I have never understood why people think we could get Levy to agree to let Poch go for only £40 million. That seems incredibly unlikely to me, and yesterday I heard a rumor that, if true, confirms my suspicions.
I watched yesterday's game with a friend who is a well-connected Spurs fan, sufficiently so that last week he got a tour of the new stadium (which he raves about incidentally. It's a big pitch but with very little setback to the stands and with steep banking - he thinks the atmospherics are going to be great).
His inside info from a club employee - and give this as much or as little credibility as you wish - is that Levy's opening ask for Poch is £140 million. The rationalization is that Man Utd would need not only to buy out the contracts of Poch but also all his assistants, and then also pay Tottenham for the inconvenience and risk they would have to take on if they agreed to the deal. Plus, of course, he know there aren't many alternatives out there so he has Utd over a barrel unless they take a punt on Ole or Zidane.
From a business perspective that seems like the right approach and absolutely one that Levy would take.
The corollary is that Woodward would be insane to pay that, but what if they negotiated it down to $75 million? Would Poch's supporters still think that was worthwhile? Maybe so, for true believers. I mean, if we had paid £5 million for Fergie back in 1986 would that have been too much in retrospect?