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3rd September 2009 – The definitive article on Spurs
transfer dealings
On one level it has been an uninspiring
transfer window, as no ‘Robinho-like’ superstars have deigned to join the
premier league and Spurs have not added an Edgar Davids or Jurgen Klinsmann
type player to the squad to bring in some star quality over the summer. However it can still be said that Spurs are deemed to have
had a good window, buying in proven premiership class players and jogging on
what can largely be said to be weaker members of the squad, whilst avoiding
the mad upheaval of previous seasons. The window has however been
very interesting if you dig a little deeper. Despite the flow of riches into
English football and the daily announcements that ‘Player X’ has just signed
a contract worth another £1m+ a year, the general message is that times are
hard and it appears the Sky4 are having to watch the pennies. Man City are an exception to the rule and are spending
over the odds, building up their squad as quickly as an arsenal player can
throw himself to the ground, and as you can see from the lists above, jumping
to No 1 in the net spending lists to break the Sky4 cartel, mostly spent
within the last 12 months. The end of the transfer
window provides an opportunity to try and cut through the hype of the media
and to considerthe direction in which Spurs are
heading. The team has strengthened in needed areas, has added proven
Premiership performers to the squad in Bassong,
Kranjcar and Crouch, as well as moving on more peripheral members of the
squad. The trouble for Spurs is that the media then make a quantum leap
between total transfer spending and what should be the reported level of
achievement, leading to the popular myth that Spurs are perpetual
underachievers, conveniently forgetting details like clubs that have bigger
stadiums, richer owners and champions league money. Measuring teams by looking
at what they spend on transfers only ever tells half the story. It
conveniently forgets to mention little important facts like the wage bill for
a club and how much a club pays in signing on fees etc. Without such little
details we would never have known what exactly motivated Judas to ever
contemplate leaving Spurs, or Gareth Barry to turn down Liverpool for Man City , or for Tevez to leave Man Utd. If we add the wage
bill into the equation, the Sky4 would shoot to the top of the table for
expenditure, and there would be a massive gap between them to Newcastle in
5th, Spurs and then Villa. Without reprising the figures here, as a rough
guide Spurs spend around £45m per year on wages, whilst Liverpool spend at
least twice that on wages, Arsenal spend around £90m, Man Utd around £100m
and Chelsea £120m. At this point I would add that I have taken these tables
from another source on the web, so please do not shoot me for any
inaccuracies, and a cursory look would suggest there are some within the
reported figures. The tables above show the
estimated net spending of the premier league clubs since the start of the
Premier League and over the last 5 years. You will see that
historically Spurs feature strongly on both lists as we would expect, given
the level of player turnover since Enic walked
through the door. The table at the bottom of this lists the individual
players that have been bought and sold in this period. The figures can, in
the murky world of football only ever be a rough comparative as the details
aren’t always released by the club, can be inaccurately reported (unless
Spurs have had to announce the deal under the requirements as a plc), and can
be subject to a large number of conditional clauses so that the actual money
paid can differ from the reported figure. The list also appears to be
inaccurate, if only using the non-mention of David Bentley in the list as an
example (although that might reflect some wishful thinking of some at Spurs).
Even if we factor in his supposed £15m+ transfer into the equation, it
doesn’t really change the overall picture too much. It would mean Spurs have
spent around £100m in the last 5/6 years and have been in the top 4 transfer
spenders, over the period. Whilst the sums above suggest that Spurs have
tried to match Liverpool in the transfer stakes, in reality the high figure
would possible be better accounted for by the fact that Spurs have been a
player trading agency over the last few years rather than a football club,
and you can see from the list below that Spurs have traded at least 127
players since Hoddle was sacked. Over the same period Spurs have
probably spent something like £200m+ less on wages for the players they have
signed. When comparing Spurs with their nearest rivals in the league, within
the champions league wannabe contenders, it would suggest that Newcastle have
woefully underperformed, and Spurs have performed on par with Aston Villa,
but have been out-performed by Everton. Maybe this is indicative of the
talent of David Moyes, as he continues his search for the One Ring. The list can also provide
some way to measure the impact of Arry especially during a rare period when
Spurs are sitting at the top of the league with a 100% record. We can
see with the benefit of hindsight that Spurs spent over £70m during 2005/06,
2006/07 and 2007/08 under Levy and Comolli, Jol and Ramos. Clearly that level
of investment in theory would have an impact on the quality of the squad even
though it seems the majority of the players signed during that period have
either moved on or have been moved on and bought back by the club. Whoever is
ultimately responsible for the transfer dealings however, the recent past can
be contrasted with the fact that the club has a net spend of £8m during the
accounting period that Arry has been in charge. On the face of it, whilst
Arry has a reputation as a spendthrift wheeler-dealer, the above tables also
demonstrate that the 2 clubs he is most heavily associated with in Pompey and
West Ham have made a profit in their transfer dealings during the Premiership
years that he has been associated with them, albeit largely with the legacy
of the players he brought into the club and were then sold on. What is
certain however is that for all his flaws, Arry does seem to be able to coax
the players to perform. On a deeper analysis the
summer transfer window has confirmed the power shift in English football.
This isn’t due to anything that Tottenham have done, however we may find that
Spurs benefit as a result. With their owners Man City
have come along and upset the apple-cart. They have poached players from and
destabilised all of their main rivals, signing
Tevez from Man Utd, Adebayor and Toure from the goons, Barry from Villa (at
the expense of Liverpool undermining their plans to replace Alonso) and
Lescott from Everton. Spurs have probably been immune from this thus far if
only because we are already the feeder club for one club in manchester and Man City don’t need any more midfielders
at this point in time. The transfer window would
suggest that Chelsea apart, the rest of the Sky4 are worried about their
future. None of the established Champions League clubs have bought any star
names on extravagant contracts. The reason I would imagine is that Liverpool,
Arsenal and Man Utd cannot guarantee that with the arrival of Man City , they will be in the champions league money in 3 or
4 years time. As the average star footballer will
sign for the club on a 4 or 5 year contract, it
seems to me that the clubs are reluctant to commit themselves to large
potential liabilities in wages that they may not be able to pay in 3 or 4 years time, and this means that the 3 of them are
currently retrenching and keeping their costs and liabilities down. Chelsea’s only worry is that
Abramovich disappears over the north sea in his
helicopter so that he is no longer around to sign the cheques to reward Brave
John Terry’s loyalty or that he loses interest in football. Whilst he is
there underwriting the bills, Chelsea will be able to protect their position
within the champions league cartel. Arsenal as we know are
experiencing financial problems due to the property crash, and the fact that
they decided to branch out as a property development company rather than
concentrating their business as a football club. The rumours are that the
boardroom unrest is down to the level of personal debt the directors had to
assume to pay for the stadium which ended up far over the budget. Whatever
they say publicly, the costs of the stadium have interfered with the football
club and the team building of Wenger, so much so that a team that once went
through a league season unbeaten, is now happy to finish 4th.
A lesson there for Spurs, if ever there was one. However
their long term future is probably brighter than most of their rivals, as
Wenger remains their manager and probably will do so until he dies in the
dug-out and they continue to produce top players nicked from barcelona ’s academy. Ultimately they will be in a
position to print money if and when the bulk
of the stadium debts have been paid. Whilst they have been the
team to beat, Man Utd have sold their prize asset, they have failed to replace
him and they have put their prices up in the face of the worst recession this
country has seen for decades. What does that tell you? Their American owners
have experienced problems with their finances in America, and they have
struggled to meet the interest payments on the leveraged deal to buy the
club, never mind seek to reduce the level of debt (at least until they sold
the winker). Their midfield looks to be the weakest it has been for years and
it seems they will be reliant on the talent of Rooney and the misfiring
Berbatov to maintain their place at the top of the tree. As this is a world
cup year Rooney is bound to get injured and if he
does, Man Utd may be in relative trouble. They also have the problem that OWF
is approaching 70 and at some point in the near
future he will have to step aside . Despite the problems at Man
Utd however, Liverpool are the most vulnerable of
the Sky4. Their owners have more financial problems than the Glazers, and
despite negotiating a £350m loan deal with the banks when they took over the
club to finance the new stadium, it appears Liverpool have spent most of it
on debt payments and player wages, and they still are no
where nearer getting a new stadium and they now have 2 star players instead of just the one when the Americans
took over. As we saw at the first weekend of the season, Torres and Gerrard
apart, the rest of the squad is no better than any of the champions league
wannabe teams, it is probably weaker than Spurs and Everton’s. In the short term future, given their financial liabilities, and
the competition for the champions league places, it is difficult to see how
Liverpool will be able to adequately replace $tevie
Me when he gets too old to run the show for them. It is probably a season too
early for Man City , but given their wealth and
their ability to destabilise their rivals, they will take their place at the
top table so I would expect to see them in the top three by the end of next
season. At the moment, the clubs
threatened by their arrival have all sought to retrench and to limit their
liabilities. However, when City have established themselves, the next stage
for the 3 threatened members of the cartel will be one of panic. They all
need the money from the champions league to pay their debts. Whichever club
is at threat of losing their Champions league money will either have to cut
their costs and sell their assets (eg
like Ronaldo) or throw money at the problem to try and buy their place back (eg Leeds). The hope is that City destabilise the cartel
so much that 2 or more of them get dragged back into the pack, or better
still go into meltdown, which would leave the door open to a club like Spurs
to capitalise. If that does happen, on the basis of what he has achieved so
far, both financially in the transfer market, and on the pitch, Spurs may
have their best chance of doing so under Arry.
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