thursday, August 10th, the news of the agreement between Bayern and Tottenham spread extremely quickly. The change was far from decided. Because after the agreement of the clubs, the Spurs went into negotiations with Kane again. According to Premier League expert and ex-Bundesliga striker Jan Åge Fjørtoft, this happens again and again. In the “Bayern-Insider” podcast, the Norwegian ex-professional, who played in England for many years, explained:

Accordingly, it is common that bonus payments from the actual conclusion of the contract are still outstanding over the last year of the contract. According to Fjørtoft, it is then often negotiated whether all outstanding payments are still transferred to the player, only a part or none at all. This issue was also clarified during the night from Thursday to Friday. Kane’s flight was already planned, he was supposed to land at 10 a.m. in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.

A few hours before the actual landing, the next rumor spread: Tottenham are said to have revoked Kane’s flight permit because, according to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Levy wanted to renegotiate “a few minor details of the deal”. In addition, Levy is currently still in the USA and therefore in a different time zone. Shortly after these rumours, reporters from the BBC and Sky UK denied reports of an alleged grounding.

Kane drama ends well

Then on Friday evening came the redeeming news for all Bayern fans: your star striker has landed in Munich. Even did a medical check. Will he be on the pitch in the Supercup against RB Leipzig on Saturday? Quite possible.

With all the drama at Kane, Levy has lived up to its reputation for weeks. As the icing on the cake, the only thing missing was that the decisive transfer documents from London could not be sent due to a defective fax machine.

A future teammate of Kane’s knows this inside out. In January 2011, a move by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting from Hamburger SV to Cologne fell through on Deadline Day for precisely this reason. At least for this mishap, the Munich team would have enough time to iron it out.