Known West Ham supporter and talkSPORT broadcast Ian Abrahams praised Tottenham’s ability to progress to the next round of the Champions League due to how much they had spent on the starting line-up that featured against Barcelona on Tuesday.
The radio personality, also known as Moose, responded to a tweet via his personal account by a Spurs fan on Twitter which worked out that the team that started against Barcelona on Tuesday had cost £107.5million and that the Spanish giants had one player in the form of Philippe Coutinho who had cost them roughly £140million.
Abrahams labelled it ‘quite amazing’ that Spurs had fielded a team that had cost £107.5million and succeeded in the Champions League when you consider that West Ham nearly spent that much on transfers in the summer.
FT Barcelona 1-1 Spurs – @SpursOfficial complete the greatest of great escapes to make the last 16 of the Champions League, what an effort by Poch’s men pic.twitter.com/VdLSH9OXeI
— Ian Abrahams (Moose) (@BroadcastMoose) December 11, 2018
Starting Line Up tonight v FCB:
Lloris (£12m), Rose (£0.5m), Jan (£11m), Toby (£12m), KWP (£0), Winks (£0), Sissoko (£30m), Eriksen (£16m), Son (£21m), Dele (£5m), Kane (£0) = £107.5mCoutinho (£140m)…
— Marc Trainis (@MarcSpurs) December 11, 2018
Quite amazing, we spent nearly that much in the summer https://t.co/f84Kk7gl6C
— Ian Abrahams (Moose) (@BroadcastMoose) December 12, 2018
“Quite amazing, we spent nearly that much in the summer,” tweeted Abrahams.
OPINION
It was quite a feat for Spurs to achieve a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Tuesday and it was made an even bigger achievement as it saw them progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League. As Moose stated in his first tweets just after the final whistle, it kind of felt like the great escape, as several things needed to fall in Spurs’ favour for them to qualify last night. It’s interesting that a Hammers supporter has opted to compare the value of Spurs’ current squad with the amount their club spent in the summer, as West Ham aren’t exactly competing in Europe this season. It’s also only an outside chance that they will feature in an European competition next season. While Manuel Pellegrini’s side are starting to do well in the league, the amount that was invested in the Hammers’ current playing squad does show how impressive it is that Spurs are able to successfully compete in the Premier League as well as the Champions League. Several clubs throw money at their problems when their squad isn’t delivering the goods and while others are accused are buying success, that can’t be said about Mauricio Pochettino’s side.