The Big Tottenham Sell-Off

Apart from players wanting to play at the top level, here's another reason why missing the CL is a complete disaster for Spurs - not quite, but close to Leeds proportions.

Their wages are now approaching £100m. (i think it was mid £90m's last I checked, before any renegotiations with the likes of Modric). Prior to the CL year their revenues were £119m with wages in the £60m's, and after their CL year revenues shot to £164m. Without CL football, Spurs wage bill is getting dangerously close to 100% of their non CL income!

Bottom line is, if they miss out, they HAVE to clear the decks, or the administrators will be in within 2/3 years.

It shows just how damaging reaching for the CL and failing really is. It's not like relegation where you get a parachute payment. If you raise up wages to compete for CL football, you need to stay in it or take an almighty step backwards.

For us, 15 years of CL football has allowed us to build up a massive cushion financially, so we could cope for 1 or 2 years, though ambitious players would still leave. We wouldn't be in fire sale mode though - as Spurs will be.

Are Spurs fans now witnessing the "Redknapp Effect" - 2-3 years of overspending and huge gambles to compete in order to make a name for himself, with him exiting the club just before the melt down? There are many fans that did warn them of this.

 

Redknapp did well, but he went for a quick fix, brought in a bunch of experienced ( a polite word for "old" here) mercenaries and nearly succeeded. We all knew his strategy was a short lived one, but I did not know it was so short. Spurs must take a couple of lessons from Wenger ( not that he is perfect of course) and invest in the future.

 

It's surprising to see so much negativity in describing Bale. Given that he would be the second best player in the Goon squad perhaps a little respect is due.

 

Haven't you realised yet - everyone on the entire forum thinks you are a prat

 

Personal insult Jayram? Debate the point.

 

Nobody wants to debate with you - everyone thinks you're a prat.

 

This

 

Given that your club cannot afford the quality of Bale, Modric, Adabayor, Van der Vaart, Parker etc. it's a tad rich to be commenting at all. Most of the Spurs team would walk straight into the Goon line-up.

 

http://www.not606.com/showthread.ph...inely-turned-a-new-leaf-or-is-it-a-false-dawn

Hahaha. I thought you supported Arsenal?

It was 'we' and us' back then. Now, 'your club' and 'goons'. Trust me, you are a lot worse then just a 'prat'. We are being kind to you by just calling you that.

 

Bale and VDV may get into the Arsenal line-up, at least until we get Podolski and another midfielder. Parker wouldn't, Modric probably wouldn't displace Rosicky or Arteta, Adebayor wouldn't (we did sell him). On the other hand, Spurs would play RVP, Walcott, Sagna and our centre backs over their players.

 

Football is a team game.

Having character is just as important as ability. SAF said this years ago and said he would not just buy any player regardless of ability.

When things are going well Modric, Adebayor, VDV, Parker etc are class players but when things are going badly I personally wouldn't want them anywhere near my team. For that I look to players like we have: Lampard, Drogba, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mata, Cahill. Players who will not give up regardless of how things are going.

In Arsenal's case: Song, Van Persie, Gervinho, Vermaelen, Koscielny etc.

When Arsenal were 13 points behind Spurs having lost to Swansea in mid January it would have been easy to implode, but they fought back and fair play to them. I'd say the same for Chelsea.

A month ago 4th was a pipe dream but now it's a possibility. Beating Barca would not have been possible but thanks to RDM the team has pulled back and defied the critics. This is what makes a good team, not raw ability

I wouldn't want Bale, Adebayor or Modric near my team when the chips are down. I saw body language from Spurs at Wembley which I'd never seen before from any team, not even 6 year olds down the local park having a kickabout.

 

Some good comments there.

 

Brilliant. There's nothing he can say to that.

 

I'm pretty sure that it is not as bad as you think: we've actually been quite conservative in how we've approached this. Look at what we did in January - got rid of some big earners and brought in Saha and Nelsen as cover. In the Spurs structure Harry is not in any way in charge of the purse strings and Levy is too astute to be caught out the way you suggest. Modric, Bale and Walker would be likely to leave though, but that would bring in a lot of cash.

The fact that the CL makes such a big difference to finances is not healthy in my opinion. It makes it too hard for other clubs to break through and too easy for the privileged few.

 

Not sure we should revel in players leaving Spur's as for the last few seasons we've seen our best players leave Arsenal. We still don't know if RVP will stay with us or leave. We should wait at least until he signs a new contract....

 

No idea whether your right or not mate apart from we havent spent a lot on transfers...so financial crisis wont be waiting for us ... But no CL wil probably see modric bale adebayor vdv and walker all at risk if going...

 

Exactly! Sadly, if a player shows exceptional class then unless you're United or Citeh (read money for them) then you're at risk of you players being poached. Unless we win week in, week out and start getting trophies then reputation and money talks. We're a big club with a rich history but we still struggle to hold onto our stars. A couple of trophies and that may all change but it's how I see it at the moment.

 

People seem to have short memories on this thread. So if Spurs has players leave, i care more of our best players leaving, which seems to happen year in year out. What happens to us if RVP leaves? That will set us back AGAIN and i can't see us buying anybody else apart from the Pod, who is good, but not in RVPs class. Signing RVP to a new contract is important on many levels...

 

Absolutely right. We should look at Spurs and learn some important lessons. Without Champions League football they have invested money to have a real go at achieving top four. It's no coincidence that this blip began when the press were hounding Harry Redknapp for the England job. Without Capello's departure you would imgine Spurs would be on 75 points+

With higher attendences, historical prestiege and banks of wealth, why do our owners persist in not spending to challenge for the title? Arsenal finish in the top four and sell Fabregas, Nasri, Cliche, Adabayor, Flamini etc.... What other club in Europe would do this and hope to improve?

 

We should admire what Spurs are trying to achieve. No champions league football yet the investment to aspire to gaining it. With Arsenal, the club have the means to challenge the top two, yet seem content to sell of the best players each year. I fear you are correct lazarus.