Football finance guru and Professor of Economics at Sheffield Business School Rob Wilson has claimed that Daniel Levy faces a tough prospect as he faces up to the potential sale of Harry Kane this summer.
Tottenham are expected to re-engage with Bayern Munich in talks over the valuation of the England striker, and stories suggest Tottenham owner Joe Lewis is unwilling to lose him on a free transfer.
Levy faced down Manchester City’s interest in previous seasons, but thinks Levy is doing the right thing to maximise his asking price.
Speaking to UK renowned YouTube channel Fruity Slots, he said: “If I’m Daniel Levy, I’m probably doing exactly what he’s doing. I’m making him sufficiently expensive so that if someone wants him I’d probably say, fine, if someone wants to be silly and pay £120m for him then fair enough. But you always get the indirect outcome of that, so if Spurs bring in £120m, when they go out to buy their striker and replace him that striker value goes up because everyone knows Spurs have change in their pocket.
“The danger is that he leaves for nothing next summer, but if he helps them qualify for the Champions League then that is around £100m so it offsets itself. Or he leaves in January for a much reduced fee, which I think is the biggest risk really because it becomes much more difficult in January to shop for that replacement striker.
“I think there’s a level of stubbornness about the whole thing. The reality is he’s probably worth £60m to £80m in a fair market, but because the clubs that are involved are slightly wealthier, the value goes up, and of course his value to Spurs. Without Kane’s goals, Spurs haven’t produced on the field.
“It’s a tricky one especially if Kane says that’s me, I’m finished, and I really deserve to win a bit of silverware and I don’t think any neutral would disagree. If Spurs do get to the Champions League, they might be thinking they can twist his arm and renew his contract but that contract value will be massive because if he leaves on a free transfer he’ll get a huge signing-on bonus.
“If I’m thinking about it on a purely transactional basis, I’m selling him this year for £80m. And I’m putting that into the squad and moving onto the next phase for the football club. Because whoever buys him has a massively depreciating asset. They are never making the money back on him through transfers. The only thing they can hope for is he helps them to a level of sporting success they would have otherwise not reached, therefore generating prize money.
“He’s almost untransferable, in my opinion.”