Returning to the point at hand – has the club’s refusal to go down the same path as league rivals Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea in terms of speculating on astronomical wages cost them dearly in catching up?
Spurs have rarely caught the imagination when it comes to signings, barring perhaps the fortunate eleventh-hour purchase of Rafael Van Der Vaart for a bargain £8m last season. For a club of undoubted wealth, they have been run in a straightforward and responsible manner by the business-minded Levy for some time now.
Levy has always desired that Spurs become regulars among Europe’s elite, but has so far refused to gamble on the club’s financial future in order to do so. Canny deals such as Emmanuel Adebayor’s loan deal from City, whereby Spurs pay just over 40% of his £170,000 a-week wages, have become the norm.
But in order for the club to push on, while maintaining the quality that they have within their squad, they may have to speculate to accumulate in the transfer market. The top four has never been this unsettled. There is a spot wide open, just waiting for a club with the right ambition to grab it with both hands.
The correlation between those clubs that pay the largest wages and success on the pitch is both an obvious one and yet an approach which is fraught with risk for less established sides. Spurs do not have a hugely wealthy owner to fall back on.
In order to keep the likes of Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart from seeking pastures new, you have to pay them accordingly, while simultaneously seeking to regularly recruit players of a similar quality. Redknapp stated when quizzed about a potential new deal for Modric that: “You can’t say he is worth £40m then pay him the wags of someone worth £5m. You have to look after the boy.”
It may open the floodgates in terms of the club’s wage structure, but it looks to be a gamble worth taking. This current Spurs side lacks strength in depth in some areas, but as a standalone first-eleven, it ranks right up there as one of the best in the league. Breaking through into the top four should also feature a permanent realignment of their finances to those that exemplify and illustrate a club with top four ambitions.
Shopping around the bargain bin and banking on future potential should be consigned to the past. Levy’s power struggle with Chelsea, which saw the usual player-power take a back seat, has to be capitalised upon.
Spurs failed to recruit a striker when it mattered most last season, an error of judgement that ultimately cost them dearly down the home straight. Levy simply cannot afford to let another opportunity to expand such as this pass him by again. Modric‘s extended stay at the club should not be treated as a one-off moment of resolve, it should be seen as the dawning of a new era. Loosening the purse strings may set a precedent, but it’s likely to be one that Europe’s finest sit up and take note of as Spurs sit on the precipice of reaching the next level.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
Written by James McManus for FootballFanCast.com
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