For the first time since the 2014/15 campaign, Tottenham will play a Premier League season without Son Heung-min.
Son completed his move to LAFC shortly after announcing his desire to end his 10-year stay in North London.
Despite having just a year left on his contract, and past his peak at 33 years of age, Thomas Frank’s side were still able to command a sizeable fee of £20million for their captain.
That can be attributed to the strong negotiating skills of those in the Tottenham boardroom, of which their counterparts at LAFC have shed some light on.
Tottenham were ‘great’ in negotiations over Son Heung-min, according to LAFC co-president
John Thorrington, LAFC co-president, sat next to Son at his unveiling and was a key factor in persuading the forward to join the MLS franchise.
As the winger relayed after making the move to the United States: “If I’m honest, [LAFC] was not my first choice. But [from the] first call when I talked to John after the season finished, he just changed my mind.
“He changed my heart. He changed my brain. He showed me the destination where I should be. Right now, I’m here. I’m more than happy.”
Thorrington has since offered an insight into the transfer talks with Spurs that secured Son’s high-profile signing.
Speaking on the Black and Gold Insider podcast, the 45-year-old said: “Let me just say we’ve got to know each other really well over the last few weeks. When you’re negotiating, it’s not always the friendliest of conversations.
“But in all seriousness, they were great, we ended up finding the right solution for them and us. We always try to negotiate win-wins and I think we did in this case for us, for Tottenham, and for the player.”
Daniel Levy and Tottenham were tougher negotiators when it came to Harry Kane
The comments by Thorrington somewhat challenge the reputation that Levy is a tough negotiator, even if Spurs will be happy to recoup almost all of the fee they paid Bayer Leverkusen for Son in 2015.
Perhaps the most notorious example of Levy’s transfer stance was the 2021 saga over Harry Kane, who felt he had a gentleman’s agreement to leave Tottenham, according to the Guardian.
However, after Manchester City bid more than £100m for the England captain, Levy refused to entertain any offer under £150m.
Kane would later leave Spurs for Bayern Munich for an initial £86m in 2023, while City signed Erling Haaland a year later for £51m.
The Son deal shows that Tottenham took a different approach to their two club legends, likely because of their prospective destinations: had Kane joined Manchester City, he would have stayed in the Premier League and significantly improved a side Tottenham were hoping to compete against.