Tottenham Rejects Schalke’s Bid for Nabil Bentaleb
Mauricio Pochettino said Nabil Bentaleb has no future with Tottenham, but they’re not in a rush to sell him yet.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy stated he wanted £10 million for any club looking to sign Nabil Bentaleb this summer.
But judging from what has happened recently, he wants more money than he initially asked.
According to the Mirror, Levy has now upped Bentaleb’s valuation to £15 million after rejected Schalke’s £10 million bid.
Increasing the price isn’t bad, the main problem however, is Daniel Levy has pulled a Max Huiberts which isn’t smart.
Related Story: Tottenham Will Sell Bentaleb Not Loan Him
Huiberts, the technical director of AZ Alkmaar, put a certain value on Vincent Janssen, thought to be £12 million.
When Spurs matched that offer, AZ said no and asked for more money.
It rubbed Janssen the wrong way so he publicly called out his now-former club and shamed them for their handling of transfer negotiations.
This is what Spurs are currently doing and it only makes Levy look worse than he should.
Getting enough money for Bentaleb who is still a promising talent makes sense, except Levy should have placed a high value from the start.
A perfect example is Newcastle United manager Rafa Benítez and how he handled the Georginio Wijnaldum situation.
The Spanish manager knew that clubs were keeping tabs on the Dutch midfielder.
Because Wijnaldum publicly stated (or not) that he wanted to return to the Premier League, Benítez placed a high value on one of his marquee players.
It was off-putting for many clubs who were interested in the attacking midfielder, but Newcastle couldn’t simply part ways with him that easily.
Because no club wanted to spend £25 million for the 25-year-old, Newcastle would still have a good player on their squad. That is until Liverpool came calling.
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It ended up becoming a win-win situation for both clubs.
Jürgen Klopp got a good player (albeit at a high price) to add to his roster and the Magpies committed highway robbery for a player that cost them £14.5 million last summer from PSV Eindhoven.
This is how Daniel Levy should conduct transfers with players who Mauricio Pochettino believes has no future with the club.
But, who could still offer something if no team wants to bid a high amount on an unwanted player.
Speaking of Nabil Bentaleb and why he has no future with Tottenham, it was simply because the Algerian midfielder wanted to leave Spurs.
“He is training with the under-21s. He is not with the first team because he wanted to leave,” Pochettino said (via London Evening Standard).
“If he wanted to leave, he can come and see me, I say, ‘okay you can leave’, and he is waiting to try to find a place away from Tottenham.”
“But there is nothing to do. We share the changing room and the restaurants all together, it is not a problem.”
“The rule is very clear: if you are not part of my plans, why are you training with us? He understands very well, like any other player.”
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The mystery of why Nabil Bentaleb has been transfer listed is now solved.
All that is left is for a team to meet Levy’s ever-increasing valuation for the 21-year-old defensive midfielder and a sale should go through.
Schalke could be in pole position if they return with £15 million, otherwise Bentaleb won’t leave until the winter if Spurs continue rejecting offers.