Swansea are reported to have upped a previously agreed fee of £8million for Ben Davies - Spurs' chairman Daniel Levy is apparently infuriated but he best get used to dealing with Huw...
Daniel Levy has a challenger for his "canniest negotiator in the Premiership" title, and in my opinion he might well have met his match. In Huw Jenkins, the Swans have someone who most definitely isn't afraid to pull his punches, and some of the talk from the Tottenham camp in terms of the figures Levy may be attaching to certain Swansea players is very, very wide of the mark - especially given the Swans have no need, or desire, to sell their best players.
I know the figures widely reported are very unlikely to come from the club, but Levy's insistence on driving a good bargain means he probably does value Swansea players lower than most - if only in terms of a "starting point" for any negotiations, which would inevitably rise as talks went on. The clash is that however many millions Levy would want to knock off his starting bid as a matter of "good bartering", you can be sure Huw would add around the same amount onto any of our player's values as we really, really do not need to be selling anyone.
Look at the player's we've sold. Joey Allen? £15million. Was he worth that? Very debatable. There's no doubting we got a good deal there, and I'm a massive fan of the midfielder so that's not a slight on him. Danny Graham? He was obviously far from the best player in the world but we got £5million for him, and he's hardly scored since (apart from the one he, typically, scored against us). Scott Sinclair is another - we got £6million for him and again, he's hardly had a look in since leaving the Swans, but we got a good price for him.
If it's true we'd agreed to sell Ben for £8million, but have now reneged on that and want more, I'd be disappointed that a) we agreed to such a low fee in the first place (especially given Luke Shaw's recent transfer to Man Utd), and b) that we went back on our word. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't kick an extra four or five million our of bed, but I do find it hard to believe that we'd agree to such a low fee. Who knows eh? I do think we'd manage without Ben Davies, sad as I would be to see him go, but it's only worth selling if we get a fair fee. If there's any truth that Luke Shaw is worth £34million, Ben Davies is worth a minimum of £12million, and that's an absolute minimum. I'd think closer to fifteen would be a good starting point from the Swans, and then see what happens.
As for the talk of Vorm and Bony making the same switch, that seems to have gone quiet for now. Maybe Levy balked at the asking price of the Ivorian - there's been talk they're now looking at Negredo, so hopefully that's us off the hook for now.
I really wish I could be a fly on the wall for any negotiations between Huw and Levy. It would surely be a fantastic example of old-school haggling, and it's going to be interesting to see who comes out on top in the near future.
My money is on Huw.