Eriksen still refusing Spurs contract talks

[BENNO]

I think that's where we are, he's not as good as he and we think he is, I said this yesterday, he's not disinterested and below par, he's playing at his level, that's why Real see him as a squad player whereas he sees himself as a starter for them. At his best he's sublime but that's his best rather than his usual level.

Funny thing is, with our new signings,there will be games against certain opposition that he wouldn't be a starter for us either imo. For example, if all players available and we decided to play 4-3-3, where exactly does he fit (i'd assume Son/Kane/Moura then possibly Lo Celso/NDombele/Sissoko) ?

I'm not going to change my mind on him as a player just 'cos he might leave, he's a great player and has been brilliant for us, but he has a pretty specific skill set and strengths/weaknesses which makes the team have to revolve around him somewhat. Which is why the likes of Real don't see him as a must have signing and why we'd be better off changing our style slightly without him as there really aren't many players who could come in and replace him.

 

[whitesocks]

Seems to me players are happy to be bought and sold for millions as their salaries are linked and proportional to these fortunes. They accept they are there to be traded in this game and benefit greatly from the arrangement.

But you can understand why laws were brought in to protect some players who were bullied by clubs into signing poor deals or being sent to clubs they didn't want to go to.

But Eriksen and Alderweireld are being offered incredible contracts and they have turned down the opportunity to sign for massive clubs knowing they can cash in, in a year.
They are exploiting a rule that wasn't brought in for their situation - it is unethical and is likely to result in the rule being scrapped in the future (especially if we are out the EU) and so some players being exploited again.

 

[Lilbaz]

Gut feeling, he's off to Real in a week or so.

Why wait? He's not getting any cheaper.

 

[SteveH]

Why wait? He's not getting any cheaper.

Put pressure on price/Daniel?

 

[Lilbaz]

Put pressure on price/Daniel?

Put the bid in now and say that's our final offer. Levy will either say yes or no. He may wait to see if another offer comes in. But it wont make eriksen any cheaper.

 

[buckley]

Eriksen situation is starting to stink the place out the sooner its resolved the better and we can move on with a clear focus on what we have got and what we need to do to progress.

 

[SteveH]

Put the bid in now and say that's our final offer. Levy will either say yes or no. He may wait to see if another offer comes in. But it wont make eriksen any cheaper.

They may say £35m as an example on the last day!
See which way Dan jumps!

 

[Smokinhotspur]

I have come around in my logic of his behaviour. If he doesn't sign this week, I reckon we should sell him for 40-50 million the following week. Cut price but still quadruple our money.

Unfortunately, not so simple. He could still refuse to move if the club bidding for him isn't his preferred. This is the risk we took in not dealing with the situation last summer when the club had more leverage.

 

[Lilbaz]

They may say £35m as an example on the last day!
See which way Dan jumps!

And why would the result be any different than if they put in a £35m bid now and left it on the table?

 

[Lilbaz]

Unfortunately, not so simple. He could still refuse to move if the club bidding for him isn't his preferred. This is the risk we took in not dealing with the situation last summer when the club had more leverage.

We offered him a contract last summer and didn't receive any bids. How else were we supposed to deal with the situation?

 

[BENNO]

We offered him a contract last summer and didn't receive any bids. How else were we supposed to deal with the situation?

Yep exactly. We are in a shitty situation but at the current stage of our development (i.e a very good but not yet great team, a wealthy club but a club not yet reaping the full impact of new stadium riches) then i can't see what else we could have done. Only so much we could throw at him financially and he seemingly turned that down. We got to a CL final but lost, would winning it have changed his mind, i don't know ?

Look at United, a club of huge stature and might, yet Herrera left on a free, De Gea not signed a new contract so in same boat as Eriksen, Pogba wants out and Sanchez still hanging around taking unbelievable wages every week. Not just us having these problems. In fact, looking at our biggest and most saleable assets, all but Eriksen tied down on long deals as far as i can tell.

 

[Smokinhotspur]

We offered him a contract last summer and didn't receive any bids. How else were we supposed to deal with the situation?

Because we didn't receive bids doesn't mean we couldn't facilitate his sale. We could have given him a deadline by which to sign a contract last summer after which we could have facilitated his sale by indicating a willingness to sell for slightly less than his worth (with 2 years of his contract left) which is more than we could get now.

We sometimes over focus on bids.
The reality in most transfers is a lot of the negotiations are initially done via agents to identify a likely successful bid window before the club actually bids. An active sale strategy (ie by indicating willingness to sell at an agreeable price for a prospective buyer) for a player of his quality would have attracted interest whilst we would still maintain negotiation leverage with 2 years rather than 1 left on his contract.

 

[Lilbaz]

Because we didn't receive bids doesn't mean we couldn't facilitate his sale. We could have given him a deadline by which to sign a contract last summer after which we could have facilitated his sale by indicating a willingness to sell for slightly less than his worth (with 2 years of his contract left) which is more than we could get now.

We sometimes over focus on bids.
The reality in most transfers is a lot of the negotiations are initially done via agents to identify a likely successful bid window before the club actually bids. An active sale strategy (ie by indicating willingness to sell at an agreeable price for a prospective buyer) for a player of his quality would have attracted interest whilst we would still maintain negotiation leverage with 2 years rather than 1 left on his contract.

Yet nobody has come in for him this summer when his price is a lot lower than last summer.

It could possibly be that the big teams just don't rate him.

 

[Smokinhotspur]

Yep exactly. We are in a shitty situation but at the current stage of our development (i.e a very good but not yet great team, a wealthy club but a club not yet reaping the full impact of new stadium riches) then i can't see what else we could have done. Only so much we could throw at him financially and he seemingly turned that down. We got to a CL final but lost, would winning it have changed his mind, i don't know ?

Look at United, a club of huge stature and might, yet Herrera left on a free, De Gea not signed a new contract so in same boat as Eriksen, Pogba wants out and Sanchez still hanging around taking unbelievable wages every week. Not just us having these problems. In fact, looking at our biggest and most saleable assets, all but Eriksen tied down on long deals as far as i can tell.

Please don't compare us to Utd. Their transfer and player contracting approach in the last few years under Woodward has been nothing short of a clusterfuck!! £700m spent in the last 6 years and very little progress to show for it.

I would rather compare to Liverpool and how they leveraged the maximum value out of the Coutinho situation (after he made it clear he wanted to leave) which was then reinvested in the likes of Allison, Salah and Fabinho and improved the team as a result.

 

[Smokinhotspur]

Yet nobody has come in for him this summer when his price is a lot lower than last summer.

It could possibly be that the big teams just don't rate him.

The point is we cannot yet draw that conclusion as the summer is not over in terms of PL clubs selling. It is all about negotiation strategy. Look what we did to Fulham re:Sessegnon. Waited till the last day of the window to ensure we didn't pay a penny more than we wanted to. Likes of Real could run the same play on us knowing how tough a negotiator Levy is but also the desperation on our side having allowed the player to run down his contract!

 

[Lilbaz]

The point is we cannot yet draw that conclusion as the summer is not over in terms of PL clubs selling. It is all about negotiation strategy. Look what we did to Fulham re:Sessegnon. Waited till the last day of the window to ensure we didn't pay a penny more than we wanted to. Likes of Real could run the same play on us knowing how tough a negotiator Levy is but also the desperation on our side having allowed the player to run down his contract!

Or they could bid now and leave it on the table. I really can't see the point in waiting. Unless they have other targets they are trying to get, like a certain brazilian.

 

[BENNO]

Please don't compare us to Utd. Their transfer and player contracting approach in the last few years under Woodward has been nothing short of a clusterfuck!! £700m spent in the last 6 years and very little progress to show for it.

I would rather compare to Liverpool and how they leveraged the maximum value out of the Coutinho situation (after he made it clear he wanted to leave) which was then reinvested in the likes of Allison, Salah and Fabinho and improved the team as a result.

Agree that United have been a disaster in recent years, but don't feel you can use the example of Coutinho either, as it was quite clear that Barcelona were desperate to sign Coutinho. Same as Real were very keen to sign Hazzard. Eriksen on the other hand, has nobody desperate to sign him, the only ones we know that have shown interest are United (where he was never going) and possibly Juventus, who seem to have adopted a strategy of taking very good,but not top class players on frees (which indicates it's the lack of a transfer fee not the player that attracts them the most).

 

[Lilbaz]

Agree that United have been a disaster in recent years, but don't feel you can use the example of Coutinho either, as it was quite clear that Barcelona were desperate to sign Coutinho. Same as Real were very keen to sign Hazzard. Eriksen on the other hand, has nobody desperate to sign him, the only ones we know that have shown interest are United (where he was never going) and possibly Juventus, who seem to have adopted a strategy of taking very good,but not top class players on frees (which indicates it's the lack of a transfer fee not the player that attracts them the most).

Don't juve have to sell? Read they already had too many non home grown players for their cl squad.

 

[SteveH]

And why would the result be any different than if they put in a £35m bid now and left it on the table?

Wiggle room for Levy to get CE to sign is my best guess. On the last day it’s a ‘take it or leave it’ situation?

 

[Smokinhotspur]

Or they could bid now and leave it on the table. I really can't see the point in waiting. Unless they have other targets they are trying to get, like a certain brazilian.

Like I said in a previous post, don't focus so much on bids. Real can make their willing price known to us via agents or direct informal discussions (likely a ridiculous low ball that we would never accept. In the meantime, likely they already have an agreement with Eriksen sorted). They then leave us to stew on this information for months before putting an actual bid in very late in the window either at the same level or slightly higher to get the deal done. There is leverage in not putting a bid on the table as it increases pressure on the selling club who has the unsettled player on the books as a rejected bid can be used by the selling club to drive up the price as well as interest with other clubs.

Either way, the point is not about bids but that we have allowed him run his contract down.