[ad_pod ]
According to AS, Tottenham Hotspur have slapped a £224million asking price on midfielder Christian Eriksen. The Denmark international has been heavily linked with a potential move to Real Madrid, but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy wants a world-record fee if he is to allow the midfielder to leave the club.
What’s the word?
Spurs are keen to keep Eriksen out of the clutches of Real, having seen the likes of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale swap north London for the Santiago Bernabeu in recent years.
Modric cost Real around £30m, but Bale became the most expensive player in world football when he moved to Spain, as Levy extracted a massive £85m fee from the Liga giants.
And Levy is now reportedly keen to see it broken once again, with Real looking for a player to replace Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric, who turns 34 in September.
It remains to be seen, however, if Real are willing to once again break the world transfer record.
AS claim that Real will only enter into negotiations if Levy lowers his asking price, having told Real two months ago of his demands when an initial enquiry was lodged.
The Independent, however, claim that Real have once again initiated contact with Eriksen, and deem him a “gettable” target.
Levy living up to his reputation
Levy has gained a reputation throughout football for being a hard-nosed negotiator.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously hated dealing with the Spurs chairman, claiming in his book ‘Leading’ that the process of negotiating a deal for Dimitar Berbatov was “more painful than my hip replacement”.
There can be little surprise, then, that Levy is so keen to negotiate such a huge fee for a player who has become integral to the way Spurs play.
Apart from World Cup Golden Boot winner Harry Kane, Eriksen is undoubtedly Spurs’ most important player.
The Dane has scored six goals and provided nine assists throughout the 2018-19 season, with three of those going directly to Kane.
Eriksen presses high, uses the ball well whenever he wins it back and also has an unerring eye for goal, as Real found out to their cost last season; the playmaker scored the third goal in his side’s phenomenal 3-1 thumping of Los Blancos at Wembley.
It is unthinkable that Spurs would allow the player to leave without a fight, and they continue to hold talks with the player over a new contract.
His current deal expires next year, and rather than cash in, Spurs should make his renewal a priority.
They are no longer a club that needs to sell its best players, and keeping Eriksen would have a twofold impact: Spurs retain one of their best players at a time when they are becoming one of the best teams in England, and Levy furthers his reputation as the best negotiator in world football.
Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals what Lasagne-Gate was really like for Tottenham’s food-poisoned stars – Check out the video below…