The Tottenham Hotspur "Spiral" Watch

Real Madrid and Barcelona, et. al., have plenty of cash to burn. Whoever it is, players want to play for a side that win things not a side that continually sells them pipe dreams. The whole "we have a project" mentality is is attractive at first, but it needs more than just hopes and wishes to sell a football club to aspiring players.

 

Well they can’t all go there either.

 

The ones that matter, might.

 

Tbf, we are one of the very few English clubs who’ve had players good enough to attract bids from a club of Real’s stature.

And who would you think they’d want to buy then
.

 

I don't think I need to tell you who your best players are.

Even Arsenal's players post-Invincibles were holding talks with other clubs behind our backs because of money. We were sold down the river by the likes of Ashley Cole and Vieira initially. Eventually our barren years led to the departure of Henry, Fabregas and RVP. Those two aspects, inability or unwillingness to change their wage structure and lack of silverware eventually led to the departure of some of Arsenal's biggest names. The same will happen to you (and you don't even have the recent success as a selling point that Arsenal did). The next season is crucial because there has to be something to show for all the hard work on the pitch.

 

There has to be progress in both wages and in maintaining our challenge for honours, agreed.

At the moment virtually all of the players we wish to retain are staying. They can’t all assume that City, Real, or Barca are queing up to buy them.

 

Don’t drink on monk days mate, you intimated it.

 

Fackin'ell, Diego, for a guy who spends half his time on our board you know full well that's bollocks. HBIC is the only one that has admitted to calling certain cups season killers and although I disagreed with his reasoning, it was understandable why he felt so when looking at it from a club's perspective and not a fan's.

The rest of us have all said how much we want to win a trophy, you only have to go on the matchday thread after we lost to you lot in the semi final to realise how gutted we were.

Our fans desperately want silverware but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate the progress our club is making on and off the pitch.

 

Do you see that happening?

You lot easily have the best collective of young players and have done for a number of seasons but none ever seem to get genuine chances. I can't see that changing as Roman is too hellbent on instant success. Last player that came through and made a genuine impact was probably Terry and it's not really a coincidence that he established himself in the XI pre-Roman.

 

not sure how serious Diego was but in general i'd say maybe 60% of the fans agree with his sentiments (although he has made it look worse). What i mean by this is top 4 is more important than trying to win the cups (argument for both ways but as a club business than CL is better in short term benefits i.e. CL cash)

I think it's only really yourself, CK and spurlock who are fairly objective and don't see everything in a pro spurs light (on your board) unless things are really really bad

That season cup killer thing though

 

No I don't see it happening, but as I say it's lucky for you all that we don't.

 

From a club's perspective it's a given that CL participation eclipses the worth of the FA/ League Cup. FA nets a Prem side about £3m in total prize money if they win the thing, with the LC you get about a £1m. Just for getting into the CL group stages you get about £15m so it's natural for clubs to favour the CL.

But from a fan's perspective it's the trophies that live long in the memory and all of us on our board, barring HBIC to an extent, have all said how much we wanted to win something and would've gladly taken the FA/ LC.

 

The clubs favour the money, fans should always favour the trophies though.

 

agreed with this sentiment.

I'm not saying none of your board want to win the cups. Just that if it was a decision between top 4 or a cup then it's top 4 all the way (would say a lot of fans are like this) but i'm pretty sure i have seen most say they would prefer to focus on the league and forget about the cups unless its the CL.

 

In theory paying off for the stadium should be far easier in this day and age than it was 10 or even 5 years ago, even if the estimated costs have roughly risen to around £800m-£1bn. There's so much money now in football, especially England, that providing we maintain our Premier League status - which I should bloody hope so - for the foreseeable future, paying off the stadium shouldn't be overly difficult, especially if we can also remain competitive and reach CL as often as possible.

£100m a year from TV rights, CL money, one or two player sales (if need be), increased tickets sales from 36k to 60k, the naming rights of the stadium still yet to be sorted plus other ways of generating money I've not thought of, should hopefully make paying off the stadium be pretty straight forward. Not saying it'll be easy by any means but definitely 'easy-er' in this current climate.

 

Yeah I agree mate, as you probably know we’re in the process of seeking to finalise our own move and the finance element of it is a balancing act. Providing the new stadium generates more revenue than the loan repayments it’s a winner, what I don’t quite understand with Spurs is the timescale for repayment. Your initial loan is only for 5 years. By way of comparison we’re seeking to fund ours from the off over 40 years.

 

Maybe the club feel that they can pay it off in that time. Possibly they think they can refinance at a better rate one the project is shown to be valid?

 

What pay off £400m in 5 years without it impinging on the footballing side? Not a chance that they could carry that off, but it doesn’t mean they won’t try, which was my original point in this discussion.

I suppose getting a better rate once there was deemed to be less risk is possible, but its also a gamble, if you lost the CL revenue before trying to renew the loan, or interest rates rose, or the economy tumbled and corporate lending became more risk averse.....surely a safer option to take a long term loan now, with the ability to pay it off quicker if circumstances allow?

 

Maybe that’s what they have already, an option to extend the loan?

The only two reasons I can think of for the 5yr term are they think,they can pay it off, or they believe they can refinance what would be a lower amount, cheaper.

They’re both shrewd and accomomplished businessmen, I suspect they know what they’re doing.

 

I reckon they’re intent on paying off as much as possible in that timeframe and then seeking to get their return. An exit strategy is the only way to make big money out of football clubs.