Southampton CEO Martin Semmens has shed light on his dealings with Daniel Levy, admitting that the former Tottenham chairman made negotiations very difficult.
We are now in the post-Levy era at Spurs, with the long-serving Tottenham chairman being asked to step down with immediate effect by the club’s owners a few days ago.
According to reports, the Lewis family have sacked Levy to usher in a new era of sporting success at Spurs.
However, it has also emerged that another reason for their decision was that several Premier League clubs had refused to deal with Levy due to his adversarial negotiating style.
Martin Semmens admits Daniel Levy was difficult to deal with
Semmens, who has been on the opposite end of the table to the 63-year-old while negotiating deals, has now confirmed that the former Spurs chairman was not an easy figure to deal with.
He admitted that he did not enjoy his dealings with Levy, but pointed out that it is not a criticism of the former Spurs supremo’s negotiating prowess.
The Saints CEO told talkSPORT about his dealings with Levy: “I had my run-ins with him on transfers. Difficult negotiator. I didn’t love it, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad at it.
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“I had a much better time selling to Sir Alex’s Man United because they would spend more money. Difficult to deal with, not always warm and easy in doing transactions, but that’s not a bad thing.”
Semmens admits a 2020 transfer deal with Tottenham was particularly hard
The Southampton chief revealed that the negotiations with Spurs over Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg were particularly difficult as Levy was insistent on driving down the price.
Hojbjerg did eventually seal a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2020, with Kyle Walker-Peters going the other way.
Semmens continued: “The one that we struggled on was the (Pierre-Emile) Hojberg transfer. He had one year left on his contract.
“A lot of conversation goes on about driving that price down, and we were not going to put up with that, and that caused some friction. But can you blame him for trying to drive down the price? It’s the business, no.”