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Transfers January Transfer Thread 24/25

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Excellent article.

"They are the beans of a man who isn’t even remotely close to the middle ground between extreme caution and recklessness. The beans of an executive who could sign three high-tier players on £250,000 a week, £39m a year combined, and still be within 50 per cent of turnover. Levy should be embarrassed by those beans. They are the beans of institutional cowardice"




The killer number holding Spurs and Ange Postecoglou back - and why Daniel Levy should be embarrassed, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI​

A key figure this week exposed Tottenham and Levy's institutional cowardice

Join Mail+ to read Riath Al-Samarrai's unmissable column every Saturday, plus more of your favourite writers, exclusive stories and in-depth sports reporting


By RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
Published: 12:00 GMT, 25 January 2025 |

Strange club, Tottenham, but a win is a win and on Thursday they had two. A double, if you fancy triggering older fans with other memories of the term.

We can return to the merits of scratching past Hoffenheim in Europe, but first let’s rewind to a few hours earlier, before their slog against the 15th-ranked team in Germany. That takes us to the morning and the publication of Deloitte’s Money League report, showing how the bean counters at our various clubs are getting on.

Now, those are happier league tables for Spurs, because they have beans stacked as high as the eye can see. Big beans for big boys, and by revenue they are the ninth biggest boy in the footballing world. Fifth biggest in the Premier League.

It’s all there in the bars of a chart – Tottenham’s earnings for the 2023-24 season amounted to £519.5million, not factoring in their transfer dealings, and that is a roaring trade. For accounts drawn one year on from their last appearance in the Champions League, in 22-23, the numbers are sublime, actually.

So, happy shareholders, happy life; the flick, the trick, the graphs that make Daniel Levy tick.

The peculiarities of his reign are no secret by now, not after 24 years, but they are always worth a re-examination when fresh numbers come in, as they did on Thursday. I’m thinking specifically about the wages as a percentage of turnover, which sounds dry. And it is. But it’s the metric that tells us if a club is willing to live a little or too much.

Tottenham are spending a paltry amount on wages as a percentage of their revenue compared to their rivals


In Tottenham’s case, the spend on wages in 2024 was 42 per cent of revenue, so around £218m, and the figure requires some context through comparison. That being both a comparison to their own behaviours, showing this to be Spurs’s lowest commitment by percentage in the past five seasons, and a comparison to their competition.

Going in order of the revenues with which Deloitte ranked the nine British clubs in the world’s top 20, Manchester City spent 57 per cent of their £706.8m turnover on wages (£403.4m), and they might be seen as our standard bearer, pending the outcome of deeper enquiries.

Next up is Manchester United, who operated at 56 per cent (£364m on wages), pursued by Woolwich at 53 per cent (£320m) and Liverpool at 63 per cent (£380m). Then it was Spurs, followed by Chelsea (72 per cent, £331.7m), Newcastle (68 per cent, £213m), West Ham (58 per cent, £157m), and Aston Villa (96 per cent, £251m).

We might look at one of the two outliers in that sample, which is Villa, who gambled 90 per cent or more of their turnover on wages in three of the past five seasons. It contributed to a place in the Champions League, so they are probably cool with their lot, but the fact Douglas Luiz now plays for Juventus tells of their proximity to cliff edge. Just as United demonstrated that £364m can be easily wasted.

Those figures highlight an inexactness in the art, but they also offer a guideline for where the richer clubs draw their lines. How they quantify ambition. And when we look at it that way, Levy’s beans suddenly don’t appear very big at all.

They are the beans of a man who has committed upwards of 47 per cent on wages just once in the past five seasons. They are the beans of a man who isn’t even remotely close to the middle ground between extreme caution and recklessness. The beans of an executive who could sign three high-tier players on £250,000 a week, £39m a year combined, and still be within 50 per cent of turnover. Levy should be embarrassed by those beans. They are the beans of institutional cowardice.

And isn’t that horribly out of place at a club that markets itself on daring and doing?

It’s a club that appointed a cavalier in Ange Postecoglou, but left him relying on five teenagers to see out the game against Hoffenheim on Thursday. A club that went into the tie four players short of a full bench, with a cast of exhausted men on the pitch, and is yet to sign a senior outfielder in the January market.

As a comparison, Aston Villa are spending 96 per cent of their revenue on players' wages
I admire Postecoglou, I find him exciting and different, which isn’t the same as believing there is vast wisdom in his method.

There is also a question to be asked about the sense in appointing a manager with a high-intensity style, with all the burnout issues we have gone on to see, when you aren’t prepared to supply him with a squad able to satisfy demands.

But Postecoglou has big beans and we can all agree on that. He is striving, being bold, and his exasperation is growing by the week. On Friday, ahead of Sunday’s game of dire need against Leicester, he said Tottenham would be ‘playing with fire’ if reinforcements don’t arrive in the next week.

But is Levy even listening? Does he pay any notice to those social media posts flagging that his previous three managers sat first in Italy, second in Turkey and third in the Premier League going into this weekend? Were they all solely the problem? Was Antonio Conte a mile off-beam with his moaning?

If we are to give Levy his due, beyond the magnificence of the stadium, it is that he has splashed plenty on transfers in the past few seasons and he has kept the club safe from the PSR buzzards.

But wages, not fees, are the key to landing the best players and to date only Levy’s salary, which has fluctuated between £3.5m and 6.5m of late, would rank as best in class for the division.

Going above his ceiling of £200,000 a week to change Tottenham’s narrative? Good luck to Postecoglou if he is privately nudging in that direction, even if these latest figures prove, yet again, the club is operating a mile within itself.

And that’s a shambles, really. A stain. A contradiction of what Levy says in public about feeling the same heartbeat as Tottenham’s fans. They are words he has used since day one, as contained in his very first set of programme notes, in March 2001.



Does Levy even notice Postecoglou's protestations that Spurs are 'playing with fire' by not signing anybody?


Levy contradicts himself about feeling the same heartbeat as Spurs fans - his focus is squarely on profit


Though Spurs have spent on transfers in recent seasons, fans have long been frustrated with tight purse strings

I dug them out this week, and he talks about being a supporter on the West Stand at White Hart Lane, of wearing rosettes and idolising Gazza and Lineker. That kind of tone.

But there’s also a bit on spending, as it happened, and naturally that is what catches the eye now.

‘Sir Alan (Sugar) faced the same challenges we do now balancing the needs of shareholders, who want profit, with those of the fans, who want success on the pitch,’ he wrote. ‘Sometimes, the two do not go together. It is a balancing act.’

With each set of accounts, it becomes clearer that only one side of the line ever mattered. Postecoglou should pour himself a double.
 
Clearly there is something about Williams that clangs.

When you think how good he was at the Euros, it's obvious something is not quite right.

Again, however, our squad and its obvious areas of weakness need something else at present.

It really isn't that hard surely to these things.
He's Basque. If you are raised there it's your dream. It's a passionate club his brother plays for them. He isn't minded to simply give that up. Folk need to understand that some people are happy. He's living his dream and has on more than one occasion hinted Barcelona or pretty much nothing else. There's nothing g wrong with him, he's basically exactly what we had in Harry Kane a unicorn happy to give his best years to the club that made him. If you want something wrong you could call men like him and H boring I guess
 
People banging on about Nico Williams need to give their heads a wobble. He can pretty much choose his next club because a) he's world class and b) he has a ridiculous low transfer trigger in his contract. Suspect he will end up at the Woolwich but I would definitely bid more so they have to cough up more. Like offer £80m so others clubs have to match it.
 
He's Basque. If you are raised there it's your dream. It's a passionate club his brother plays for them. He isn't minded to simply give that up. Folk need to understand that some people are happy. He's living his dream and has on more than one occasion hinted Barcelona or pretty much nothing else. There's nothing g wrong with him, he's basically exactly what we had in Harry Kane a unicorn happy to give his best years to the club that made him. If you want something wrong you could call men like him and H boring I guess

Fair enough. I can bow to that. We will see.
 

The killer number holding Spurs and Ange Postecoglou back - and why Daniel Levy should be embarrassed, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI​

A key figure this week exposed Tottenham and Levy's institutional cowardice

Join Mail+ to read Riath Al-Samarrai's unmissable column every Saturday, plus more of your favourite writers, exclusive stories and in-depth sports reporting


By RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
Published: 12:00 GMT, 25 January 2025 |

Strange club, Tottenham, but a win is a win and on Thursday they had two. A double, if you fancy triggering older fans with other memories of the term.

We can return to the merits of scratching past Hoffenheim in Europe, but first let’s rewind to a few hours earlier, before their slog against the 15th-ranked team in Germany. That takes us to the morning and the publication of Deloitte’s Money League report, showing how the bean counters at our various clubs are getting on.

Now, those are happier league tables for Spurs, because they have beans stacked as high as the eye can see. Big beans for big boys, and by revenue they are the ninth biggest boy in the footballing world. Fifth biggest in the Premier League.

It’s all there in the bars of a chart – Tottenham’s earnings for the 2023-24 season amounted to £519.5million, not factoring in their transfer dealings, and that is a roaring trade. For accounts drawn one year on from their last appearance in the Champions League, in 22-23, the numbers are sublime, actually.

So, happy shareholders, happy life; the flick, the trick, the graphs that make Daniel Levy tick.

The peculiarities of his reign are no secret by now, not after 24 years, but they are always worth a re-examination when fresh numbers come in, as they did on Thursday. I’m thinking specifically about the wages as a percentage of turnover, which sounds dry. And it is. But it’s the metric that tells us if a club is willing to live a little or too much.

Tottenham are spending a paltry amount on wages as a percentage of their revenue compared to their rivals


In Tottenham’s case, the spend on wages in 2024 was 42 per cent of revenue, so around £218m, and the figure requires some context through comparison. That being both a comparison to their own behaviours, showing this to be Spurs’s lowest commitment by percentage in the past five seasons, and a comparison to their competition.

Going in order of the revenues with which Deloitte ranked the nine British clubs in the world’s top 20, Manchester City spent 57 per cent of their £706.8m turnover on wages (£403.4m), and they might be seen as our standard bearer, pending the outcome of deeper enquiries.

Next up is Manchester United, who operated at 56 per cent (£364m on wages), pursued by Woolwich at 53 per cent (£320m) and Liverpool at 63 per cent (£380m). Then it was Spurs, followed by Chelsea (72 per cent, £331.7m), Newcastle (68 per cent, £213m), West Ham (58 per cent, £157m), and Aston Villa (96 per cent, £251m).

We might look at one of the two outliers in that sample, which is Villa, who gambled 90 per cent or more of their turnover on wages in three of the past five seasons. It contributed to a place in the Champions League, so they are probably cool with their lot, but the fact Douglas Luiz now plays for Juventus tells of their proximity to cliff edge. Just as United demonstrated that £364m can be easily wasted.

Those figures highlight an inexactness in the art, but they also offer a guideline for where the richer clubs draw their lines. How they quantify ambition. And when we look at it that way, Levy’s beans suddenly don’t appear very big at all.

They are the beans of a man who has committed upwards of 47 per cent on wages just once in the past five seasons. They are the beans of a man who isn’t even remotely close to the middle ground between extreme caution and recklessness. The beans of an executive who could sign three high-tier players on £250,000 a week, £39m a year combined, and still be within 50 per cent of turnover. Levy should be embarrassed by those beans. They are the beans of institutional cowardice.

And isn’t that horribly out of place at a club that markets itself on daring and doing?

It’s a club that appointed a cavalier in Ange Postecoglou, but left him relying on five teenagers to see out the game against Hoffenheim on Thursday. A club that went into the tie four players short of a full bench, with a cast of exhausted men on the pitch, and is yet to sign a senior outfielder in the January market.

As a comparison, Aston Villa are spending 96 per cent of their revenue on players' wages
I admire Postecoglou, I find him exciting and different, which isn’t the same as believing there is vast wisdom in his method.

There is also a question to be asked about the sense in appointing a manager with a high-intensity style, with all the burnout issues we have gone on to see, when you aren’t prepared to supply him with a squad able to satisfy demands.

But Postecoglou has big beans and we can all agree on that. He is striving, being bold, and his exasperation is growing by the week. On Friday, ahead of Sunday’s game of dire need against Leicester, he said Tottenham would be ‘playing with fire’ if reinforcements don’t arrive in the next week.

But is Levy even listening? Does he pay any notice to those social media posts flagging that his previous three managers sat first in Italy, second in Turkey and third in the Premier League going into this weekend? Were they all solely the problem? Was Antonio Conte a mile off-beam with his moaning?

If we are to give Levy his due, beyond the magnificence of the stadium, it is that he has splashed plenty on transfers in the past few seasons and he has kept the club safe from the PSR buzzards.

But wages, not fees, are the key to landing the best players and to date only Levy’s salary, which has fluctuated between £3.5m and 6.5m of late, would rank as best in class for the division.

Going above his ceiling of £200,000 a week to change Tottenham’s narrative? Good luck to Postecoglou if he is privately nudging in that direction, even if these latest figures prove, yet again, the club is operating a mile within itself.

And that’s a shambles, really. A stain. A contradiction of what Levy says in public about feeling the same heartbeat as Tottenham’s fans. They are words he has used since day one, as contained in his very first set of programme notes, in March 2001.



Does Levy even notice Postecoglou's protestations that Spurs are 'playing with fire' by not signing anybody?


Levy contradicts himself about feeling the same heartbeat as Spurs fans - his focus is squarely on profit


Though Spurs have spent on transfers in recent seasons, fans have long been frustrated with tight purse strings

I dug them out this week, and he talks about being a supporter on the West Stand at White Hart Lane, of wearing rosettes and idolising Gazza and Lineker. That kind of tone.

But there’s also a bit on spending, as it happened, and naturally that is what catches the eye now.

‘Sir Alan (Sugar) faced the same challenges we do now balancing the needs of shareholders, who want profit, with those of the fans, who want success on the pitch,’ he wrote. ‘Sometimes, the two do not go together. It is a balancing act.’

With each set of accounts, it becomes clearer that only one side of the line ever mattered. Postecoglou should pour himself a double.

We don't heedc to read this to see inertia and ambivalent in full bloom.

Never has incompetence been so well rewarded.
 
Looking at it objectively who would want to join us right now. We are not dining off the top table nor are we getting anyone from wave 2. At best it will be a player having a blinder in the Championship like Sainz at Norwich or a loan move for a player struggling to get game time at a club like Juventus.
 
We're one of the richest clubs in the world, League fucking 2?!

Every Spurs fan is completely embarrassed by our club right now or they bloody well ought to be anyway.

How have we let it come to this?

We might not be relegated but to say we can't be? That's ludicrous and not based on anything but arrogance.

Completely agree : for the 8th / 9th richest club ( by income) in World Football to be scrabbling about to avoid falling out of the the EPL is bizarre ( to say the very least) .

Part of me thinks we’ve been had ( to say the very least) .

I suspect we’ll get no-one or a dramatic minutes before midnight loan with an option not to buy for someone we’ve never heard of and
( possibly) Marcus Rashford , on the same terms .

We’ll end up finishing top 16 and all will be well in Enic-world .

What a scam ; and btw paid for by our good selves .

Bonkers ; when you think about it .
 
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I’m actually shocked here.

Not that we aren’t buying players. We’ve all seen that one coming, we know how January is, many players aren’t available and the ones that are usually are for a reason. Deals are difficult to do.

But even in our lowest eras under Levy we at least bluster and chase and show some sort of initiative to the fans and manager. Some lies about agent fees or work permit bollocks. At least we give the appearance of trying.

This winter in a clear injury crisis we haven’t even done that. We are openly not trying. It truly is shocking to see. Levy has officially given up.
 
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