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.
I mean, rich clubs that spend money win things. Since 2007/2008 there has only been one club to win one of the big four leagues or make a Champions League semi-final that wasn't ranked in Deloitte's top 20 most valuable clubs in the world and that was Wolfsburg who won the Bundesliga in 2008/2009.
For someone who is obsessively stats based you're very flippant when it comes to sample size. Using Radamel Falcao or our terrible 2013 summer acquisitions are not telling measures of spending money whatsoever.
There is no logical basis that would say just because we failed when spending 100m once that we would fail if we did it again. An argument could be made that because Baldini and Levy are poor evaluators but ultimately just by spending that much money they would still have moderate success more times than not. Would it be as effective as a shrewd club spending 100m? Most likely not, but it would still somewhat successful because spending big mitigates a substantial amount of concerns in regards to scouting. The reason for this is simple, on average, a more expensive player will outperform a less expensive player.
There will be flops, of course, and there are plenty of cheap players that vastly outperform their price tag but on average a more expensive player will outperform a less expensive player. If Spurs were to spend a 100m a summer for the next three years it would require an extreme aberration for the club to not be better than it is today even if you grade the decisions makers as particularly poor. Expensive players are generally expensive for a good reason.
Looking, for example, at the likes of City, Real Madrid, and Chelsea they don't seem to be wizards in the ways of scouting. However, when they can spend 200-300m over the course of three windows they are able to play the overwhelming odds that expensive players will outperform cheaper ones. Just because Torres, Kaka, and Robinho flopped doesn't mean that big money players like Bale, Ronaldo, Aguero, Silva, Costa, Hazard, etc will as well. While flops are easy to point at they are much more often aberration than regularity.
Now, of course Tottenham aren't one of those teams that can continually play the favorable odds in the transfer market and write off big money flops. I've long called on the club to embrace the fact that it does not have the same monetary resources as the true big boys and build a smart scouting system. It finally seems like we've chosen to do this. However, it doesn't change the fact that Mitchell can spend 10,000 hours in the black box room looking for a Central Midfielder and whoever ends up paying the 70m for Paul Pogba will in all likelihood get the better player. Equally, Mitchell can scout a wonderkid from Croatia or Serbia but the better choice for next season would be to pay +20m for Morgan Schneiderlin. Money makes your scouting much easier.
Fortunately for us, we've built a phenomenal academy and much credit to the club for playing the long game on that. Not even including the five first teamers (with more to come) we have at the moment it has paid off handsomely with the substantial sales of Livermore (8m), Caulker (8m), Falque (4m), probably Carroll this summer, and we also got not insignificant fees for Dawkins, Luongo and a few others.
But the value of having a quality academy doesn't simply lie in the production of players but also in the ability to invest more money into fewer spots. Because of the cheap academy players that have come through and will continue to come through we have the luxury to go big on our most pressing needs like winger, center half, and central midfield.
So yes, I am in the spend some fucking money camp. I will be extremely disappointed if we pull the shit that we did this summer again. We have a manager that actually seems worth trusting, a technical director with good pedigree and an actual system, and a booming academy that has the ability to sort out depth roles in the squad.
Now is the time to smartly pick a few players that will improve the first eleven and open the cheque book in a big way. We have no debt, massive new revenue streams/TV money, and a solid base of a squad. Get out there this summer and SPEND SOME FUCKING MONEY. I'll be fuming if we don't tbh, there's no excuses at this point. Everyone can see our deficiencies, back our manager and address the faults. This team has real potential going forward if Levy puts some money behind it.