Evo sto sam nasao na jedan tottenham forum:
On Monday 28 April, late Friday
evening, thirty minutes after midnight, Zdravko Mamic called Luka
Modric from Zagreb’s Westin hotel and asked him one question: ˝Do you
still want to become a player for Tottenham?" Modric gave him a short
confirmation. "Then consider yourself to be a Tottenham player from
this point on", said Mamic, who then hung up the telephone, turned to
Daniel Levy, the 46-year old President of Tottenham, who flew to Zagreb
in his Cessna Citation in complete secrecy that same evening: "We can
sign the contract." Singing the contract where Dinamo receives €23
million in compensation from Tottenham completed the ten month battle
for Luka Modric between the largest European clubs, one of the best and
most sought after European football players. Tottenham has never paid
so much in compensations for any player, Dinamo has never made such a
good trade, but all events which occurred over the past ten months
surrounding Modric resembled a thriller movie.
Even though it has been a well known fact over the past two years that
Modric is a high quality football player, the first concrete offer for
him was received by Mamic last year at the beginning of July after
Ar5ena1 signed a contract with Eduardo da Silva. At that exact moment,
Arsèn Wenger, Ar5ena1’s coach, told Mamic that he was very interested
in Modric. At the end of July 2007, Zoran and Zdravko Mamic were
invited to London and found themselves on the guest list for the
traditional Emirates Cup tournament involving Ar5ena1, Inter, Paris
Saint Germain and Valencia. Wenger repeated that he wanted Modric in
Ar5ena1 at that time because of his European ambitions, but the Mamic
brothers refused so quickly that Wenger did not even manage to tell how
much money he was willing to offer for Modric.
In November, negotiations once again began around Modric because
Chelsea became interested in him. In mid November, Britain’s Daily Mail
published an article stating that Chelsea was offering £15 million for
him, even though, as we have learned, the procedure for this offer was
quite different. Zdravko Mamic flew to London on a private jet at that
time and resided in the private villa of Roman Abramovic, Chelsea’s
owner. Abramovic offered Mamic €5 million for Chelsea to have the right
to make the first offer, and the final price would be agreed at a later
date. Mamic refused, and when Abramovic realized that the Executive
President of Dinamo would not back down, he offered him £15 million, as
reported by the Daily Mail, which totalled €21 million at the end of
November. This was also rejected because Tottenham first appeared as a
serious buyer at the time, represented by Sports Director Damien
Comolli.
In December, Mamic was also contacted by representatives of Manchester
City, club owner Thaksin Shinawatra from Thailand and Swedish coach
Sven-Göran Eriksson, as well as a representative from Newcastle, Vice
President Tony Jiménez who is in charge of purchasing new players.
Instead of backing down with these offers, the Mamic brothers made a
sensational announcement at a press conference several days before the
New Year that Modric would remain in Dinamo for another year and that
he would be sold after 1 January 2009.
As we have uncovered, the Mamic brothers flew to England three days
prior to releasing this information and spoke with representatives from
Tottenham, Manchester City and Newcastle. In the end, they told
everyone that Modric was not for sale. Furthermore, on the day before
this press conference, they were contacted by representatives from
Spain’s Valencia, who offered €23 million and their immediate arrival
in Zagreb, but Zdravko Mamic informed them not to get on a plane
because Modric was still not for sale. There was so much surprise in
that decision that Daniel Levy, the President of Tottenham and only
President in an English club who finished a degree in Economics from
Cambridge, called Mamic and informed him that, for the first time ever,
he would ˝personally discuss the sale of Modric if necessary˝. That
didn’t help either.
Ajax, Hamburg, and Werder then contacted Dinamo with the most concrete
offers for Modric, while Barcelona and Real were scouting him. The
press reported that Modric wanted to go to Barcelona, but Barcelona did
not make an offer that could impress Mamic. From what we have
uncovered, Barcelona offered €15 million, hoping that the club’s name
would be impressive enough for Mamic and Modric to sign. Mamic rejected
this, in part because it was not certain in December whether Dinamo
would win the Croatian championship this year without Modric.
In Croatia, most journalists and fans attacked Mamic for his decision
not to sell Modric. He was not sure what was going on; when he sold Da
Silva and Corluka, he was attacked for selling off his players, and now
he was being attacked for not selling Modric. There were reports that
Modric was upset that he was not leaving, which was the truth, as was
it true that his parents never bothered Mamic with questions on why he
did not sell their son.
In January everything froze, but in February the greatest European
clubs began to once again show their interest in Luka Modric. At first,
contact was not made by the highest ranking club representatives but
lower level representatives contacted Dinamo, as well as licensed
managers. In certain cases, they personally contacted Modric, but he
told them the same thing every time – call Zdravko Mamic. At the end of
February, Newcastle and Tottenham were the most interested for Modric
and at the beginning of this month, Daniel Levy, the President of
Tottenham, called Mamic on the telephone to discuss the conditions and
told him that it would be best to continue the negotiations in London.
The Mamic brothers went to Newcastle and announced the final amount
which they were seeking for Modric - €30 million and €2.5 million
annual pay for Modric.
Of course, the Mamic brothers were ready to accommodate the club, from
making payments in installations to the option of paying this amount
for compensation if Modric would play a specific number of matches in
one season. Newcastle requested 48 hours for their response, and once
the deadline ran out, they offered €22 million. Tottenham offered
approximately the same amount. It was time for the Mamic brothers to
make their decision because Dinamo became the Croatian champion, and
the European Championships were nearing and it would be best for Modric
to sign a deal before the European Championships.
The only thing which bothered the Mamic brothers at that time was the
relation of the Great British pound to the Euro, because the GB pound
was much stronger in December than it is now. However, £18.16 million
last weekend was worth €23 million, while in December it was worth
€25.25 million, €2.5 million more than now. Because the negotiations
included payment in the Great Britain pound, Mamic realized that he was
losing on the exchange rate. He is losing on Eduardo da Silva while
Ar5ena1 makes payment in pounds while he is not losing anything on the
Corluka deal because payment was agreed in euros.
Zdravko and Zoran Mamic travelled to Newcastle and met with Tony
Jimenez and Dennis Wise, former football player and the current
Executive Director of Newcastle. They met with British billionaire Mike
Ashley for the first time, the owner of Newcastle, as well as Kevin
Keegan, former football star who is now the manager of Newcastle. It
was actually Keegan who was impressed with Modric, and to charm the
Mamic brothers, he reminded them of the first half of the 1980’s when
he played for Hamburger SV. At that time, the coach for HSV was Branko
Zebec, and Ivan Buljan played, and to impress the Mamic brothers he
portrayed his knowledge of Croatian curse words. The jokes and cursing
did not change the standpoint of Newcastle or the Mamic brothers.
Newcastle continued to offer €23 million, while the Mamic brothers
requested more and rejected Newcastle.
At that moment, Zdravko Mamic thought that he would have a calm weekend
and that he would receive a new offer on Monday. On Friday night, at
22.30, after jogging near Tuskanac, he came home and had a shower. At
that moment, his brother Zoran called him and said: "Daniel Levy is at
the Westin, come quickly, he wants to finish the negotiations for
Modric." That was the peak of the waiting game because Levy was quite
nervous, knowing that Zdravko Mamic refused not only his offer but
offers from other clubs several times. That is why he said, immediately
upon arrival: "I’ve come to Zagreb to take Luka Modric to Tottenham. If
I don’t do that now, we will never meet again."
That was Levy’s blitzkrieg, who came to Zagreb in complete secrecy
without any other clubs knowing. Mamic sat across from him and began to
talk endlessly in his own style, and then became quiet at one moment.
He realized that he spoke too much, that he was not concentrated and
that Levy could win their waiting game. That is why he told Levy: "I am
talking too much; why don’t you talk now." Levy offered €23 million
compensation and €2 million per year for Mamic. Mamic accepted and
Modric agreed, even though it was clear that Newcastle would most
likely raise their offer this week.
Mamic had insider information that Liverpool wanted to get involved in
the game, because before the first match of the Champions League
between Ar5ena1 and Liverpool, Rafael Benitez, Liverpool’s coach, said
that he wanted Modric. However, Mamic no longer wanted to wait and does
not want to consider now ˝what could have been.˝ Thakashin Shinawatra
offered €21 million in December for Modric to sign with Manchester
City, which was also rejected.
The contract with Tottenham has bonuses: by the end of the year, Dinamo
will play a friendly match in London against Tottenham, and by the end
of 2009, Tottenham will play an away match in Zagreb and Dinamo will
profit from television rights. Modric is the highest paid player which
Tottenham has signed.
Interesantno.
