Losing Ebereechi Eze goes for Tottenham. They were so close that they were left with the feeling that there was nothing left that they could have done, another summer goal escaped.
It was worse as a Morgan Gibbs-White. Spurs thought they also had Gibbs-white, until the Evangelos Marinakis, owner of Nottingham Forest, started throwing legal threats before he convinced his star man to sign a new deal.
However, this is different. Eze does not stay in Crystal Palace. He is ready to become a member of Arsenal and that comes with a touch of humiliation for Tottenham, creating a familiar mood of anger and frustration between the fan base.
Chairman Daniel Levy is firm in sight. Proponents remember that Willian at the last minute for Chelsea in 2013 and the summer of 2018, when Levy Weeks Low-Balling Hard-Up and relegated Aston Villa for Jack Grealishe at the last minute for Chelsea, when Levy spent for Jack Grealish and missed him.
Hence the well-known allegations of Parsimony, that he tried to squeeze a deal and could have been more clinical and decisive about Gibbs-White and Eze, because both players had released Clauses in their contracts.
It is rarely so simple. Release clauses can be complex, but it is true that the collapse of the Eze -deal is a terrible look for taxation, not least because he is a player represented by CAA/Base.
The agency already has several players in the club, including James Maddison, Pedro Porro, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr and Djed Spence, as well as recently abandoned Captain Son Heung-Min and recently released head coach Ange Postecoglou.
They also have Young Spurs players, and when they do not represent the talent directly, they often broke deals for the club.
CAA/Base were central to Thomas Frank's movement by Brentford and yet they were unable to protect the levy against the shame that is accompanied by losing such a large transfer target at the arch enemy. Spurs were prepared for this earlier in the summer and therefore careful.
They knew that Arsenal -Baas Mikel Arteta wanted, but whether they like it or not, the food chain of the Premier League means that Tottenham will probably not win a fight with one of their big six rivals in the transfer market.
This probably led them to first concentrate on Gibbs-White. Spurs even went back to the forest and made a second bid, above the release clause of £ 60 million, but Marinaki's resisted and rejected it.
Gibbs-White signed his New Forest Deal on July 26, a week before Maddison damaged crossbone latters, excluded him for months and Tottenham's need to add creative flair.
Arsenal seemed to cool on Eze, meanwhile, when Ethan Nwaneri drew a new contract, so Spurs gently returned to Palace. They allow his release clause of £ 60 million plus £ 8 million in bonuses to close this week and to take out a deal for £ 55 million plus £ 5 million.
On Wednesday, Arsenal struck to hijack the deal with a statement related to an injury that Kai Havertz suffered in Manchester United on Sunday.
It is unlikely that Eze will ever play in the middle of Havertz and the idea that there would have been no interest without the German injury, does not stack. It seems more likely that Arsenal never had it back and was convinced that Eze wanted to join them, glad that Levy does what he does and keeps the price low.
If so, they played excellent and Spurs never really had a chance. In the morning in N17, the following morning was a hint that they might have played. They were just not entirely certain by whom.
However, there was little time to wallow, where Frank had to fill the creativity that was left by Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, who should be back before the end of the year.
Levy returns to the shortlist prepared by technical director Johan Lange, with Maghnes Akliouche from Monaco and Nico Paz from Como. Akliouche is a 23-year-old who played up to less than 23 at all levels for France and Paz is rather a 20-year-old in Spanish-born Argentina International with Real Madrid, who has a buy-back option.
Spurs are also determined to continue with a movement for Savinho from Manchester City, who has always been a target separated from Eze. The Brazilian winger is appreciated by the city for £ 67 million. A deal will be more likely if Pep Guardiola is successful in his pursuit of Rodrygo from Real Madrid. It can begin to calm the pain in spurs.