Premier League 
/ Ralph Ellis / 11 July 2011 / 1 Comments 
Daniel Levy has been accused by Luka Modric of going back on his word, and not for the first time
"Playing tough and making Modric honour the six-year contract he signed is the best way to show they mean business. It would send a signal to the dressing room, to the likes of Gareth Bale, that the club remain ambitious."
Luka Modric has his heart set on a move to Chelsea but he's finding out like other Spurs players before him that he'll only be sold when Daniel Levy is good and ready to let him go. The interesting thing is that the Betfair market still thinks that will be this summer.
These days, top players have an army of people working for them. There are bodyguards, and drivers, and gardeners, and pretty much any other sort of "ers" that their lifestyle might demand; most especially, they have lawyers who check out their entitlement to image rights and the occasional super injunction.
But it amazes me that so many of these men of law still allow huge loopholes in their clients' contracts. They check through the fine print of several pages of a five-year deal. Meanwhile the player is being assured by his chairman or chief executive that "if a big club comes we won't stand in your way". Yet somehow that part of the process never gets put in writing.
Luka Modric is the latest to find himself on the wrong end of this process, and no doubt he'll be getting plenty of sympathy from both Charles N'Zogbia and Stewart Downing this morning. All three of them have got their eyes on pastures new - and all three are finding that their clubs are playing hardball.
Modric wants to go to Chelsea. Chelsea want to sign him. The trouble is that Spurs don't want to sell. So now the Croatian midfielder is playing the "Daniel Levy can't be trusted" card. Spurs fans will be familiar with this tactic. We've heard it over the years from Darren Bent, Dimitar Berbatov, and from plenty others claiming the chairman had gone back on promises.
"I reminded Mr Levy of the gentlemen's agreement we made last summer," said Modric. "I mentioned that if a concrete offer comes in from a big club we will look at the offer and agree the best solution. The chairman said: 'ok we will sit down and discuss it.' Now he is changing his story."
The problem for Modric is that actually Levy is not changing his stance at all. He has indeed sat down and discussed it, and agreed that the best solution for Spurs is not to sell.
Betfair's market has taken a cynical view. Levy has previous for promising top players wouldn't go at any price, and in the past has always buckled on deadline day and taken the biggest fee he could get (think of both Berbatov and Michael Carrick). At the moment the midfielder is rated odds against to stay at anywhere between [2.1] and [3.4].
But this time it could be different. Tottenham are at a pivotal moment if they want last season's wonderful Champions League adventure to be more than a one-year wonder. Playing tough and making Modric honour the six-year contract he signed is the best way to show they mean business. It would send a signal to the dressing room, to the likes of Gareth Bale, that the club remain ambitious. And with the experience of Brad Friedel in goal bringing some extra security to the defence, it might just make them value at [4.5] to recover a top four spot.
Levy may finally have realised that the old adage "you can't keep an unhappy player" no longer applies. If the star throws a sulk once the transfer window shuts he will quickly find he is the only person to suffer. Martin O'Neill proved that a couple of years back when Aston Villa refused to sell Gareth Barry unless they got the fee they wanted. The England midfielder stayed another full and successful season.
Villa clearly haven't forgotten that lesson. Having let Ashley Young move to Manchester United with just a year on his deal left, they are playing hardball with Stewart Downing. New boss Alex McLeish has set the price at £20million, and if Liverpool or Arsenal won't pay that much then the player won't go. Downing, with two years of his contract left, might not like it, but he will have to get on with it.
The downside to that stance is that it's stopping McLeish from recruiting Charles N'Zogbia from Wigan because Dave Whelan is talking just as tough. He reckons the 25-year-old French winger should be in the same price bracket as Downing. Guess what? N'Zogbia thought he had a "gentlemen's agreement" from the chairman that "if a big club came in we can talk about it".
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