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Transfers The Summer Transfer Edging Thread 2025

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Absolutely pointless getting bogged down in speculation for another Summer, it's just gonna frustrate you and you'll end up disappointed come the end of the window. No idea what the clubs strategy is either...we could end up with a load of kids of opportunistic signings and a load of kish mash as opposed to addressing the actual areas that need fixing, meh.
 
AberdeenYid said:
I think Levy has fallen into a bit of a trap over the years.

He’s looked at the big money we’ve spent and the shit returns we’ve had, then looked at our “best” signings and come to the conclusion that young, cheaper players, or opportunistic punts are the way forward.

Put Tanguy, Sanchez, GLC, Sissoko, Bergwijn, Soldado up against Bale, Modric, Dele, Walker, Rose, Rafa VdV and you can see how he’d come to that conclusion.

Time has moved on though and we are surrounded by teams that can fish in those waters. And above us are teams who aren’t scared to make multi million mistakes. With our huge revenue, we shouldn’t be afraid either.
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He would probably say they are still a key part of the way forward. Gray and Bergvall are already delivering and look like they will only get better. Sarr probably in the same category, Odobert may well have something about him.
 
StripiestPilot said:
What really irks me is that despite the revenue from the new stadium and the huge ticket prices we pay, so much of our transfer business is still based on being opportunistic rather than buying the best player we can in whatever position.

There’s nothing wrong with looking for deals but it should only ever supplement the core business. To have any success in such a competitive league we have to be willing to spend on proven players as well as young talent. If they don’t want to come then of course we have to move on but I never get the sense that Levy is really pushing to sign Eze, Mbuemo, Guehi, Gallagher level players. It all feels reluctant and performative.

We have to get serious now because we are becoming a completely irrelevant team with this current strategy.
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With top players costing £50m + in transfer fees and wages of £200k pw (£10m pa), its not viable to buy that many players a year - even Spurs with its new stadium and ticket pricing isn't generating more than say £150m pa cash each year. Other than Mancity and Chelsea in PL who still find ways to access more cash than anyone else, most clubs are in a similar boat, although clubs with CL monies tend to have more. Spurs are also constrained by sold players not raising much in fees - with Ndomble being paid to go, Lo Celso raising diddly squad and Sessegnon released as a free, that was £160m of purchases raising no fees to re-invest in new players

Spurs accounts cash flow statement for year to 30 June 2023 (the last published accounts available) shows Spurs spent £135m on transfers, which will include instalments on players bought over last say 4 years - and the balance sheet shows transfer fees payable within 12 months of £155m with £153m payable in more than 12 moths (ie total £308m owed in total regarding transfer fees).

Over the last few years the total fees payable on signings have been around £150m typically - being made up of one or two bigger money signings (eg. Solanke £60m+) with other players at lower fees (eg Odobert and Danso both closer to £25m each).

That way Spurs can afford to buy about 6 players a year spending circa £150m. If we only need to buy 2 or 3 players in a year, Spurs might buy bigger names.

BTW even ManCity has not in last few years been able to buy 'the best player in a position' - its all about availability which is why ManCity still buy some lesser known players as well as the highly profile Grealish £100m type buys.
 
Spursidol said:
With top players costing £50m + in transfer fees and wages of £200k pw (£10m pa), its not viable to buy that many players a year - even Spurs with its new stadium and ticket pricing isn't generating more than say £150m pa cash each year. Other than Mancity and Chelsea in PL who still find ways to access more cash than anyone else, most clubs are in a similar boat, although clubs with CL monies tend to have more. Spurs are also constrained by sold players not raising much in fees - with Ndomble being paid to go, Lo Celso raising diddly squad and Sessegnon released as a free, that was £160m of purchases raising no fees to re-invest in new players

Spurs accounts cash flow statement for year to 30 June 2023 (the last published accounts available) shows Spurs spent £135m on transfers, which will include instalments on players bought over last say 4 years - and the balance sheet shows transfer fees payable within 12 months of £155m with £153m payable in more than 12 moths (ie total £308m owed in total regarding transfer fees).

Over the last few years the total fees payable on signings have been around £150m typically - being made up of one or two bigger money signings (eg. Solanke £60m+) with other players at lower fees (eg Odobert and Danso both closer to £25m each).

That way Spurs can afford to buy about 6 players a year spending circa £150m. If we only need to buy 2 or 3 players in a year, Spurs might buy bigger names.

BTW even ManCity has not in last few years been able to buy 'the best player in a position' - its all about availability which is why ManCity still buy some lesser known players as well as the highly profile Grealish £100m type buys.
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It's about trusting the people in charge of recruitment though I reckon. What we can't do again is buy a couple of players in the top price bracket who turn out to be lemons.
 
StripiestPilot said:
but I never get the sense that Levy is really pushing to sign Eze, Mbuemo, Guehi, Gallagher level players.
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TBF, the bolded players haven't looked this season like the proven match changing players you're projecting them to be.

I think Eze is a good player, but Maddison's peak is better than anything Eze has ever produced. Yes, we can absolutely use Eze...but there's no guarantee he would be what he's projected to be by some.

Gallagher isn't a massively different player to Sarr, though he does get stuck in more and that's something our midfield really needs. Would have been great to have signed him, but I don't expect Chelsea were ever going to consider selling him to us anyway.

The oldest mention of Mbuemo on TFC is from March 2024, so it's a stretch to say he was a "proven" player at any time when we could/should have bought him. He's been catching people's eye for about 18 months, and half of that time has been this season when he's in the form of his life. Signing him before would have been the same throw of the dice we made with Brennan Johnson.
 
MemphisWill said:
TBF, the bolded players haven't looked this season like the proven match changing players you're projecting them to be.

I think Eze is a good player, but Maddison's peak is better than anything Eze has ever produced. Yes, we can absolutely use Eze...but there's no guarantee he would be what he's projected to be by some.

Gallagher isn't a massively different player to Sarr, though he does get stuck in more and that's something our midfield really needs. Would have been great to have signed him, but I don't expect Chelsea were ever going to consider selling him to us anyway.

The oldest mention of Mbuemo on TFC is from March 2024, so it's a stretch to say he was a "proven" player at any time when we could/should have bought him. He's been catching people's eye for about 18 months, and half of that time has been this season when he's in the form of his life. Signing him before would have been the same throw of the dice we made with Brennan Johnson.
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Absolutely no guarantee any player is going to thrive at any club.

I really rate Gallagher and very much wanted us to sign him, but he may have been shite.

I don’t get the Eze hype at all but he could come here and be prime Dele for a few seasons.

No matter who is in charge of our recruitment, we have no guarantees. I just hope our increased revenue and low wage bill allows us to take a few punts here and there and not cripple ourselves.
 
AberdeenYid said:
I think Levy has fallen into a bit of a trap over the years.

He’s looked at the big money we’ve spent and the shit returns we’ve had, then looked at our “best” signings and come to the conclusion that young, cheaper players, or opportunistic punts are the way forward.

Put Tanguy, Sanchez, GLC, Sissoko, Bergwijn, Soldado up against Bale, Modric, Dele, Walker, Rose, Rafa VdV and you can see how he’d come to that conclusion.

Time has moved on though and we are surrounded by teams that can fish in those waters. And above us are teams who aren’t scared to make multi million mistakes. With our huge revenue, we shouldn’t be afraid either.
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Yeah, he was desperate to create the Poch era, making stars for cheap. But every other team in the PL can drain talent from all the other European leagues post-Covid. The likes of Stoke and WBA in 2015 couldn’t sign players from Juve or Milan like Bournemouth or Brentford can these days. It’s a different beast. But Levy is old and time catches up with everyone. He’s so stale in almost everything he does football-wise these days.
 
To Dare Is To Do. said:

View: https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/1906413711054541146?s=46
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in pain GIF
 
Everyone rightly picked up on the wage vs revenue ratio and rightly so.

I would imagine another data point that highlights our lack of ambition relates to agents fee (compared to peers). 60M for Solanke sounds a lot but it’s paid on the never, never - that only gets paid if success criteria’s met. Agents fees are a factor for the in demand players like or or not and our big transfers are when we have a free run
 
Teach said:
Everyone rightly picked up on the wage vs revenue ratio and rightly so.

I would imagine another data point that highlights our lack of ambition relates to agents fee (compared to peers). 60M for Solanke sounds a lot but it’s paid on the never, never - that only gets paid if success criteria’s met. Agents fees are a factor for the in demand players like or or not and our big transfers are when we have a free run
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According to many sources the fee is supposed to be £55m plus £10m in bonuses depending on certain criteria

So £55m is certain to be paid, plus part or all £10m may or may not be paid.

Its not something that can be said as paid on the 'never never' - many fees have majority being certain to be paid, a smaller proportion being paid if certain criteria are met
 
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