London: Tottenham Hotspur lived up to their reputation for transfer deadline day drama when they emerged in the final hours to beat Liverpool to the £6 million (Dh34.998 million) purchase of Clint Dempsey, signed the Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for a fee that could rise to £13 million (Dh75.830 million) but failed in their pursuit of the priority target, Porto’s Joao Moutinho.

Dempsey’s arrival represented the final act of a summer-long saga that had seen the American forward agitate for a move, miss matches for Fulham and draw the interest of a clutch of rival clubs.

Fulham reported Liverpool to the Premier League last week, claiming that they had tapped him up, while Aston Villa had a £7 million (Dh40.83 million) offer for the 29-year-old accepted on Friday morning.

With Liverpool, though, unable to come up with a competitive figure, Tottenham swept in to finalise the deal at a slightly lower price that Villa’s. Sunderland had also shown an interest in Dempsey, who had less than 12 months to run on his Fulham contract, but he preferred to stay in London and sign for Tottenham, with whom he undertook a medical an hour before the 11pm cut-off.

But manager Andre Villas Boas was left to feel irked at the one that got away. He had identified Moutinho as the player that he most wanted from the moment that he succeeded Harry Redknapp at Tottenham in July.

He had worked with Moutinho when he was the Porto manager and he was on record describing him as “world-class,” a player that could make a “direct impact.”

Villas-Boas had been pessimistic about the chances of the deal being finalised, largely because he knows that the Porto president Pinto da Costa, under whom he worked, always sells players at very high prices and, perhaps, because he could not see Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, stretching himself to the required level.

Moutinho has a £40 million (Dh233.32 million) release clause in his contract, although that does not mean he cannot be sold for less and, on Thursday, Villas-Boas said that the move was “an impossible deal for the club.”

Tottenham sources close to the deal were frustrated at what they saw as Porto changing the parameters as the day wore on, which was somewhat ironic given the back-story to the Lloris transfer.

Lyon had accepted Tottenham’s bid for the France No 1 last Sunday, with the down payment on the fee being £9.5 million (Dh55.414 million) but, on Thursday night, the French club accused Levy of lowering his offer by £2 million (Dh11.666 million). It prompted the Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas into a furious tirade, although the deal was revived and concluded.

“The negotiation with the Tottenham directors has been the hardest I have ever had to undergo in 25 years,” Aulas said. “Daniel Levy talks a lot and goes back on what we’ve agreed in writing. Agreements have not at all been respected.”

— Guardian News and Media Ltd