Daniel Levy took the extraordinary step of publicly denouncing Manchester United and Liverpool Football Club last night, stating that he had reported both clubs to the Premier League because of their ongoing courtship of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane.
In a vitriolic attack on Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafa Benitez, chairman Daniel Levy denounced their behaviour as "arrogant", describing Ferguson's statement that he was confident of luring Berbatov to Old Trafford as "one of the worst offences by any manager in the Premier League to date".
Firstly, Levy should be applauded for taking such a public stance against a practice that has become so common place over the last 15 years that it has been forgotten that is against the rules of our game.
The biggest teams in the country, backed up by vast sums of money and the lure of Champions League football, have rode roughshod over the rights of smaller teams who cannot hope to hold on to their best players in the face of such unrelenting pressure. This trend existed before football became the all conquering behemoth it is today but, during the Premiership era, it has become the key manner in which the hegemony of English football is maintained.
Backed up by a national media who revel in promoting the interests of the 'top four' beyond all others, Manchester United and Liverpool (along with Chelsea and to a lesser degree Arsenal) believe that there is not a single player whose head cannot be turned given the right amount of pressure. It's not a case of arrogance because it's been proven time and time again.
Now finally someone has the gumption to stand up and say something. Yes they were the words of a man who is desperate to show fans of his club that he is doing everything he can to hold on to two of the club's top players. In this respect Levy's statement is a superb piece of PR from a man who has, in the past, also shown a disrespect for the rights of other clubs. But that doesn't make what he is saying any less true.
There have been those who were quick to point out to a clandestine meeting in Seville last November as proof that Levy is a fine one to talk about dishonour and "tapping-up". Yet just because he has been a practitioner of one of the blights of the game does not mean it should be able to continue unabated.
Those who hope Manchester United and Liverpool will start the season with a points deduction are living in a fantasy world. Levy's complaints to Premier League chiefs will be met with indifference and the best he can hope for is a meaningless rap of the knuckles for Ferguson and Benitez. Levy knows this, but he can hardly stand by and allow either man to continue their unrelenting public pursuit of two of his star players without some sort of response.
As long as the practice of the countries' top clubs systematically unsettling any player who takes their fancy continues, the hegemony of British football will never change. Season after season will pass with even more boring predictability than already exists and the dichotomy between the have, and have nots - in terms of Champions League football- will grow ever wider.
Perhaps this summer will prove a watershed. Perhaps clubs like Tottenham and Aston Villa, who have spent vast amounts of money trying to achieve their goal of playing in Europe's elite club competition, will hold firm and the Manchester Uniteds and the Liverpools will learn when no means no. I doubt it.
The transfers of Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Gareth Barry are an inevitability, like the tides of the sea or the setting of the sun. Eventually, Sir Alex and Rafa will get their men. For now it seems all that clubs can do is to put on a brave face for the fans whilst behind the scenes they make sure the club gets the best deal possible.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Premier League decide that no rules have been broken in the pursuit of these players. That they would think that would hardly be surprising in a prevailing climate that allows the FA to all but consign a club like Luton Town to relegation for what amounts to a series of stupid but ultimately insignificant mistakes. The heart has long been missing from the English game, it appears now the powers that be are working on removing the soul.
There are a great many things wrong with our 'beautiful' game, from soaring ticket prices making attending a match a luxury few people under 25 can afford, to the appallingly unfair system that allowed our club to poach John Bostock from Crystal Palace - a player scouted by Barcelona and said to be one of the best of his generation - for a paltry £1.4m. The practice of clubs disregarding the rights of their neighbours to poach their best players is just another nail in the coffin of English football.
Today the backpages of the national press are full of Levy's defiance but tomorrow they will return to headlines like " Berbatov fumes as Spurs drag out his move to United" or "Keane to join Rafa". Big transfers sell papers and the biggest transfers involve the biggest clubs. Over the past few years there have been countless examples of the media attempting to engineer transfer deals with unabated reports of player unrest and speculation. Only the naive would doubt the press have a hand in making the news, as well as reporting it.
Yet Levy has made his point, even if nothing palpable will arise from it. He will now turn his attention to helping his manager find suitable replacements for two players whose departure will be a tremendous dent to the progress the club has made over the past three seasons, safe in the knowledge that there was a Tottenham before Keane and Berbatov and there will be a Tottenham long after they've realised that all that glitters is not gold.