Tottenham Hotspur is reportedly set to miss out on a transfer target, a story that’s all too familiar to supporters as Adama Traoré is reportedly on his way back to Spain as he’ll join FC Barcelona.
According to The Athletic, Traoré is heading to the Spanish club to undergo his medical and join the Spanish club loan deal with an option to buy the 26-year-old for around €35 million.
Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol provided some details as to went on behind the scenes and why the potential move to north London fell by the wayside.
“Spurs have been trying to buy Traore and put in a £15m bid, which was not enough. There was some expectation that a deal could be done for about £20m, but Barcelona have come in for the player, who used to play for the Barcelona Academy,” Solhekol said on “The Transfer Show.”
“And when a club like Barcelona come in for you, it is very difficult to say no, and that is why he has decided to go back to Barcelona. And I really do not think there was much Spurs could have done about this.”
Furthermore, The Athletic adds that talks between Spurs and Wolves had been moving in the right direction, but the Spain international was unsure about the idea of manager Antonio Conte converting him to a wing-back.
With only a few days left in the January transfer window, Spurs is back to the drawing board as they cross off Traoré off their list.
Thank-you. Yes, unfortunately nothing will change whilst ENIC are still in charge, as their entire parasitical existence and primary motivation for owning the club is predicated upon the pursuit of personal financial gain, as opposed to any genuine commitment to deliver either sporting excellence or to put a trophy winning product on the field.
Nope.
Well said. And some great long words in there plus a smattering of Latin. Personally I have just one four letter word to describe Levy….. C*nt! Nothing will change while Enic own our club.
My comment on Levy’s ineptitude and/or propensity to come second in a one horse race, has nothing to do with the merits or demerits of Traore per se. It was merely to illustrate yet another example, in a litany of similarly futile attempts at acquiring players, that speaks to Levy’s inability to consummate a deal because of chronic procrastination, obsessive haggling, disingenuous poverty pleading and every other pathetic excuse under the sun, as opposed to a simple display of straightforward executive competence.
Lots of big words here. What’s a big word for shit because that is what Troare has been. He doesn’t start for Wolves. Every new manager that Wolves have hired tries to implement a plan to start him and a few months in he gets dropped and becomes super sub. Has our Daniel covered himself in glory over the years, no. Am I bothtered we missed out on Troare. Also no.
I agree, we are a shadow of what we were under Poch but that was never through transfers. Poch got a lot more wrong than he did right in the transfer market. Anyway, maybe Levy will surprise us with a Van Der Vaart type surprise 🙂
Aside from your apparent obliviousness to Levy’s chronic failings in the transfer market, bordering on corporate malfeasance, which have cost the club several hundred million pounds, both in lost profits and abortive purchases, your alternative hypothesis on this transfer saga is utterly illogical. If Traore was not interested in coming to Spurs, which from all the reports he was, with personal terms having been agreed with his agent, then manifestly Spurs would have dropped the cycle and pursued other avenues.
However, there are no reports implying that was the case, in fact quite the contrary. Accordingly they just failed to consummate a deal, which could have been aggressively pursued and closed in the first week of January. The reason being the by now habitual procrastination and obsessive haggling of Levy, whose abysmal form in the transfer market is currently plumbing new depths. Nevertheless, your prerogative, yet another fawning Levy apologist defending the indefensible!
I don’t believe Barca were interested until just recently. Had they been as you say sniffing him out for months, he would have been theirs at the start of the window or they would have risked losing him. No this was an impulse buy.
I’m not even sure we were even in for him tbh. There was no offer made after all. It might be all media smoke and mirrors. Chinese whispers that got out of hand.
Lets face it we can’t compete any more. Levy’s inability to think strategically and look ahead has put us in this position.
We’re a shadow of what we were a few years ago. It’s sad.
Its frustrating but the truth is we could have offered 50mil, double the wages and he still would have gone to Barca. If you think Barca have came in, in one day and signed him under our nose id suggest you have been hoodwinked. Adama would have heard about their interest weeks ago, if not months. It’s the level we are at. Same as Diaz I’m afraid. If us and Liverpool both agree a fee, all the wages in the world wont get him to us.
Surely it would have been established even before the start of the window, most likely in December, that Traore was coming to play as RWB? You’re not seriously saying that it suddenly dawned on Adama in the last couple of days that he didn’t want to play in that position? That just doesn’t make any sense.
I think you’ve been hoodwinked by the Levy induced excuse to cover for his incompetence in not getting the deal done quickly. Though it may have been due to us cooling on the idea.
I suppose when Diaz goes to Liverpool on deadline day you will believe Levy’s new excuse as to why he wasn’t able to get the deal done. Most likely because Diaz has an allergy to cheese and hence won’t be able to base himself at our stadium.
My theory on Adama is that it was Conte who was unsure about his ability to defend as RWB, and most likely froze the deal because of the availability of Diaz, who though not being a RWB, represents the chance to add a world class player to our squad.
Lets see if bungling Daniel can get this one over the line for his manager…
Well said. The same people who complained that Traore wasn’t good enough are now complaining about the fact he chose Barcelona over us.
Levy is so kindhearted. he makes sure the world knows what players we are going after and gives them enough time so they can also bid for the player.
Diaz to Liverpool for example. I bet he wasn’t even on Liverpool’s radar until the news made it that we were going for him.
Or
Spurs were in no hurry to ram through a deal for a player who didn’t want to play the position Conte wanted. What exactly is the point of forcing through a deal for Traore if it’s been made clear in private that he didn’t want to / feel he could do the job required? Do you think Conte wants that?
But sure, get the lad in, prove to everyone how decisive we can be and deal with the fallout later when we’ll have people like you whine about wasting £25m+ on players who aren’t fit for purpose.
The sad thing is he thinks he’s the wolf of Wall Street when in reality he’s the village idiot. He low balls every club he wants to do business with expecting them to bow to his prowess, but expects everyone to pay top dollar for anyone he wants to move on. When Conte walks out the door due to the web of deceit he’s been spun, we’ll end up with some 2nd division manager and lose most of our players that have got any sense.
Can’t believe we whiffed on it 🙄
The true detailing of why Spurs failed in the Traore pursuit should be patently obvious. If we had paid the asking price in the first week of the transfer window, before Barcelona had ever entered the conversation, Traore would already be a Spurs player.
The culprit, as usual, is our chronically procrastinating executive deadweight, Levy, who with typical parsimony was stubbornly trying to screw every last penny out of the selling club, as opposed to efficiently consummating the deal.
The end result, like Grealish, et al, is another failed player capture, another exercise in fruitless labour and further evidence, as if any were needed, that this abject administrative incompetent has no business running a sweet shop, let alone running a professional football club.