Tottenham Close to Pulling Out of N’Koudou Deal

Both sides, Marseille and Tottenham, are to blame for the N’Koudou deal not going through three weeks ago. It’s not just one party’s fault that things will end on bad terms.

What was once a completed transfer between Olympique Marseille and Tottenham has remained under wraps for more than three weeks. When Spurs saw Georges-Kévin N’Koudou and believed that he could become a productive player for years to come, they quickly agreed to a deal.

Negotiations went off without a hitch so fast that, when word got out Tottenham had targeted N’Koudou, a fee of £10.8 million had already been agreed upon. There wasn’t enough time to stop and think who the France Under-21 international was and what he would bring to north London.

Related Story: N'Koudou Might Not Make it to Tottenham

But since then, it seems as though no one will actually find out what Georges-Kévin N’Koudou could have done with Tottenham.

When the French winger wasn’t seen at Hotspur Way signing a contract, shaking hands with Mauricio Pochettino, holding up a scarf and generally, getting his picture taken and conducting an interview with Spurs TV, everything seemed so obvious for the longest time.

Tottenham had not officially signed N’Koudou.

One of the main reasons why things didn’t go according to plan was the fact that former president, Vincent Labrune, had resigned with Giovanni Ciccolunghi taking over. But more than that, Marseille hired a new sporting director and other board members to completely change how they handle transfer negotiations.

When Tottenham and Marseille agreed to a deal this was during Marseille’s old regime. Their new regime has decided to review a transfer agreement that didn’t happen under their watch and want to make sure it’s in the club’s best interests.

Now according to The Guardian, another major reason why the deal seems to be collapsing is that Daniel Levy wants to renegotiate a deal that had already been agreed upon.

While it’s easy to see Daniel Levy being cheap once again because he wants to change his previous offer, the fact that Marseille have taken forever to finalize a deal actually gives Levy enough time to reconsider what he initially planned to pay.

Here’s a section from Ed Aaron’s article on The Guardian  detailing more about the back and forth between Daniel Levy and Marseille.

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"N’Koudou had looked set to complete his protracted transfer to White Hart Lane this week after the Cameroon forward Clinton N’Jie received his work permit to move the other way on a season-long loan.However, despite reassurances the deal would go ahead from sources close to the player, it is understood Marseille are unhappy with the structure of the payments being proposed by the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, having previously agreed to pay the majority of the fee up front.Reports in France on Tuesday claimed that following the departure of the Marseille president, Vincent Labrune, after the club was sold, Levy attempted to renegotiate the offer for N’Koudou, who completed his medical almost three weeks ago and has been in London ever since.A new offer comprising an initial £4.2m that could eventually reach £11m is said to have fallen way short of Marseille’s valuation. Spurs are now understood to be ready to walk away from the deal."

Again it’s easy to say that Daniel Levy is cheap, and rightfully so this doesn’t paint the Tottenham chairman in a positive light. But is it so bad to go back and renegotiate a “supposedly done deal” with a new regime at Marseille?

If they’re unhappy with Levy’s new and lower payment than what was originally proposed, shouldn’t Marseille have agreed to it beforehand — which they did by the way — but didn’t allow N’Koudou to leave because they wanted N’Jie.

Now that N’Jie has his visa, they still haven’t accepted the original deal when Vincent Labrune was still the president. Instead, the new regime at Marseille are dragging out something that has been finished for some time, and are getting mad at Tottenham for changing their offer.

When in fact, Spurs should be mad that they haven’t gotten a player they paid for three weeks ago — with a medical taken and completed too. Not to mention N’Koudou has been in London for quite some time now.

Quite frankly, this situation has collapsed so bad that it’s almost difficult to pin the blame solely on one party. The easiest solution is to blame both sides.

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Marseille should be held accountable for half of the problems with this deal falling apart. Because they accepted a £10.8 million fee and allowed the deal to linger while they were changing their hierarchy when Clinton N’Jie was waiting for his visa.

It should have gone through immediately, but it didn’t.

Daniel Levy should also be blamed for massively lowering his initial offer to add in plenty of add-ons based on some milestones which will take the full offer back to £11 million. When Marseille’s old regime resigned, this should have been a red flag to Tottenham that they should have backed away.

Now Spurs are caught in ongoing negotiations that will eventually collapse and might not get the French winger anymore. This has become Saido Berahino 2.0, all over again.