Spurs risk Ndombele fee rising to £72m

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, has been told to stop dragging his feet over the signing of Tanguy Ndombele or face having to pay more for the midfielder.

Spurs are closing in but Lyon president Jean-michel Aulas is becoming frustrated with how long the deal is taking. He claims Ndombele’s price will rocket to almost £72 million if Tottenham do not sign the 22-year-old in the next week. Aulas said: “If I wait another eight days, it will be €80 million [£71.6million] … Tottenham made us an opening offer worth €45million [£40.3million]. Then, we discussed more. Nothing is done. We are not in a hurry either. Tanguy has shown his qualities with the French national team. He is one of our best players. How much is he worth? Not just €45million.”

Spurs are willing to spend a clubrecord £55million to land Ndombele, but are unlikely to agree to pay £72million if negotiations drag on and Aulas sticks to his word.

Levy and Aulas have clashed before, over Tottenham’s signing of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris seven years ago, after which the Spurs chairman was accused of going back on his word. Aulas said: “We had people speaking all night with Daniel Levy. He talks a lot and goes back on what we’ve agreed in writing. We had email exchanges which have been contradicted, so that’s made it very complicated. The Tottenham board’s theory is to explain that the economic market is very hard and so we have to get used to renegotiating.”

While they try to complete the signing of Ndombele, Tottenham are expected to announce the signing of 18-year-old Jack Clarke from Leeds in a deal worth up to £11 million.