When the Spanish press first started to report on Federico Fazio possibly moving to Espanyol, it was made very clear they couldn’t afford the fee Tottenham were asking.
Reports came and reports went, all saying the same thing about a permanent transfer being too expensive, without actually saying what Tottenham were asking for the player.
That led many Tottenham fans, and wider football fans, to assuming Daniel Levy was being unreasonable. The Tottenham transfer chief has a fearsome reputation around Europe, and him asking a relatively high fee for Fazio wouldn’t have surprised many.
However, it may not be Tottenham’s fault at all. Catalan newspaper Sport say on Thursday that Fazio’s loan deal is now stalling because Tottenham won’t pay a chunk of the players wages whilst he’s in Spain.
That’s absolutely fair enough, it’s not as if there’s anything in this for Tottenham long term, or a realistic chance of later getting a big fee.
Therefore, Fazio is going to have to make some concessions personally, say Sport, and drop his wages to a level Espanyol accept.
The Barcelona club, it seems, don’t want to pay a transfer fee, a loan fee, or all of the player’s wages.
