Tottenham to demand record transfer fee for Hugo Lloris

If you thought the Hugo Lloris transfer saga might just die away, then you're going to be very disappointed. However, it appears that Daniel Levy is not going to make it easy for him to go. The Telegraph reports today that Daniel Levy is prepared to play hard-ball over Hugo, and will demand a world-record transfer fee for a goalkeeper in order to let him leave White Hart Lane.

This should surprise nobody, considering who the people involved are: Madrid President Florentino Perez, who has more money than sense; Manchester United, who shouldn't expect any favors; and Daniel Levy, who is a god***n transfer negotiation ninja. The world record transfer for a goalkeeper is the £32.6m paid by Juventus for Gigi Buffon back in 2001, which was absolutely ludicrous back then. Even merely adjusted for inflation, that's £48.1m in today's money. And Madrid or United will probably have to pay at least that to get Daniel Levy to sell.

Sure, you can talk about how Tottenham seems to always sell its best players to Real Madrid – they did it, after all, with Luka Modric and Gareth Bale. But one thing you can guarantee is, so long as Daniel Levy is involved, Real Madrid will have to pay through the nose to even get a foot in the door. As someone who really wants to keep Hugo around for another year but that also wants a debt-free Tottenham with a shiny new stadium, that makes me feel pretty good.

Take 'em to the cleaners, Daniel.