Tottenham Hotspur Say Luka Modric Unavailable At Any Price

Seeing Tottenham Hotspur get all cranky is one of life's many pleasures, and boy are they cranky. Apparently, Tottenham had told the Blues that they would under no circumstances sell Luka Modric this summer, so when Chelsea made the fact that they would bid public (thus sparking Modric's comments about his desire to move to Stamford Bridge) Spurs weren't really very pleased about that. Check out the statement by Daniel Levy after the jump...

I wish to make it absolutely clear, as I have said previously, that none of our key players will be sold this summer. We are building a team for the future to consistently play at the highest level and retaining quality players is crucial to that.

In respect of Luka Modric, we are not prepared to sell, at any price, to Chelsea Football Club or any other club. We made our stance on this issue abundantly clear in writing to Chelsea. They chose to ignore it and then subsequently made the offer public.

For the avoidance of any doubt, let me reiterate that we shall not enter into any negotiations whatsoever, with any Club, regarding Luka. We now consider this matter closed.

While that's certainly a valid stance for Spurs to take, Modric has said he was under the impression that he'd be allowed to leave if a big club came calling and made a reasonable offer for him, and Tottenham appear to be reneging on that agreement here. Then again, 'We will not sell for any price' is a lunatic comment and not something that I imagine the good folks at White Hart Lane believe - if Chelsea offered £50M for Modric they'd be made to say no.

Anyway, this is just round two of the PR war between Chelsea and Tottenham. I'd wager that Chelsea have won the opening exchanges by unsettling Modric (and judging by Levy's response the comments the Mail attributed to Modric are in fact true), but all signs point to this thing be extended and painful. Fun fun fun.