Tottenham Hotspur is a well-run football club. The solidity of their finances is a source of pride for the supporters. They hold a position at the business end of the Premiershipand have done so without racking up mountains of debt. However, they may have reached a fork in the road. In order to continue progressing, or even to keep up with the clubs around them, they may be forced to seriously loosen their rigid wage structure.
The question of whether Spurs should discard their current successful system is a balancing act between footballing ambition and financial risk.
Abandoning the wage structure would allow Spurs to compete with the top clubs for the best players. There are suggestions that they have already considered this. The club’s top earners Modric, Bale and King are on around £70,000 a week, however no serious attempts could have been made to sign Sergio Aguero in January without leaping towards the £100,000 per week marker. £70,000 won’t bag you a star in their prime nowadays. When Spurs become linked with a world-class player, the first question raised is will the club be able to meet his wage demands.
The wage structure is also becoming restrictive in the retention of the best players. £70,000 a week will keep your players happy for a while if you get them young but it won’t keep them forever.
If Tottenham loosen the structure, they’ll be able to attract a higher calibre of player capable of bringing them more seriously into the crush at the top of the table. They can satisfy the ambitions of the club’s best players and their seemingly insatiable appetite for more money. There is a genuine risk that without this increased spending, the team may stagnate or even go backwards as players are lured away. It would be a great shame if the 2011 Champions League run is the pinnacle of this Tottenham side’s achievements.
The cons of abandoning Levy’s safe and working business model can be seen throughout English football. Spurs would be faced with a rapidly escalating wage bill. The arrival of a couple of £100,000 a week stars would undoubtedly have a knock on effect on the wages of others at the club whether through highest earning clauses or renegotiated contracts. Nobody wants to see a situation like that at Newcastle2 years ago, a squad bulging with £50,000 plus a week earners, with no love for the club, heading for relegation.
Without the guarantee of Champions league football, it is a huge and reckless gamble to drastically up the club’s spending. The top English clubs are in eye-watering amounts of debt and Spurs have done fantastically well thus far to compete without being sucked in. The club is safe and could even maybe spend a little more without pushing itself into a position of boom or bust. Daniel Levy has run Spurs incredibly carefully up until now, it would be foolish of him to risk everything for short term success.
So what should Tottenham do? Is this the most competitive they can be without plunging into an abyss of debt? I believe that Spurs should continue to keep it tight, keep buying young players if they have too, but keep getting the best they can afford. Spurs can get stars without breaking the bank, it just takes a lot longer. Levy runs a tight ship and I still believe he can take it forward without sinking it.
It’s a great shame that £70,000 a week can’t get you the players you need but it’s good to see Tottenham attempting to climb the right way.
Written by Philip Wroe for FootballFancast.com.
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its okay fro a Team like City or Chelsea to spend loads of money because both owners have acquired there wealth by lets say easy methods. Spurs are owned by Joe Lewis who lost 500 million on a failed American bank so he is not going to spend his money on greedy Footballers. I would sooner Spurs build a team through young talent than but a team . We are way aheaoyals rich spend on there hobbyd of Chelsea and City when it comes to the new rules and this will sort out the Clubs badly run and unfairly. City are run by a country’s wealth whose subjects have no say how much the Royals spend on there hobbie we all no where ABV got his money from and we in this country are paying a high price for it with record prices at the pumps.Utd are the worse offenders and yet they won the league .This has to stop because Banks have nearly crippled the World economics and Utd sponsors AIG had to be baled out by the American govermenta
One point of clarity that’s required is that of Joe Lewis. Mr Lewis is chairman of ENIC nothing more or less, he’s neither a sugar daddy or a philanthropist, nor is he even interested in football. Daniel Levy is chairman, it’s his drive and ambition for the club to succeed that’s been the catalyst for our upturn, but he also answerable to THFCPLC shareholders and the board and directors of ENIC as well as the supporters of THFC. My hat truely goes off to this guy, and irrespective of his motives, as after all are an investment company, the success of Spurs is mainly down to Levy’s energy and drive. In a similar way that David Dein drove on Arsenal. But it’s taken Liverpool to spend 100 million and Man City more to just get on an equal footing with Spurs, who play to small crowds and have to be cautious when spending unlike some of the drunken sailors on leave, who are above us right now.
Yes he is running it in the right way as is the best Chairman we have had in years. People who are panicking don’t realise the transfer window for Italy, Spain, France and Germany didn’t open until 1st July so it’s only been 3 weeks since it opened.
The stadium capacity is at the heart of your dilema. Levy was ready to throw away the club’s heritage for the quick and cheaper fix of the Olympic Stadium. That’s why he’s so upset he failed.
Club’s with Sugar Daddies can compete on wages without needing high attendances. Those without have to go the expansion route.
forgive my naivity and ignorance. agree that spurs would need to up their wage ceiling to be able to compete, but has teh league (or just the club) tried motivating the players better by paying them bigger match bonuses and bonuses at the end of the season based on league position and cups won? these would supplement the weekly wages which need not be ridiculously high. the players can earn high wages, only if they perform well as a team. like i said, this may have been flogged to death by much wiser league and club managers.