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Does Tottenham’s Limited Financial Power Make Success Like Man City’s Unattainable?

5 min read
by Editor
By the time the 2016/17 season had drawn to a close, second-placed Tottenham had finished a full eight points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League table. Yet just a few months later, Kyle Walker, one of Spurs’ most influential players, would be vying for a move north to the club they had just […]

By the time the 2016/17 season had drawn to a close, second-placed Tottenham had finished a full eight points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League table. Yet just a few months later, Kyle Walker, one of Spurs’ most influential players, would be vying for a move north to the club they had just outstripped so convincingly. When the cash-laden giants from the North West come calling, waving their wallets around with gay abandon, it’s very difficult for both club and player to say no.

The transfer of Walker from Tottenham to Man City for £50m was a harsh but inevitable summing up of the two clubs’ positions. Spurs had played the better football, won more matches, and scored more goals than City, and yet they were ultimately powerless to stop Walker from leaving, simply because they couldn’t offer the kind of lucrative wage packet the right-back would earn at the Etihad. Similarly, the allure of such a large transfer fee for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was understandably too much to turn down.

City’s financial clout has been the subject of much scrutiny since their takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008. A club once yo-yoing between the divisions has become firmly ensconced as regular title challengers just a decade later. The rise of Manchester City is about as obvious an example of the power of money in sport as they come.

This season, the club has kicked on another level, well ahead at the top of the Premier League table and will no doubt be favourites for next season’s Premier League in football odds from Betfair. Barring a cataclysmic implosion City are heading for a third Premier League title in six years. City have been able to coax one of the world’s best managers in Pep Guardiola, who in turn has been able to lure whatever players his heart desires, such is the unparalleled financial power of their ownership.

Of course, the kind of explosive, attractive football Man City have purveyed this season goes far beyond that which money can buy, but it must be argued that surely this kind of success would be impossible were it not for this financial backing. With City facing Spurs this Saturday at Wembley, the question arises as to whether Tottenham can ever achieve similar success despite being so far behind Man City financially speaking.

The purist’s tentative answer is yes. Some would argue that football is about so much more than transfers, and high wages, and money—that footballing success is birthed when quality players, the right manager, vociferous support and sheer belief are blended into something with force and forward momentum such that it cannot be stopped. The case in point is Leicester City’s remarkable title victory just two seasons ago, when all these factors came together to deliver a true sporting miracle.

But therein lies the key word: miracle. Although triumphs against all odds like Leicester’s are possible, they are rare, and only occur when all other challengers fail to perform to their true ability. While success can be achieved on a one off basis, without financial might it cannot be expected to be sustained.

This is the problem for Tottenham. They undoubtedly have a manager and a squad capable of winning the Premier League title, but there is always a sense that while such strict financial limitations and wage caps are in place, Spurs will always be punching above their weight so to speak. The north London club are comfortably the lowest spenders in the top six in terms of wages, and it’s easy to see more of their prized assets following a similar route to that of Kyle Walker. If Spurs were to win the title, it would be difficult to see how they could maintain such success.

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino
Image Source- Wikimedia Commons

The new stadium under construction at White Hart Lane will be key if Tottenham are to continue to challenge at the top of the Premier League. Manager Mauricio Pochettino has commented on the importance of the new stadium in an interview with the Daily Mail: “To be in a place that you feel at home, in your new stadium, everything is stable.” The prospect of the new stadium certainly opens new financial doors for the club, but it’s still difficult to see how Spurs could ever compete with the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea without significant further investment.

Really, the current position of the team in the Premier League is testament to how well the club is run, buying players for relatively small amounts and improving them to create a team so much greater than the sum of its parts. Players like Heung-Min Son, Dele Alli, and Harry Kane have gone from hopeful youngsters to superstars under the tutelage of Mauricio Pochettino.

Perhaps the whole debate rests on how you define what success is. The four years of the Pochettino regime have undoubtedly been a success for the club, reaching heights supporters could have only dreamed of a decade ago. 2018 Premier League predictions saw Tottenham in amongst the teams challenging for a place in next season’s Champions League and they have once again duly delivered. And yet as long as a club enjoys success for any kind of sustained period of time, supporters will always crave more, will always demand reach the next level.

Tottenham’s coming of age has arguably come at just the wrong time, a time when the power of money has almost spiralled out of control, when the likes of City, Man Utd and Chelsea are always going to be streets ahead of their competitors simply due to how rich the man in charge is. Without an unlikely foreign takeover, it’s hard to see how Tottenham will ever be able to enjoy the kind of glory Man City are currently revelling in.

However, money can’t score goals and can’t win games, and so Tottenham will welcome Man City to Wembley confident of getting a positive result against a side shaken by recent defeats to Liverpool and Man Utd. The odds of Spurs piling the misery onto City were 29/20 on the 7th April, while odds of a City win were 15/8. The kind of sustained success and trophy haul achieved by City in recent years may be beyond the reaches of Tottenham, but there is still every chance for Pochettino’s men to show their true value on the pitch this Saturday.

 

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