OPINION
The summer transfer window isn’t even open yet and it looks like the Christian Eriksen story is the one that’s going to dominate the headlines.
He hasn’t signed a new contract at Tottenham, his current deal is up in 2020 and that means this summer window is the last one in which Daniel Levy can demand a big fee for his playmaker.
£100million is a figure that’s been bandied about and that’s a huge sum of money that Mauricio Pochettino could use to start rebuilding his side.
But it’s reported that Tottenham still want to keep Eriksen and are hopeful he will sign a new contract.
They got a boost when the Times reported that Real Madrid had cooled their interest because they didn’t want to deal with Daniel Levy, after what happened with the Gareth Bale deal. Levy made Real wait until deadline day despite talks having been started months before.
However, it looks as if they’ve got a plan to out-Levy Tottenham.
The Sun claims that Real will table a late bid in August designed to crank up the pressure on Tottenham and have a plan B that involves waiting and getting him on a free in 2020 if that doesn’t work.
If true it will all come down to whether Eriksen signs a new contract or not. If he doesn’t sign before the end of the summer window, Levy might be forced to sell and he might be forced to sell at a lower price.
Eriksen could sign a pre-contract agreement in January and the last thing Levy will want is for a player potentially worth £70-£100million to leave for free and spend the second-half of next season unsettled.
Levy is notoriously wily in the transfer market but that seems to be close to check-mate by Real and Tottenham fans will be sweating to see what his next move is.