Been listening to some of the Spud lads speculating about the summer spending. Will the club put their hands in their pockets to take them to the next level or are they to remain the bridesmaids of London? Thoughts please..... No wums, this threads not about the needy one so he need not contribute. Thanks.
Do we need to spend big? How many of our academy players will step up to the plate? Will Sissoko score a goal?. Will Chelsea beat us without cheating? Answers in order No 2 yes no
If you're going to be considered a big club you're going to have to splash some heavy wonga. Your squad is one of the thinnest in the league and after the first eleven are picked there's no real quality on that bench. If Ali hurts himself diving or Ericksen gets injured then the team suffers. All the real top clubs have two players for each position that's when the quality shows through. Ps. The cheating reference I've left as sour grapes as it deserves
We wont be spending big, we have a stadium to pay for. All the spurs fans or most, accept that, i think. Just because everyone else wants it doesnt mean it's the right time for us to be spending big. We dont really need to spend big either, i'd say we need to bolster our bench with a bit more quality. This thin squad took us to 2nd..im still pooing myself from last Summers predicitions of the 'big boys' coming back Spending big is left to the clubs that are obsessed with buying back the talent they sold not long before for a bag of chips...we dont need to do that.
I think the bigger issue for the Spuds is going to be wages. They've got a decent squad, albeit a bit thin to sustain a challenge for the league, Champions League and FA cup. I think they need one or two additions (like most squads) but the wages issue is the big stumbling block. Players like Kane, Erikson, Alli etc are going to be courted by the big clubs, and even if they don't leave for a season or two yet, they (or their agents) will know that they can go to Levy and say 'I've been offered £250k at Real Madrid, what are you going to do to try and match that ?' If Levy wants to keep his best players then he is going to have to pay them accordingly. Once the genie is out of the bottle, other players will want parity too.
There lies the problem with football now. In Spurs defence, what they are doing should be enough (or would be in the past) to keep young players together on a modest wage budget. The sad truth of how football is going is that clubs like them will need to break their wage budgets to keep players or lose the players to continue operating within their means
Agreed. It's been to Spurs' credit that they've managed to build such a good team with relatively small overheads, but the reality is that if they want to sign and keep the best players, they will have to pay them occordingly. With the costs of a new stadium too, they are going to find that keeping their best players and staying competitive on the pitch is going to be a difficult balancing act
100% agree. You have to say the likes of Chelsea (Roman) and Man City (Sheikhs) have contributed to the financial ****stain of a mess football is in. Anyone remember the days when players moved to the clubs they wanted to play for, or stayed at the clubs they loved playing for? Now it's all fake love and money.
Exactly. Arsenal went through it. We had the added complication of financing our stadium at exactly the same time that Chelsea were throwing cash around like Lord Muck, and when the housing bubble burst too, so the sale of flats that we'd developed never met the projected prices. But the basic premise (unless you have a sugar daddy) of spending within your means will result in Spurs having to try and manage keeping their team together and balancing the books.
We had it too with our expansion. Luckily it didn't effect us too badly, last summer we didn't spend a penny without selling first. A lot of our fans think that means we'll have double bubble this window, but no, it was to go towards the build. Our plans for further extensions will have an impact too, the trouble is the 'big clubs' have to expand or long term they'll fall behind. Money, Money, Money.
It is going to be a problem especially with the media busy selling, not only our players, but even players from Los Ladrones de Madrid and Barcelona. Our solution has to be bringing players from our academy and using money not spent on lining agents pockets for increasing pay levels. I think that looking through our academy boys, there are a couple in each age group that will make into the first team in the next few years. Some of them that don't quite make it into our squad may well fetch a fee from Championship and lower Premier League clubs. Levy is a very astute businessman and I think he will have paid off the stadium much quicker than many think. If we can keep ourselves in the CL for the next four or five years, I think we will be able to compete on wages with most clubs. Obviously those with virtually unlimited resources will always be able to outbid and outpay us but hopefully the attraction of playing for a real team with real fans will persuade many players to join/stay to play for us
