Zero Debt

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Are you happy with the transfer strategy of ENIC?

  • Yes

    Votes: 48 53.9%
  • No

    Votes: 28 31.5%
  • I don't know and I don't care. This is a stupid poll.

    Votes: 13 14.6%

  • Total voters
    89
Or maybe, show just a little more ambition in the transfer market to give us a fighting chance of reaching the top 4 rather than sacking the manager every time we don't. .

We've showed ambition in the transfer market. We've splashed some cash. Soldado, Lamela, Paulinho all weren't exactly cut price deals. Then there were the likes of Darren Bent, Alan Hutton and David Bentley.
We could go right back to Sergei Rebrov. At times we've shown ambition.

Bale between 5-10mil, Modric roughly 16m, Berbatov around 10m, Lloris was 5-10m Euro, Carrick around 4m. King, free, Kane, free.

Spending large sums on players doesn't guarantee success. Buying the right players is much more important.
 
We've showed ambition in the transfer market. We've splashed some cash. Soldado, Lamela, Paulinho all weren't exactly cut price deals. Then there were the likes of Darren Bent, Alan Hutton and David Bentley.
We could go right back to Sergei Rebrov. At times we've shown ambition.

Bale between 5-10mil, Modric roughly 16m, Berbatov around 10m, Lloris was 5-10m Euro, Carrick around 4m. King, free, Kane, free.

Spending large sums on players doesn't guarantee success. Buying the right players is much more important.

I agree with that to some extent especially regarding the Bale money, the problem is not that we spent the money it's that we spent the money on the wrong players. We have just about the worst history when it comes to splashing the cash which might be why Levy is relutant and wants to find cheap deals, he has been burned alot, not sure if that our scouts or Baldini did an awful job or the reason but it happened.

Most of the best players/gamer changers do cost at least 20-30 mil, Sanchez, David Silva, Matic etc. Not sure we have the name or reputation to attract those indivduals in the first instance but my point is just because we have done shit homework in the past doesn't mean looking for the best quality even if it mean 20-30 mil should be ruled out. Vietto, Depay, Lacazette would almost certainly improve us and would be at around those prices, it's unlikely we would get that level of quality below that price tag unless Mitchell and our scouts are really good at unearthing jems (hope so) or of course more of our youth players do the Harry Kane.
 
I voted no in the poll. The fact we are the only club alongside Burnley to have no debt makes Levy`s strategy of refusing to strengthen the squad in consistent transfer windows even more difficult to accept. Cunt

Edit: Actually Burnley do have a debt of 8million quid. Cunt.
We've spent a fortune in recent seasons. Forget net spend, just because you sell £100m worth of players, that doesn't justify spending £150m on incoming players. Refusing the strengthen the squad...fuck me, out squad chops and changes so often it's actually rather frustrating. It'd be nice to see some familiar names cropping up year after year in my opinion.

Re the poll, it's quite interesting just how big a backing ENIC are getting for their transfer strategy. There's an awful lot of Spurs fans it seems, if this poll is an indicator, with the fiasco of the 'Magnificent 7' summer of Bale, and the inactivity of last winter. Absolutely baffling to me, but each to their own, etc.

In reference to the poll are you happy with the transfer strategy I voted no. While I must commend Levy and the board on the stunning success of our youth policy, the appointment of Poch, the development of out training facilities and pressing ahead the new stadium I cannot say that our recent transfers have been upto standard.

We bought 7 players worth around £100 million and only Eriksen was a genuine success while Chadli and Lamela were ok, the others Capoue, Chirches, Paulinho, Soldado have totally failed, for me whoever is too blame (Baldini or Levy etc) that is not the sign of a good transfer policy. Then of course we have Stambouli and Fazio who were good enough to be squad players but it seem little else.
Most of our purchases were lauded as exceptional at the time. We didn't expect Soldado to dry up, Paulinho to be so lazy, Lamela to get injured...nor did Levy or Baldini. They were unforeseen circumstances that no one would've predicted. It's absolutely baffling to me that our owner (who chooses to sanction transfers in order to keep a handle on the finances of the club - NOT to assess talent) can be apportioned blame for players' bad form, when they were excellent for their previous clubs.

If Levy/Baldini is signing players that managers don't ask for, then that is another matter, but there is no evidence of this. The Moutinho failure could have been any number of reasons, including him and/or his agent being greedy (which a move to Monaco would suggest).

Clubs don't get their first choice players all the time. What we need to stop doing is (in agreement with you Tomo Tomo ) signing the likes of Capoue and Stambouli, who are just a waste of £5-10 million. I'd rather see Carroll given a go than these carefree time wasters that could care less for the club.

I voted yes, by the way. Being debt free, regular European football and a state of the art stadium on the way, we're in excellent shape for the future, whether that be under ENIC or otherwise.
 
Vietto, Depay, Lacazette would almost certainly improve us

But the thing is that we thought that about Soldado, Paulinho and Lamela too. Yet they did not. Man U probably thought Diego Forlan would improve them. Or Liverpool thought Robbie Keane would improve them.

What I'm trying to say is every transfer is a gamble. And when it comes to gambling I prefer a low risk strategy. Even if this does mean that the rewards we reap aren't as high. We aren't far off the top 4, so a few shrewd signings are what we need rather than throwing around money like it's going out of fashion.
 
Clubs don't get their first choice players all the time. What we need to stop doing is (in agreement with you Tomo Tomo ) signing the likes of Capoue and Stambouli, who are just a waste of £5-10 million. I'd rather see Carroll given a go than these carefree time wasters that could care less for the club.

I voted yes, by the way. Being debt free, regular European football and a state of the art stadium on the way, we're in excellent shape for the future, whether that be under ENIC or otherwise.

Agree on the shape of our club, looks very promising the poll related to our transfer policy which I think has had issues thus I voted no, if the poll was overall running of the club and in particular this season I would have said yes, transfers or the way we have conducted them have been a weakness, at least in comparison to some other teams IMO.

But the thing is that we thought that about Soldado, Paulinho and Lamela too. Yet they did not. Man U probably thought Diego Forlan would improve them. Or Liverpool thought Robbie Keane would improve them.

What I'm trying to say is every transfer is a gamble. And when it comes to gambling I prefer a low risk strategy. Even if this does mean that the rewards we reap aren't as high. We aren't far off the top 4, so a few shrewd signings are what we need rather than throwing around money like it's going out of fashion.

I think tarring the Soldado brush on every player might be the wrong move, we got burned no question but I don't think that should deeply affect or plans, many other clubs bought top players for top money well, we didn't, that is unfortunate but bringing in top players is part of the way you get top 4 and push for a title one day. Next time we need to do it right, now we seem to have a stable manager and scout we should be in a better position. For every Soldado at the price he came their is a Costa, we just were unlucky.

The reason why I believe we should not abandon going for top quality is why we shouldn't abandon the youth system. Last season so many Spurs fans thought nothing of our youth players like Bentaleb and Kane and despite good games simply disregarded them, it really annoyed me at the time. The reason I think we did this is because we were burned by a youth system that produced so little for so long (a decade between good players like King) that we had grown used to buying solving the issue and thought our youth was crap or at least alot of us did.

Now it's our youth system that has saved us but I really hope we don't develop the mentality that we can purely rely on it even if there are not the standard of players in a certain area. For me we have the depth of the youth system therefore no average buys needed, Capoue and the like are simply getting in the way of home grown players, therefore our transfer policy should be on obtaining the highest possible quality even if it comes at a price, we need quality not quantity. In the summer we don't need lots of players, just one or two top one's do me.
 
therefore our transfer policy should be on obtaining the highest possible quality even if it comes at a price, we need quality not quantity. In the summer we don't need lots of players, just one or two top one's do me.

I totally agree with this. The point I was trying to make, was that a high price tag does not guarantee quality. Good scouting and finding the players to fit the system is what we need. Too many people seem to associate not spending huge quantities with not showing ambition which is my issue. But clearly that was not what you were saying.
 
I totally agree with this. The point I was trying to make, was that a high price tag does not guarantee quality. Good scouting and finding the players to fit the system is what we need. Too many people seem to associate not spending huge quantities with not showing ambition which is my issue. But clearly that was not what you were saying.

Yeh money does not always mean quality, that's where good scouting, judgement and even luck come into play. A typical #Spursy summer would be Poch desperately wanting a player who is worth £20 million because he believes he will make a huge difference to the side, then Levy bidding £15 million and pissing off the player and club with the offer and trying to haggle the deal down until it falls apart. Poch then gets given a second rate alternative he doesn't want who will just be competing with the young players, a player we don't need.

That's what I hope we avoid and where the flaws of the haggling over money, buying a cheap not needed alternative and not properly strengthening come into play and that's where my issues with Levy still are to some degree. We need to move away from this.
 
Wow had no idea Chelsea had run up that much debt! How is that possible/allowed?
It was spent pre-FFP for the most part. It's also well hidden, since it's on the books of the holding company which owns Chelsea, rather than the club itself. Sort of like the off-balance sheet losses a lot of banks held in 2008.
 
Chelsea are in a billion quid debt? absurd they should go into liquidation until at least 80% of this is settled. just shows you the old phrase 'if you owe the bank 10K$ you work for the bank, if you owe the bank a million $ the bank works for you' is spot on.
The FA\UEFA\PL should address this in a stricter way than the fair play laws, this really is unfair to clubs like us who are trying to maintain a stable business and playing it fair.

on a side note: more than 1 season outside of the EPL could get clubs like QPR\wet spam\NUFC\Leicester bankrupt
A lot of clubs in the Championship are in the same boat. The bottom 10 in the Premier League and about 50% of the clubs in the Championship are in very precarious situations financially. FFP has forced a bit of a clean-up, but really came too late for some. QPR especially.
 
I don't disagree at all. My point is that whenever there is a discussion about spending a bit of money someone says oh well we don't want to do a Leeds. It's so asinine considering our situation of having zero debt and also the massive revenue streams that the Premier League has now. It is very unlikely we'll ever see that happen to another team again, let alone one of our size. That doesn't even take into account how well we are run. We could have a +50m net spend this and we wouldn't even be in the same galaxy of "doing a Leeds". But someone will bring it up this summer, I guarantee it.

It's like bringing up Hitler anytime a tin pot third world dictator starts making a bit of trouble.
We will actually quite likely see at least another team "do a Leeds", probably this summer. QPR in particular.

It's not about doing a Leeds as much as the mentality of "spend some money" is based on this mythical idea that all you need to do is buy a few "superstar" players and everything magically improves.

We've seen plenty of evidence that you can't buy your way to overnight success with several "projects" around Europe blowing up in failure, and a lot of "big names" turn out to be colossal failures because they're completely wrong for a particular club, or just weren't very good period. (Radamel Falcao).

The clubs that have done well, and in particular, done well in Europe and the League at the same time (unlike City), all have a coherent system with structure and planning. Yes, buying a few players who can improve the squad is fine, but you need a plan first that actually identifies "right fit" players who will actually contribute to the squad. Just spending money on a bunch of names doesn't do that. We didn't really have adequate plans in place in the past, and as a result, spending some money for us was a bit of a problem, since we generally bought pretty damn poorly, between Redknapp, AVB and Baldini being unable to identify talent and fit them into a coherent system.

Most people who scream "spend some money" though, remember none of that and simply rattle off a bunch of names which they saw on a highlight reel or in FIFA. The real world doesn't work like that, and clubs that win things don't work like that.

I am not saying that you are like that, but that's where the whole "spend some money!"/"don't do a Leeds" dichotomy comes from.
 
Yeh money does not always mean quality, that's where good scouting, judgement and even luck come into play. A typical #Spursy summer would be Poch desperately wanting a player who is worth £20 million because he believes he will make a huge difference to the side, then Levy bidding £15 million and pissing off the player and club with the offer and trying to haggle the deal down until it falls apart. Poch then gets given a second rate alternative he doesn't want who will just be competing with the young players, a player we don't need.

That's what I hope we avoid and where the flaws of the haggling over money, buying a cheap not needed alternative and not properly strengthening come into play and that's where my issues with Levy still are to some degree. We need to move away from this.

He falls down on selling players we don't need as well - refusing to take a loss on players like Bentley and instead just paying them their wages until they leave on a free.

Doesn't make sense, we just need to accept when a transfer has failed and move to damage limitation tactics.
 
He falls down on selling players we don't need as well - refusing to take a loss on players like Bentley and instead just paying them their wages until they leave on a free.

Doesn't make sense, we just need to accept when a transfer has failed and move to damage limitation tactics.

Other than this issue everything is great at the club, I am hoping Levy has learned a lesson on this, if we get offers of £10 million for Bobby bite their hand. It's a bit physiological test for Levy, because we have quite a few failed players and we cannot afford either in terms of rising funds or cutting wages to sit on these players as if they will somehow become more valuable if we sit on them.
 
Other than this issue everything is great at the club, I am hoping Levy has learned a lesson on this, if we get offers of £10 million for Bobby bite their hand. It's a bit physiological test for Levy, because we have quite a few failed players and we cannot afford either in terms of rising funds or cutting wages to sit on these players as if they will somehow become more valuable if we sit on them.

Don't reckon we'll even get that much - his wages will be a problem for most clubs.
 
Yeh money does not always mean quality, that's where good scouting, judgement and even luck come into play. A typical #Spursy summer would be Poch desperately wanting a player who is worth £20 million because he believes he will make a huge difference to the side, then Levy bidding £15 million and pissing off the player and club with the offer and trying to haggle the deal down until it falls apart. Poch then gets given a second rate alternative he doesn't want who will just be competing with the young players, a player we don't need.

That's what I hope we avoid and where the flaws of the haggling over money, buying a cheap not needed alternative and not properly strengthening come into play and that's where my issues with Levy still are to some degree. We need to move away from this.
Absolutely right Tomo. For every Schneiderlin there is a Stambouli out there. Not knocking Stambouli- I don't think the opportunities have been there for him to bed in properly- but it seems reasonably clear that Poch wanted Schneiderlin to slot straight into his team & ended up with a journeyman who struggles to get a game.
 
Absolutely right Tomo. For every Schneiderlin there is a Stambouli out there. Not knocking Stambouli- I don't think the opportunities have been there for him to bed in properly- but it seems reasonably clear that Poch wanted Schneiderlin to slot straight into his team & ended up with a journeyman who struggles to get a game.
I think Stambouli may have been a bit of desperation. Pochettino may have known fairly early that his midfield options weren't good enough, but he couldn't get Schneiderlin since Soton wouldn't give him up. Stambouli may have been a quick and dirty substitute, with the long-term goal of trying again for Schneiderlin in the next windows.
 
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