Sir Alex Ferguson Urges Inquiry Into Tottenham’s Signing of Zeki Fryers: The Nightly EPL
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson came out on the offensive Friday to criticize Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy over the Spurs signing of Zeki Fryers, a former Manchester United youth academy footballer.
Ferguson is incensed that Tottenham signed the player from Standard Liege in Belgium. Tottenham tried to sign the 20-year-old footballer in the summer, but got turned down. If the transfer had been made, Spurs would have had to pay approximately £5m-£6m through a Premier League tribunal. Instead, the player decided to move to Belgium in the summer for a transfer believed to be around £250,000.
Tottenham is believed to have signed Zeki Fryers from Standard Liege today for approximately £900,000.
Here’s what Ferguson said regarding the transfer:
“I am disappointed in Tottenham, I really am. I think it has been a blatant manipulation of the situation. They tried to buy him from us at the end of last season but we couldn’t agree terms. They then took him on trial and took him to Portugal with the squad and came back and said that they couldn’t afford him. And then all of a sudden he signed for Standard Liège and at that moment in time, when I heard that, I expected him to go to Tottenham in the January window.
“I’m disappointed in Tottenham. The Premier League should look into it and I think they should stop the registration until they examine it. There will be a trail, mobile phone [records] or something. It is obvious to me [what has happened].
“It’s a Daniel Levy deal. You know, it’s his fingerprints all over it. It’s the kind of thing we expected he was going to do.”
Here are tonight’s Premier League news headlines:
- Sir Alex Ferguson urges inquiry into Tottenham’s signing of Zeki Fryers — The Guardian
- Arsenal have become a selling club says Edwin Van der Sar — BBC Sport
- West Ham owner’s son apologizes on Twitter for Marouane Chamakh signing — Dirty Tackle
- Tottenham steal a march on Arsenal to sign Schalke’s Lewis Holtby — The Guardian
- QPR jump ahead of Newcastle in the race for £10m Loïc Rémy — The Independent
- Arsenal’s Marouane Chamakh joins West Ham on loan — The Guardian
- Liverpool full-back Jose Enrique out for six weeks — The Independent
- Arsène Wenger sees FA Cup as chance for Arsenal to end trophy drought — The Guardian
- Sporting Kansas City’s Graham Zusi is set to train at West Ham — Yanks Abroad
- FA Cup third-round team news — The Guardian
- Roger Espinoza set for Wigan debut against Bournemouth — The Mail
- Our FA Cup memories | Guardian Sport writers — The Guardian
- Arsene Wenger to play strong Arsenal team with FA Cup ambitions in mind — The Independent
- Joe Cole set to face Man Utd in FA Cup tie tomorrow — The Guardian
- The Football Attic Podcast Episode 4 – Subbuteo Special — Football Attic
- Paul Lambert says he does not expect to sell Darren Bent or any other players in window — BBC Sport
- John Terry forced to backtrack on Lampard Chelsea exit claims — The Guardian
- ‘Collapsed’ pitch at Old Trafford set to be replaced this summer — The Independent
- Fulham’s Martin Jol delighted with capture of highly-rated Chris David — The Guardian
- What makes Dish Network the worst company to work for in America? — The Verge
- Fan who confronted Rio Ferdinand given three-year football ban — The Independent
- Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard will be spared FA Cup trip to Mansfield — The Guardian
The Nightly EPL is tomorrow’s news today. It’s often tomorrow morning’s British newspaper headlines that are published the night before. We do all the work for you, combing the Internet and aggregating the news for you. Read The Nightly EPL on EPL Talk every night before bed, so you can stay on top of all the news that matters.
17 Responses to Sir Alex Ferguson Urges Inquiry Into Tottenham’s Signing of Zeki Fryers: The Nightly EPL
SAF Man U- bastions of honor… rough game Fergy take your knickers off – this game ain’t for the timid. Go get yourself a little hanky and blow that red nose then shut the hell up for once
and props to SKC’s Roger Espinoza – good luck on your Wigan debut
This is sweet revenge for all the players that the unscrupulous ‘Fergie’ has stolen from Spurs.Players like Michael Carrick and Berbatov.It is only half way through the season and Fergie, inspite of all his cockyness had better watch out,because AVB
might steal some more of your players.
Neither Carrick or Berbatov were products of the Spurs academy, in fact Carrick was purchased for 3.5m from West Ham then sold to United for 14 m rising to 18m, Berbatov was purchased by spurs for 10.9m and sold to United for 30m. Spurs haven’t done badly when it comes to dealing with United.
Whats dangerous about the Fryers deal is the precident that it sets. If the FA doesn’t investigate this and close the loophole which spurs have exploited, it could lead to large clubs ignoring the Compensation Tribunals and simply following Spurs lead. This could lead smaller clubs to end up significantly out of pocket.
United are the biggest and most profitable club in the country, we can stand to lose £3m every now and then, can Crewe, Blackpool or Huddersfield?
No different to the strange transferof Richie de Laet that unfortunately my club were complicit with.
This type of deal has happened before so no precident was set here. If you’re not aware of how the bigger clubs have been taken advantage of smaller ones for decades by now then you’ve been asleep. But yet again the only time people start to take note is when a club like man utd get burned.
The FA should have done something years ago. If Spurs were investigated it would go along way in showing that the FA was infact in Ferguson’s pocket, which would highlight an entirely different problem.
We weren’t giving him any playing time so I don’t see why he is crying about it now.
LOL….you’ve been levyed… Georgie taps up more players than a plumber… Beckham included when just 10 yrs old.
The onset of Parkinsons is terrible to witness……unless it happens to be Old Big Nose.
Breaking News for all gunners, according to goalspy.com, M’vila arrives in london for medical with arsenal.
I’m interested if Man U. are going to sell Nani or Valencia and how much. It seems like both are getting very little playing time and I think Valencia CF can do a swap and money deal for either one of them.
What has this deal got to do with SAF ? He didn’t want to give someone a pay rise – they left(their choice)- then got homesick (His and Liage’s story (not ours)) and came back to the UK completely different deal and nothing to do with Man U.
he didn’t want to pay him, didn’t want to play him and didn’t not want him to move unless he chose the team, what has he got against the boy?
It’s actually nice to see utd get some of their own treatment. Ferguson hates Levy, he’s complained before about him and tranfer dealings, but with the double standards by which Ferguson operates, then fairplay to anyone who does get one over him and utd. It’s not good that a loophole exists, but the last person on earth who can complain about it is Ferguson.
Pot calling the kettle black.
How about inquiry into finding out why your nose is sooo pink in color?
From the guardian article
“I’m disappointed in Tottenham. The Premier League should look into it and I think they should stop the registration until they examine it. There will be a trail, mobile phone [records] or something. It is obvious to me [what has happened].”
Ferguson namechecked the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, on MUTV: “It’s a Daniel Levy deal. You know, it’s his fingerprints all over it. It’s the kind of thing we expected he was going to do.”
Spurs deny any impropriety. A spokesperson told the Guardian: “Zeki was out of contract [with United] in the summer, we had looked into the possibility of signing the player but were unable to agree a deal on the terms Manchester United were asking.
“Zeki chose to go to Standard Liège, who paid compensation to Manchester United. Zeki enjoyed his time at Standard. However when they sacked their manager [Ron Jans] in November Zeki was not part of the new manager’s plans, which he accepts and understands happens in football.
“Unfortunately, a combination of this and the fact he had become homesick meant he wanted to return to England. His representatives made contact with clubs in England and this afforded us a second opportunity to sign the player.
“As per Fifa’s solidarity contribution mechanism, Manchester United will receive 5% of the transfer fee we have paid.”
Whether United will make a formal complaint is in the balance. It is understood that they are considering their position, with the club yet to ascertain whether Tottenham have broken any rules.
Old red nose got a taste of his own medecine. It’s amazing what a whiner he can be when things don’t go his way. How can he be disappointed in us if he knew we were going to do it? Surely we just lived up to his expectations.
He knew we were going to pull this is a total lie. Levy outsmarted Man Utd on this one. Just admit defeat graciously. Just be glad it wasn’t a player like Berbatov. Fryers is only 3 million.
Read more: http://www.spurs.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=34985&start=1#ixzz2HCRlIQFe