It’s very much Daniel Levy time if the European media are to be believed. Part pantomime villain and part transfer hero, Levy is always dragged into transfer rumours as the window prepares to close.
The French media have a love/hate relationship with Levy and Tottenham. Hugo Lloris’ 2012 deadline day transfer to Tottenham left scars in France that haven’t healed yet, especially after Andre Villas Boas then made the goalkeeper fight for his place.
After strongly linking Serge Aurier with Tottenham on Tuesday, L’Equipe do the same on Wednesday.
Tottenham are said to have a ‘quasi-agreement’ with Aurier, on Tuesday it was stated Spurs had 95% of an agreement on personal terms, and Levy would do his thing once it got to 100%, but those details are somewhat ignored now.
L’Equipe say Levy has already had ‘direct contact’ with PSG, and ‘The total cost of the operation will be some 25 million euros.’
Chelsea, who seem to be included in nearly every Tottenham transfer rumour, mainly for the drama, are ready to ‘ambush’.
Of course, nothing concrete can be done on a Premier League transfer until Aurier sorts out his sticky legal situation.
An appeal is currently being heard against a prison sentence handed to Aurier for violence against the police. The French authorities have no obligation to rush that through to help a transfer, and there’s no guarantee Aurier will even be successful.
This all presents the possible scenario of Aurier being ‘cleared’ just before the window closes, making a work permit possible, but still coming out of the whole thing looking bad.
PSG won’t have time to play clubs against each other, and Levy will be able to really wind the pressure up. €25m? Not for Tottenham in that scenario.
