http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/31/tottenham-harry-redknapp-luka-modric Tottenham Hotspur are powerless to compete in a transfer market inflated by Manchester City and the other members of last season's top four, according to Harry Redknapp. The Spurs manager is eager to add to his squad and retain key players, notably Luka Modric, but he has been frustrated as other clubs invest heavily before Uefa's financial fair‑play rules come into force from 2014. Spurs have signed one senior player this summer â the 40-year-old goalkeeper Brad Friedel on a free transfer â and while funds have been made available for transfer fees, the club's strict wage structure has held them back. Their £22m bid for the Valencia winger Juan Mata on Friday may only bear fruit if Spurs remain sole bidders. Redknapp joked: "We were interested in Sergio Agüero but he wanted £250,000 a week in wages. We were only £220,000 short." Redknapp's concern is that after missing out on Champions League football this season, the club's situation will only worsen as they struggle to match Chelsea's and City's cash resources, or Arsenal's and Manchester United's ability to generate funds through vastly bigger stadiums. "You're looking to be a top‑four team and it's difficult; we can't pay the wages that those clubs pay basically," the Spurs manager said. "The chairman [Daniel Levy] runs the club well, you get 36,000 people, you're not going to put the club in hot water. "I think the wages have gone crazy. That is the problem. It's gone beyond all belief in the last little spell. We're well set up for financial fair play but it doesn't help when you look at what you're up against. It's like when you're a kid and they give you the most improved player of the year award â you're useless." Warding off interest in the club's leading players has also proved to be a challenge. Interest in Gareth Bale has been tentative but is expected to increase over the next year, but Modric's future has been hotly debated over the close season. A throat infection kept the Croatia playmaker out of Spurs' 3-2 friendly win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, although Redknapp is optimistic that Modric will remain a Spurs player beyond 1 September. "Obviously Chelsea have made it plain they wanted Luka but we want to keep him, and I'm sure we will," he said. "I think we will bring one or two more players in, too. The chairman's trying, desperately. So we might get a bit stronger. But you know [Sir Alex] Ferguson has come out and said that there are five teams in [the title race]. What's he including? He didn't mention Tottenham, and probably with what Liverpool have brought in that's the way it will be."
That last bit's depressing from, 'Arry. Maybe if we actually sold a few players rather than holding out for the best bid we'd have some wages freed up to get a couple of more reasonable signings in
I know, he hasn't sounded positive about the future of the club for ages. He's gone from saying we could win the title to now basically saying the best we can hope for is 6th.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I can read into that, that he is telling Levy who he wants and when Levy inquires, the wages being asked for are like lottery numbers. Over here in the rugby league (NRL) there is a wage cap and that stops unreasonable wage demands and brings the playing field a bit more level.If a club exceeds their wage cap there are hefty fines, sometimes points deducted and last year it was found that Melbourne Storm had rorted the system over a number of years resulting in the lost of 2 championships,suspension of the board and the loss of key players. What I am saying is (crossing fingers) if there was a way of capping these ridiculous salaries then instead of the clubs owned by billionaires always getting the best players the quality of talent would be more wide spread.
Imagine how much money the City players are pumping into the British economy by income tax alone. Probably more in a couple of months than everyone in my workplace does in a decade.
Any salary cap would have to have Pan-European agreement, or it would be pointless. Realistically, at the moment, the only hope for the rest of us in stopping the Citehs & Chavskis will be the UEFA FFP rules. If these actually have some teeth - and that's still a big "if" IMO, then that will automatcally put a cap on the amount any club can spend, not just on wages, but overall. One of the reasons you see City trying to get no longer needed players off their books.
It's the same problem for Arsenal too. Whilst we've got a bigger income from our stadium and we currently pay higher wages than Spurs (congruent with players playing Champions League football) The likes of City and Chelsea have totally skewed the market out of all proportion. It annoys me. My club, like Spurs, have been prudent and pragmatic in their buying and selling. Investing for the future, building a young squad, ensuring that the club remain solvent and resisting the temptation to 'do a Leeds' Then a couple of mega rich billionaires come along and usurp that work, by pumping their own private fortunes into what were, relatively small clubs. In any normal close season. Arsenal would have been buying an English CB, a foreign Winger and Nasri wouldn't be trying to engineer a huge pay rise, but as the land lies, those issues have now become problems because of the perverse amount of money that has been artificially injected into the game.
I totally agree with PISKIE: "we've got a bigger income from our stadium " "congruent with players playing Champions League football" Top wumming mate x
I still maintain that if an average team's morale is high it will play better than a good team if the latter's is low. Rooney lost confidence last season and played badly so it can happen. Harry is being very defeatist and negative and should shut up. I'd prefer a confident manager then the team would follow the example.
In any othe rindustry in the world the competition commission would get involved. In economic terms it causes distorted markets. Maybe a wage cap would be the answer like in the NBA but then there's always ways around that (bonuses for shirt sales etc) "Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase." Charles Caleb Colton
Agreed, Ensil. However, in the case of Citeh, or The Chavs, they have so much collateral at their disposal, that they can afford to just keep spending until they get it right. I think it used to be called the "**** against the wall" theory. Which, some of you may feel is an appropriate analogy in the case of the above mentioned teams.
I know, if he really thinks we can't compete with the top 5 (he seems to think Liverpool are miles ahead of us even though we finished above them 2 seasons running) then he should quit and we can get in someone who believes they take us back into the top 4.
Because it's on a more larger scale. Before RM took over Chavski, they were already a top 4 club and competing so although he spent big it didn't seem as drastic as taking a mid-table side and throwing money at them like what has happened at City.
Chelsea were a top 4 club before Abramovich's arrival because of the overspending of Ken Bates with Matthew Harding's money, though. Prior to '94 they were struggling, with poor attendances and bad finances.
