I always said the Modric situation would be similar to the Berbatov situation but I was told "they are different" "modric isn't one to go to the press or push for a move" "levy said he isn't selling any key players". Now, all that is difference is one player is from Croatia, the other is from Bulgaria oh and one is rather small while the other is rather lanky (you get the drift). I know its not what any of us want as time and time again this club sells its star players as soon as we start to build something that could be special and that is why it angers me that so many fans seem to believe in Levy as I personally feel while he is chairman this is the best we can hope for, to occasionally finish in the top four and have a good cup run and I have yet to see anything that suggests otherwise.
To be honest mate I don't have much time for him and these "Open letters" I wish he would just shut up on these matters and deal with it inhouse rather then come out and act like "were tottenham and we won't let bigger clubs come and take our players" only to then sell them, makes us look even more smaller. Last season we had just come off getting 4th and had an exciting season ahead of us (which it proved to be) but we took no risks in the transfer market to sign players to help us push on, yes VDV was a quality signing and sandro has proved to be someone with great potential but there is a refusal to go out and sign players with experience or proven talent of a certain age and each year were going to be in the same situation, berbatov one year, modric this year, bale next year and so on.
While I think that Levy was distracted by the whole Olympic Stadium debacle and missed out on an opportunity for us to keep our Champions League status, I don't think that he can do anything about our players getting poached. He's done a very good job in attracting high paying sponsors and improving our financial position, but we just can't match the wage bills of the clubs that are around us, unfortunately. To attempt to do so would see us go the way of Leeds, in all likelyhood. If he didn't make statements about the future of players like Modric and Berbatov when there was so much media speculation about them and they were mouthing off to the press, then he'd be criticised too. He's in a no-win situation there, I feel.
Berbatov was a slightly different issue in that the player refused to play for us. Levy had no choice but to sell and even then he got the best possible deal. Whether Modric goes to the extent of demanding a transfer or refusing to play we'll have to wait and see. The problem is not Levy..it's the players.
No one is in any doubt as to Levy the businessman, I have no doubt that in the world of business he is one of the best and can match anyone out there in his field yet fans support a football club, not a business model and before you jump in, of course there has to be a healthy balance as a good example is leeds...however, there also has to be some flexibility to how the club is run and right now our club imo is set-up to challenge for 4th and possibly have a good cup run while signing talents such as berbatov, modric and bale but not doing enough to show we can match their ambitions as they progress. Once we move to a new stadium, what will happen? will Levy suddenly sign players that demand bigger wages? I don't believe for a second that will happen as right now this club could offer a player higher wages and not be in trouble, what we can't do is offer several players huge contracts but this isn't about flooding the squad with players on huge contracts, its about signing 1-2 top top quality players that can help us push on and right now i don't believe levy would take a chance and is too conservative because he is such a good business man.
Greater income allows higher expenditure, he will spend more if more is coming in to remain competitive I have no doubt whatsoever. It makes business sense to do this after all. We'll still have our wage cap but the limits will be higher, e.g. £100,000 p/w instead of £75,000 p/w. That automatically means you're closer to your competition in what you can offer players financially.
You can't offer 1 or 2 players big contracts, though. That's not how it works. What would happen if we were to offer Bale and Modric big contracts? Van der Vaart, Sandro and others would expect parity. We're not in a position to substantially increase our wage bill without risking the future of the club and I'm glad that our chairman won't do that.
I think that Levy made the stadium a priority over transfers, Ensil. I'm sure he still did his best in the market, but he seemed to spend a lot of time trying to win the bid, which was time that he could have been trying to sort out some movement in our squad. Our failure to sell a number of apparently unwanted players cannot be put at the feet of Redknapp, though I feel he failed to get the best out of the players that he had available. Levy's stance is admirable, though unrealistic. If we have a bid of about £40m for Modric and he's kicking up a fuss about leaving, then it would almost be cutting off your nose to spite your face to keep him. Until we can pay wages that are competitive with the teams around us or there's some protection against tapping up, we'll continue to lose our best players. It may be better for us to be prepared for this sort of thing in the future, rather than trying to fight it every time and getting ****ed over. If we let this drag on and aren't fully prepared for the new season, then this will cost us more than just one player, however good he is.
Re Levys' statement. It's my belief, that in this case, he felt compelled to issue a statement as clearly and strongly worded as he did due to the Chavs underhand behaviour. As he made clear, they were told in no uncertain terms that Spurs would not entertain any bids for modric. What then ensued, was a devious campaign to unsettle Modric, and force through a transfer on their terms. This, not unaturally, infuriated Levy and so he released the facts in a very clear statement.
it is about signing 1 or 2, ideally 2 real top draw players and as such you pay them what they are worth in todays market and the reason for this is that they are signed to help us push on to the level we keep hearing this club wants to reach. We aren't going to move to a bigger stadium for a long long time so you're going to be waiting a fair while to see if our policy would change if/once the stadium move happens and I don't believe for a second if Levy is still chairmain that we would increase the wages paid to a level that we can match our rivals for the top players, it won't work that way. As for offering 1-2 players big contracts, that is how football works, you pay players what they are worth and if you want to reach certain heights you sign players of a certain standard to help you reach there and this club can't be scared of causing issues with players wanting parity as if we just sit back and play it safe then were just going to be a club that never really challenges for the big prizes, plays pretty football and sells its best players.
We can't have 1 or 2 players on £150k pw and then our next best paid players on half of that. That's not how football works at all, so I'm not sure where you've got that from. Why do you think Levy wouldn't increase the wage bill at a bigger stadium?
No one knows exactly what our wage cap is but we have an idea. No one knows exactly what wage a target would expect but we have an idea. If we signed a world class player that demanded 120wk then it won't cause an issue with the squad. Wage parity comes when you have players of similar standard on vastly different wages and causes an issue in the squad but this isn't about signing players to a similar standard of what we have and then paying them big wages. What we need to be doing is targeting players that can offer us something we currently don't have, either in leadership or ability and we have to be flexible with our wage cap (that is how football works if you want to be a success) and there is no need to be dramatic and always think the worst and that we will be a sinking ship that goes bust just because we take a risk. This club is run too SAFELY, if you go through life being safe, never taking risks then you don't get what you want, same applies in football, you have to take gambles, risks and aslong as you don't get carried away then you can always bounce back.
I'm sorry BigJohnny, but you're just wrong. If we sign a player on £120k pw and then go on to qualify for the Champions League, how much do you think our next raft of signings will ask for? How much do you think our current players like Bale and van der Vaart will ask for when they renew their contracts? We can't sustain that sort of spending and it would be a mistake to try to. Villa tried to spend a bit more than they should have and they've been going backwards ever since. So did Newcastle. We all know what happened to Leeds. We shouldn't go down the same road.
We have some players we can't shift on relatively big contracts because they haven't worked out. Keane for instance is one of our highest earners. The kind of players who are a class above that you mention we simply can't attract for footballing reasons as we don't have consistent champions league positions. You're not going to get these players on any kind of sensible money. Manchester City are a good example with the wages they pay, players are attracted by one of two things in general. Money or footballing ambition. We can't offer top level competition and the kind of money you're expecting us to pay is unsustainable. Levy doesn't do gambling, he makes sensible investments & business decisions. If we overpay and we don't make the cut competition wise to bring in the money required to pay these 'superstars' we're gonna get burnt. Things must be run in a sustainable manner, especially with incoming legislation tightening things up in this regard.
With all due respect i'm not wrong as its clear as day what i'm saying is correct while your views are based around what could possibly happen and getting carried away (in a negative manner) as to what COULD happen if we went down the route I believe we need to go down. Remember, risks can be taken if there is an ability to bounce back and I believe we can take a risk and that is the only way we are going to push on from our current position, Modric knows it, all our top players know it so if our ambition is to be the 5th best team in England, then we can achieve that, anything higher then it will take a change in policy and some risk taking. We don't need to discuss this as it doesn't take a genius to work out everyone clearly understands what Levy is about so no one is going to change Levy, however the reason for this discussion is because I personally am tired of the way Levy operates, especially with these "open letters" and imo running this club too much as a business means we won't achieve our ambitions. As for attracting the standard of player, yes it is possible, but again it takes a change in policy, for example we spent 14 million on wilson and 15 million on Bentley and in terms of business are we going to get back what we paid? NO. How much wages are these two players on? possibly a combined wage of 150pw (roughly), now instead of paying overpriced fees for average premier league players that have performed for lower premier league clubs we should be investing that type of combined fee/wages on a real top quality star or an experienced PROVEN player that can improve us. You only need to look at our current squad to see its too big and there is room for a change in policy to help us push on.
I haven't said what could happen, but what would happen. If you raise the wage cap for one player, then any new signings or existing first XI players renewing their contracts will see that as the expected level. There's no way that Bentley and Palacios are on £75k pw each, either. There is some room for change in our squad, but not as much as you seem to think.
So ridiculous, I actually snotted coffee out my nose when I read that! I'll send you the bill for a new keyboard.
Mate I don't doubt for a second players in this squad would make noise about their wages, of course that would happen but not in the manner to which we couldn't sustain it or to the manner in which it would cause unrest. If you don't believe wilson and bentley are on a combined wage of 150k pw then I doubt you would argue bentley, wilson and keane are on a combined wage of 150kpw (plus) that is three players arry doesn't want (even though he signed wilson) and three players we can't shift for decent sums and we paid near to 30 million for two average midfielders so no one can say we can't afford to pay big money when clearly we can. In the past a player like danny rose would have shipped out but to arrys credit he has seen potential, let him develop and try to help him become a first team squad member and that is what we need, more focus on giving players like rose a chance and instead of spending 15million, 14million and 9 million on three average players that won't improve us, we need to be spending that sort of money on one player who will make a massive difference, that is the only way we will improve on our current situation.
