Monchi, who recently stepped down from his role upstairs at Aston Villa, has labelled Daniel Levy as the toughest negotiator in football.

The Spaniard recently departed his role as Villa's president of football operations and he has now opened up on his experiences having also spent in excess of 20 years at Sevilla across two respective spells.

Speaking to Flashscore, Monchi said when asked who was the trickiest negotiator within football: "[There were] Many. I always say Daniel Levy, possibly one of the hardest to negotiate with.

"Tottenham has always been a difficult club, but generally speaking, you find very capable people, with a lot of arguments, and they are complicated."

Monchi did not go into detail and clarify which particular transfer deals were discussed with Levy.

Intriguingly, just a matter of months after Monchi joined Villa, Johan Lange departed to...