It is no secret that Tottenham Hotspur are keen on bringing Olympique de Lyonnais’ Tanguy Ndombele to the club this summer.
The France international has been heavily linked with a move to Spurs and Le10Sport claimed recently that we had a bid turned down for him as we failed to meet the €80million (£70.8m) valuation they have set for him.
However, The Guardian are stating that we have not yet made an official offer for the player yet but talks have started to begin – so there is hope for us all yet.
Although, that hope could be short-lived if Daniel Levy does not change his ways.
Despite Mauricio Pochettino telling him that Ndombele is the player he wants this summer to improve his squad, the chairman is one who likes to ‘lowball’ other clubs when entering negotiations.
The Lyon chairman, Jean-Michel Aulas, however, is the same type of character which could give us a huge problem trying to move forward and is thought to want his alleged €75m (£66.6m) valuation – perhaps the exact figure does not quite seem to be known.
Aulas has become as notorious as Levy with his transfer tactics and is a man that wants to get as much money as he can out of a transfer for one of his own players – as we found out seven years ago when dealing with the French outfit for Hugo Lloris (Telegraph).
“We had people speaking all night with Daniel Levy,” Aulas once said. “He talks a lot and goes back on what we’ve agreed in writing. Agreements have not at all been respected.”
He later added: “It’s been very, very difficult. I’ve got 25 years of experience as a president of a club and it’s our 16th participation in a European competition in a row. But this is very rare in the football world. The negotiation with the Tottenham directors has been the hardest I have ever had to undergo in these 25 years.”
Hopefully, those talks will have been forgotten about or any possible tensions between the two sides will have been eased over the last seven years, otherwise, it could be a really interesting couple of months and one that may not give us what we so desperately want to happen.