Ex-Aston Villa chief makes brutal Daniel Levy claim after Tottenham negotiations

Monchi, who recently stepped down from his role upstairs at Aston Villa, has labelled Daniel Levy as the toughest negotiator in football.

The Spaniard recently departed his role as Villa's president of football operations and he has now opened up on his experiences having also spent in excess of 20 years at Sevilla across two respective spells.

Speaking to Flashscore, Monchi said when asked who was the trickiest negotiator within football: "[There were] Many. I always say Daniel Levy, possibly one of the hardest to negotiate with.

"Tottenham has always been a difficult club, but generally speaking, you find very capable people, with a lot of arguments, and they are complicated."

Monchi did not go into detail and clarify which particular transfer deals were discussed with Levy.

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Intriguingly, just a matter of months after Monchi joined Villa, Johan Lange departed to join Spurs where he has now been appointed sporting director.

However, during Monchi's Villa tenure, there were transfer negotiations with Spurs over potential deals for Jacob Ramsey and Giovani Lo Celso.

Tottenham were also understood to be interested in signing Morgan Rogers this summer, though it's unclear whether that was ever a topic discussed between the clubs.

It's highly probable that Monchi is actually referencing his time at Sevilla when it comes to discussing Levy's stubbornness.

Plenty of deals were struck between the parties back then, one being when Spurs triggered the £8million release clause of Sevilla centre-back Federico Fazio in 2014.

Tottenham also sold striker Frederic Kanoute to Sevilla for around £5.5million, making £2m profit on the £3.5m paid to London rivals West Ham for his services in 2003.

Spurs also sold midfielder Didier Zokora to Sevilla in 2009 for an undisclosed fee, however, it's understood a £25m release clause was also inserted into the deal.

Monchi also negotiated the player-plus-cash swap deal in July 2021 which saw Tottenham land Bryan Gil.

Fan-favourite Erik Lamela ended up heading the other way and Spurs were also reported to have paid Sevilla £21.4m on top of the player-swap for the Spaniard, who is still on the club's books.

Speaking to The Evening Standard in 2019, Levy - who vacated his role as Tottenham chairman in early September - strongly refuted claims he was the best negotiator in football.

He said: “The perception and the reality, I can tell you, can be very different. Best negotiator? I think that’s just false. There’s no such thing. You can be good, fair, hard. I don’t think anyone can define themselves as the best.

"I can’t help what other people say, but all I am doing is trying to become a bigger club and I am just protecting my assets.”

It's also worth nothing that Monchi was once heavily linked with a move to Spurs, though it's unclear whether formal discussions ever took place.