Filed under: Football
Daniel Levy must have known this was going to happen. If he hadn't then he would be very naive indeed.In telling Luka Modric in no uncertain terms he would not be sold to Chelsea the Tottenham chairman was making a bold statement to the footballing world in general, namely that Spurs were not prepared to dismantle its most successful team for a long while.
But in so doing he has angered the player himself, who has accused him of breaking a 'gentleman's agreeement'. And with the Croatian having now gone public over his displeasure by accusing his employer of being 'arrogant', the ball is now back in Levy's court, especially should a transfer request threat be carried out soon.
And Levy must decide either to stick to his guns, which could see a threat to banish the player to the reserves, or perform a U-turn that would be personally embarrassing but remove a disaffected player from the roster.
Either way, it seems, he loses unless his next move is an inspirational one.
The 25-year-old midfielder let rip in an interview with Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti. "If I have to, I will hand in a transfer request," he said.
"I'm extremely disappointed by the way Levy talked to me. I had a cold welcome to his office and he talked to me arrogantly. He arrogantly let me know that he doesn't even want to know what I have to say.
"I don't know what are the reasons for his behaviour but it's his problem. That kind of approach only convinced me that I'm not wrong about my decision to leave the club."
Chelsea have so far offered £22 million for a player who signed a new six-year deal last summer that failed to include in writing a verbal promise Modric now claims has been broken.
"I reminded Levy of our gentleman's agreement from last summer in Dubrovnik, when I signed a new contract with Tottenham, that if an offer from a big club comes in we will sit down and talk about it and find the best solution for all of us," he added.
"Back then he said if it happens we will sit down and talk. It was enough for me that it was not required to be put into the contract. Now Levy is turning around and he doesn't even want to talk about it.
"And he told me in an indiscreet manner that there's no way he will let me go. He threatened me that if I don't accept his and the club's opinion, then he will send me to the bench or the stands. He even talked about sending me to the second team.
"This threat just convinced me that I made the right decision to leave Tottenham."
Many Tottenham fans have already applauded Levy for his tough stance while others will no doubt feel that if Modric does not want to play for Tottenham any more then they certainly don't want to see him on the bench, in the stands or even in the reserves.
Some will certainly feel Levy has created a big mess however and the man who will be compromised the most by all of this is Harry Redknapp. The Spurs manager has made no secret of how highly he rates Modric's play-making abilities and his toughness despite a slight frame and was no doubt initially delighted that he would not be joining a rival.
But Redknapp knows from his decades of experience in the game that once a player wants to leave then you might as well let him because his performances in captivity are never as good. Arsenal fans have already come to such a conclusion a year into the Cesc Fabregas saga and Manchester City are forever battling to keep Carlos Tevez happy, in vain it seems.
So will Luka Modric be playing reserve team football for the next five years? We all know the answer to that one. But perhaps if anyone can solve a problem like this it's Redknapp, whose gift of the gab is legendary and for whom Modric is understood to have no gripe. So over to you Harry and good luck.
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