As more and more money is pumped into football, transfer deals for world-class players become more about simply agreeing on a fee with a club and wage with the player, and Tottenham found this out the hard way in the summer.
#thfc had agreed a deal to sign Paulo Dybala with both Juventus and the player in the summer but missed out after refusing to pay a reported £14M to buy his image rights. | @TimesSport https://t.co/iRH9jBbsv3
— Daily Hotspur (@Daily_Hotspur) January 1, 2020
A report from The Times reveals that Spurs missed out on the signing of Juventus attacker Paulo Dybala because after the north London club refused to pay the £14m for the Argentine forward’s image rights despite everything else seemingly being in place for the 26-year-old star to join the north London club.
Will Tottenham be active in the January window?
Yes! We have to be!
No! Daniel Levy won't spend
A deal to bring Dybala to Tottenham spanned a good chunk of the summer transfer window, and on social media, plenty of Spurs fans were fuming at the board, and at Daniel Levy, for messing up a deal to bring the Serie A attacker to the club because of the price of the player’s image rights.
Here’s what Tottenham fans had to say on Twitter about the collapse of the Dybala deal…
Surprise surprise. It’s always always about money. Grealish was the same. Top clubs and in fact top businesses take action they don’t “consider bidding” , “track a player” , “monitor a player “. You act, quickly, decisively & pay whatever it takes
— Anthony Heard (@AnthonyH7) January 1, 2020
Do not kick us while we’re down!
And to be fair, think of what that £14m could buy!
Obviously saving it for a N’Jie or a N’Kodou or a N’Janssen— #ENICout (@MattyFrench82) January 1, 2020
But we’ll pay 12+ million to sack our entire coaching staff instead of giving them what they want..unbelievable
— SB (@browniespurs) January 1, 2020
What a joke
— Peter Crouch Stan Account (@Musathfc28) January 1, 2020
Surely we knew about the image rights before bidding. To me this just screams “we tried” to appease the fans. Maybe I’m just cynical
— DC (@DC_THFC) January 1, 2020
Embarrassing if true. No other club in our position would be put off from signing a world class young talent over $14 million when everything else is agreed.
— Jord (@JornCOYS) January 1, 2020
With the January transfer window now open, it will be interesting to see if Tottenham will go back in for Dybala with Jose Mourinho now at the helm.