West Bromwich Albion Chairman has spoken of his displeasure with Tottenham Hotspur and it sounds a little familiar to Saints fans.

West Bromwich Albion seem to have been in a similar position to Saints these past few weeks in that they have a player that Tottenham Hotspur covet, but the North London club won't or can't pay the going rate so resort to other tactics.

Baggies Chairman Jeremy Peace is enraged about what has gone on and feels so strongly about it he has issued an official club statement.

Peace revealed that the final day of transfer business did not pass without Tottenham making two further attempts to sign Albion’s top scorer from the 2014-15 campaign, Saido Berahino.

The striker has been the subject of two previous rejected bids from Albion’s Premier League rivals. Tottenham’s third and fourth attempts met the same fate today.

Peace said in that statement.

“We have a key player who has been very unsettled by antics which were designed to get him out of our club cheaply.

"Those tactics have continued despite my making our position clear in my first conversation with Daniel Levy on this subject in mid-August.

“I said selling Saido so late in the window was not on our agenda.

“Tottenham’s offers failed substantially to reflect Saido’s true value while the timing made no allowance for our own recruitment of a suitable replacement for a proven Premier League goalscorer.

“Saido has been unsettled to the point where our Head Coach has not felt able to select him for our last three games.

“We are now left with the task of repairing the damage created by this unfortunate episode.”

So Saints supporters who felt that they might be getting paranoid about the way that Victor Wanyama was headhunted by Tottenham can feel a little better this evening in knowing that Saints are not alone in the way that they have been treated by a club that was described by ex Saints Chairman Rupert Lowe 14 years ago as North London Yobbos, that was in a similar situation after Spurs has co erced then Saints boss Glenn Hoddle into jumping ship and then came back to persuade Dean Richards to do the same.

What it needs now is clubs like West Brom and Saints to stand up and demand that the big clubs and the delusional big clubs such as Spurs stop their bullying tactics in transfer windows.

By all means they are entitled to buy players, but they should do so with reasonable offers at the going rate, even as West Brom were making their statement Matt Le Tissier was saying on Sky that Spurs had made offers for Wanyama of less than Saints had paid Celtic for the player two years ago, if that is not conclusive proof then I don't know what is.

Thankfully both West Brom and Saints have prized assets still at their club tonight, sadly for both they now face a difficult task to re assimilate unsettled players back into their respective squads.

Spurs fans are not happy either, although there are of course some who see their club as above Saints or West Brom, many are appalled by their clubs behaviour and see it as a major reason why Spurs have failed to land key targets this summer.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 22:03 - Sep 1 If true, I can't see why Southampton don't issue similar statements about this behaviour. As long as you play it straight and don't use as a short term bargaining tool, you don't lose anything by doing it as guilty parties will still have to pay market rate for players and sets out your cards for future dealings.
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Zambucco added 22:11 - Sep 1 I wonder if Celtic fans are happy with us? I'm assuming that we acted in a professional manner, but there has been lots of media speculation about nearly all of our purchases from them. So they possibly have a right to feel we just come and take what we want? As you have pointed out Nick, Spurs fans must be highly embarrassed with their club's (Levy's) behavior, it's left then looking pretty silly. Line a bully who's just had his nose bloodied by the little kid!

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heroholmes1 added 22:12 - Sep 1 Pearce and Saints have good reason well and truly p*ssed off about this. Along with everything else they have done over the years they have unsettled our team before our first European game for years to the point one of our strongest players didn't play and we went out. Let's have more of WBA, Everton, Saints and others digging their heals in and keeping their best players Its supposed the be a competitive league these big clubs and Spurs will kill the golden goose Come on Palace, Leicester, Swansea let's upset these "big teams"

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jeffspurs added 22:35 - Sep 1 Deluded comments on here. All teams interested in signing a player make the contact through the players agent. Including the so called smaller clubs. Does that unsettle the player? Well yes of course it can but that's how it's done by all. Including Saints. The person who went public here was the WBA Chairman not Spurs. He is also telling fibs. The first approach by Spurs was made in May and they were given some encouragement which is why they kept going back and why Berahino is so upset with Peace. The last bid was reported as £23m. That's not trying to buy on the cheap, in fact it's more than Berahino is worth. What game is Peace playing here? No idea but it's backfiring on him. If he wanted to keep Berahino he should have done what Spurs did when Chelsea came in for Modric. Put the no sale sign up. Ignore the repeated bids coming in. Talk to the player and agree future plans. I don't know if Berahino was for sale or not but I do wish we had bought him. And I think Spurs probably do covet one or two Saints players like everyone else. As a Spurs fan, Saints are a team I want to see succeed so best of luck for this season. Even if Rupert Lowe turned out to be the biggest (posh) yob in the end.

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madMARTYNmarsh added 22:37 - Sep 1 While I feel disgusted by Levy's behaviour I feel that the tone of this article is a little pathetic. To claim that Southampton and west Brom are on par with spurs is ludicrous. It's like spurs fans that want to believe spurs are as big as Arsenal, Arsenal are the bigger club just like spurs are a bigger club than Southampton and west Brom. I hope you smaller clubs do dig your heels in, money is corrupting the Premier league and the club's that are lucky enough to be in it. Try to remember that clubs like Man utd and Real Madrid and Chelsea have done worse to spurs than spurs have done to either club here (West Brom made the bids public, not spurs) it's the pecking order unfortunately.

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capsharp added 23:02 - Sep 1 Spurs a small club?? It's clubs that make that accusation that are the small clubs, WBA, southampton, Swansea, Westham, Arsenal (yes they are a small club, you are only a big club if you have won in Europe). Spurs did nothing wrong, it's WBA's chairman who has done wrong, trying to make Spurs look like the bad person, when it was he that was making everything public. Yes, Levy is a moron, yes he is a nightmare when it comes to buying or selling players. But what Spurs were doing or trying to do to the smaller clubs is only what other bigger clubs do to them. Look what happened when a bigger club came in for Bale, we had no option in the end but to sell, even though Levy didn't want to. But the name calling and the insinuations that Spurs are a small club are pathetic, read up on their history before you make uninformed comments on another club you obviously know nothing about. Spurs have a history that Manure, Loserpool, Chelsky can only dream of, yep that's right, the first to win the double, the first non league club to win the FA cup, the first British club to win a European trophy, there is more but all of these cannot be repeated. Read up before making stupid, bitter comments.

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SaintNick added 23:36 - Sep 1 No one claimed that Saints are as big as Spurs, what was said was that "some" Spurs fans see their club as "above " saints & west brom which is a different thing. As for being a big club you need to read your history as Arsenal have two european trophies , indeed west ham have won the european cup winners cup. As for spurs history, Huddersfield won the league long before you did and have won it more times, were spurs the first non league team to win the FA Cup ? Wanderers, Oxford University and Old Etonians would argue that, back in 1901 when you won it, we had lost the final the previous season and you were definitely in our shadow in the southern league back then. As for better than Liverpool and Man Utd dream on you would die for their honours If you want to talk history at least get it right

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heroholmes1 added 23:42 - Sep 1 Ipswich, Derby and Forest are bigger than Spurs according to Carsharpe
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SanMarco added 00:25 - Sep 2 I think it is 'first Southern League team to win the F.A. Cup' rather than non-league.
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Jeanette_Kranky added 08:31 - Sep 2 I sense the Spuds are very angry this morning.... can`t wait to play them.
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GeordieSaint added 09:49 - Sep 2 Spurs are a huge team, they win the Carling cup at least once a decade.
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schatfield added 09:51 - Sep 2 lets be honest there is a pecking order....manyou, chelsea and the likes will take players from spurs and any others...likewise spurs will take from clubs like us and west brom, and we will take from clubs like celtic and any european club. Thats how it is now....spurs behaved bad, but who is to say we didnt do the same to celtic? if the tactics give the club an inch in a multi-million pound transaction, then it will be done

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SonicBoom added 09:55 - Sep 2 If Spurs are higher in the pecking order then why not act like it? Man U and even Liverpool paid us the going rate for our players. They offered West Brom 5 mill up front and the rest on drip. They offered us less than we paid! Big clubs put money on the table making it impossible to resist.
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SaintPaulVW added 10:03 - Sep 2 The fact is Spurs by using this strategy have ended up unimproved in key positions and can now only improve their squad in January when values are crazy. Hope Poch is happy there.
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cpnhadock added 18:36 - Sep 2 Spurs may have offered £22/23m for Saido - they may have offered £20m for victor but neither offer was cash upfront both were £5ish million deposit and rest on lay away. This would be shocking business for saints or wba! Why SHOULD they have to sell if they don't need/want to or feel the offer doesn't represent their view of players value? Spurs tried to do it cheap and now look like dicks..... The same way that we made them look like dicks last summer over Morgan. As for their behaviour in their transfers - they conduct it entirely through the media and propaganda. That's also funnily enough how the nazi party took over Germany!...it is underhand and unethical. As for how saints do business - any saints fan will tell you that Sfc is like a black box on transfers, we don't hear about deals until they happen! (Van dyk was a slightly different situation as we have a strong and positive history of buying at decent prices from Celtic). We do not have a good history of selling to Spurs - hoddle, Richards, poch, alderwereld, Paul Mitchell... All were done in a desperate and underhand fashion by Spurs! Does it happen to them the same way by Man U etc?.... No - because these clubs have true BIG CLUB appeal! Signing for them is an honour and a fulfilment of ambition for most players! As for bale - Spurs were paid a world record fee for a player who was not nor is yet close to being in the top two best in the world; by the worlds biggest club! Did Spurs get paid well for berbatov? Yes!!! A massive amount for a lazy player who was nearing the very end of his prime! Carrick - yes!!!! A big lump of money for a player who wasn't anywhere near the best in his role at the time! In terms of are Spurs big or small etc.... It's all opinion... But my opinion there are Premier League Clubs and BIG CLUBS - man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, City and Arsenal are all BIG CLUBS.... Everyone else is a premier league club. Spurs are a slightly bigger premier league club than saints but despite their additional size they do not have the same discipline, foundation or vision as saints. Coyr! #wemarchon #saintsfc

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Hugh_Jarce added 22:01 - Sep 2 Spurs have history but Levy is making a good job of it not repeating
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