Tottenham transfer news: Antonio Conte pays price for 'classic Daniel Levy' after £78m setback

Tottenham Hotspur missed out on signing Adama Traore and Luis Diaz because chairman Daniel Levy felt he would be able to strike a cut-price deal for both wingers late in the window, according to talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook.

Antonio Conte was appointed as Spurs’ boss in November and headed into the final week of the January transfer window pleading for Levy and managing director Fabio Paratici to welcome four fresh faces to north London, but they could only muster two signings and neither of them were Traore or Diaz.

Tottenham appeared to be edging towards signing Traore in a £20million deal from Wolverhampton Wanderers less than a week before the deadline.

It came after the north Londoners had initially failed with an attempt to prise the Spaniard away from Molineux for £15million.

But Spurs’ extensive negotiations proved costly as their move was hijacked by Barcelona, who managed to sign the winger on an initial loan deal which has the option of being made permanent for £29million at the end of the campaign.

Another wide-man Tottenham were keen to acquire was Diaz, only for them to see a £37.6million proposal turned down by Portuguese giants Porto.

Having already missed out on Traore, Spurs suffered a double whammy of disappointment as Diaz went on to link up with Premier League rivals Liverpool for a potential £49million.

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Crook believes Levy’s insistence on trying to leave deals until the latter stages of the window proved costly.

The talkSPORT reporter reckons there is a serious possibility that Traore and Diaz would now be at Spurs if the club had made their move earlier.

Crook told GIVEMESPORT: “It was classic Levy trying to get