Zdravko Mamic, the former director of Dinamo Zagreb, has revealed how a tense boardroom standoff with then-Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy nearly derailed a €25 million joint transfer for Croatian talents Alen Halilovic and Tin Jedvaj back in 2013.

Speaking in a 2019 interview with FourFourTwo, Mamic described how Levy opened negotiations with an offer of around €10 million — a figure so far below expectations that it pushed the Zagreb director to the edge of his patience.

"We sat in Levy's office with the sporting director, Franco Baldini, and Levy offered us around €10m as his secretary served us tea," Mamic recalled. "After hearing their offer, I told my son to thank Levy — and to ask if 'I should drink my tea, or just go straight home?'"

Mamic's son, who was present as both agent and translator for the two players, refused to relay the comment directly. But the tension in the room was unmistakable.

"Levy and Baldini realised that I had become a little more aggressive, then I told them 'Idite vi svi u picku materinu,'" Mamic said — a Croatian phrase that translates, bluntly, to 'go f*** yourself'. "They stood up and asked me to stay, because €10m was not their final offer for the players. After that we continued the negotiations and agreed a fee of €25m."

Levy's reputation as a hard negotiator

The confrontation echoes Levy's well-documented reputation as one of football's most uncompromising dealmakers. Mamic himself acknowledged that standing, calling Levy "the best transfer negotiator in the world" — even if their exchanges occasionally required a stronger kind of persuasion.

The two men had prior history at the negotiating table. In 2008, they completed a joint-club record deal for Luka Modric, who would go on to win the Ballon d'Or. At the time of the 2013 talks, a teenage Halilovic was widely touted as the next Modric, while Jedvaj was considered a defensive prospect of significant promise.

Why the deal collapsed

Despite reaching a €25 million agreement, the transfer ultimately fell apart. Mamic pointed to demands from Halilovic's camp as the deciding factor. "Unfortunately, the deal eventually fell through, partly because of crazy new demands from Halilovic's side," he said.

Jedvaj completed a move to Roma that same year before building most of his top-flight career at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. He now plays for Al-Shabab. Halilovic, meanwhile, did eventually reach England — but not with Tottenham Hotspur. He turned out for Birmingham City and Reading in the Championship, nearly a decade after those negotiations. Now 30, he is currently without a club after leaving Fortuna Sittard.

The episode stands as one of the more colourful footnotes in Levy's tenure as Tottenham Hotspur chairman — a reminder that even the sharpest negotiators occasionally meet their match across the table.