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Salaries at Spurs

DAVE BUNWORTH

senior member
Dec 11, 2006
24
0
The position whereby Darren Bent refused £75,000 p.w to join Spurs has become a rarity in the money based game of football.

However like it or not Spurs have a real dichotomy in their spending/salary philosophy. Teams like West Ham now offer £60k/70k to most of their new signings yet we offer a max of £40-50k and most at substantially less (Berbatov is a case in point).

I don’t condone the inflated figures offered by most other clubs, currently, but the marketplace is what matters. Whilst we can pay the transfer fees for players (Bent 16.5m) we refuse to move away from a strict salary cap.

This is becoming a real issue as don’t tell me Petrov refused Spurs for Sven........ 55k p.w v 30k p.w is an obvious enticement above anything else.

We will not attract the really top players without looking at our salary caps and deciding to realign them to reflect the new levels required.

I know the Leeds story is a dark spectre for all clubs in this area of potential profligacy but now the new £60m TV income for Premier clubs has forced the salary structures into a new level.

We need 3 or 4 top, top players with experience and salary will be the inhibitor when push comes to shove if they are to join us.

I hate to say it but we can’t be top 4 without paying top 4 salaries rather than just compete for transfer fees!
 

Stu

Member
Aug 6, 2003
290
10
and will you complain if the ticket prices go up?

We need a bigger stadium or a rich dude to compete with other teams wage structures.

I'd rather have a bigger stadium, much more sustainable.
 

Jenko

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
5,290
4,157
Er, we're doing it already. We HAVE top players. Look at our squad! We're paying less for better players because the club have ambition to match the players and they respect it. We just need to get 4th now so that we can continue to do it.

But we don't have to change anything this transfer window and if you're saying we do then I disagree. If Petrov went for the cash then he is not the player we're looking for (a la Duff). Our policy has been working for us and I trust the management team to change it at the right time. If we brought in someone on the wages you're talking about it could disrupt the togetherness of the team. One player is not worth that.
 

Legacy

SC Supporter
Mar 29, 2007
2,878
6,280
Our wage budget was good enough for Dimitar Berbatov last season and it was good enough for Darren Bent this season. Yes, we offer players a relatively low wage when they first join the club, in comparison to teams like Newcastle and West Ham et al who'll throw £70,000 p/w at a player just to get them to sign the contract.

But what does that achieve? Every team who does that ends up with at least a few unwanted players on sky high wages, draining their club of funds. And with long contracts too, they can refuse to leave, stay for the money and their clubs will have a hard time shipping them on to another club when the player proves to be an unsuccessful signing.

Spurs offer a player a decent wage. It may not be the £100,000 p/w that the Chelsea players are earning, but if you can't live on £15,000-£40,000 p/w then you have some serious issues.

However, when a player steps up and proves himself to be a good signing and an important player for the team, the club will step in and offer a significantly improved contract to reflect that (Berbatov is a case in point).

And you can bet that players are aware of that little fact when it comes to contract negotiations before signing for Spurs. And you will get the occasional player who'll turn their head at the offer Spurs provide, and jump at a 'lesser' club who'll offer an instant £50,000+ a week.

But what does that say about those players? Are they really that unsure of their ability that they can't go out and prove they deserve to earn a higher wage? Or are they just so greedy, selfish and lazy to even try to prove they deserve a higher wage at a 'bigger' club who stand a pretty good chance of winning any of the three cups they're entered in as well as potentially breaking the top4 stranglehold in the Premier League?

I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want a player like that at our club. I want a player to come to Spurs to play for the club, to play to win games and, possibly, trophies and to play to succeed as a footballer, not because we were the club desperate enough to throw the most money at them.

Darren Bent is a player that emphasises what I want at Spurs. Turning down West Ham and a higher wage to join a team with so much potential because he wants to help them succeed. That's the type of player I want.
 

Kendall

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2007
38,502
11,933
load of shit

we can get class players to come on board within our wage structure. So Petrov was after one last payday, big deal, fuck him. We have bought better players on the last 3 years than any of us would ever dreamed of 10 years ago and if you remove the dirge from your eyes, you will see we are competing, we're improving every year and we're attacting a lot of players we would never have before.

Breaking our wage structure for 1 28 year old LW mercanery would cause our club more harm than the good he would bring.
 

tananwat_w

New Member
Dec 6, 2006
34
0
The fact that John Terry is making £135,000 a week is insane, and from what we all heard of several more of their players earn over £100,000 a week. I am sure as soon as the Russian jumps off the ship, they will be in serious troubles.
 

will8587

Well-Known Member
Jul 17, 2006
1,342
419
I see what you're saying, and I think Spurs will eventually break their pay scale, as they should. It would be unfair to offer Berbatov £50k and expect him to be content with it. If he felt so inclined, he could easily move to ManU, play in the Champions League and make double the wages. We should reward him for his loyalty, and show how much he means to the club by breaking with our wage scale.

It doesn't have to be a black and white issue- that we've gotta stick with our current system or we'll turn into Chelsea. We can still responsibly pay players, but pay them more than £50k per week. What if we do make the CL, and are linked with a few world class players, who express serious interest in us? Surely, we couldn't expect them to cut their wages in half to play for us.

Finally, all the people who are out criticizing Petrov are all hypocrites. Berbatov was in the same situation as Petrov. He was being courted by ManU and a lesser club (Spurs). He appreciated the attention he received from Spurs, and didn't feel that he got the same from ManU, so he signed with a weaker team. Maybe, Petrov was put off by Spurs for the same reason Berbatov was put off by ManU. To say Petrov is a money-grubbing mercenary is ignorant and close-minded. You're only looking at it from a Spurs-centric view, yet if you heard the same shit about Berbatov being greedy, selfish and lazy for signing for a lesser team, you'd call them crazy. So unless you know the whole story, quit making so many (ignorant) assumptions.
 
Jan 27, 2007
167
4
I think some of you live in a dream world where players (who lets face have a fairly short career span as footballers) are perfectly happy to get paid less. Berbatov was not expecting to walk into the prem at 60k/wk, he was underrated prior to last year but rightly at this stage deserves a pay rise, I am actually quite surprised (gladly so) that he is still here.

Look at the business world (which spurs are part of) the best CEOs in the business get headhunted by the best companies which pay the best salaries. Companies have to in order to keep the best talent. With the new money floating around the prem it is the same as inflation, everything costs more.

So if we were to sign, for example (only!) say, Ronaldinho and pay him more than our wage cap amount (which some argue we will have to do to attract 'top 4' type players) the other members of the team will feel rightly aggrieved.

So what I propose is simple, a large increase to the win bonus so that all players in the team benefit and this can be included as part of Ronaldinho's salary negotiations.

Yes, players do want to be part of a team going somewhere like we are this year, hence Bent's decision. But he is an exception to the rule. If we were to qualify with Champions League this year I suggest we reward firstly our current players and then offer a new wage cap of say 60k next year we would stand a chance of keepin Berbs et. all next year. Maybe we would have to renegotiate a few contracts but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

In short, with more money in the game and salary inflation, to keep our current wage structure would be risky in the long run.

We are in good, even great hands with Jol, Levy and co but remember nine times out of ten, the talent always follows the money.
 

Rufio

Member
May 3, 2007
350
0
To increase our wage structure we need to increase the stadium capacity (or ticket prices - nobody wants that, and/or get into the champions league (regularly).

What I would suggest if it is a problem in attracting players, that we should use bonus related pay (which is probably happening anyway).

Using Berbatov as an example: He is currently paid say 30k per week (I don't know). If Spurs make the Champions league qualifying places give him an end of year bonus that would have been equivalent to him being paid 45k per week. If Spurs make it into the league stages of the Champions league, give him an end of year bonus that would have been equivalent to him being paid 75k per week...knock out stages (90k per week), final (115k per week).

And that could be in place for all players with different values depending on who you are. That is what it should be, with more money you can reward for great achievment.

I believe this to be the best way before improving the stadium / becoming champs league regulars.
 

TheGeneral

Member
Mar 25, 2005
47
0
I think some of you live in a dream world where players (who lets face have a fairly short career span as footballers) are perfectly happy to get paid less. Berbatov was not expecting to walk into the prem at 60k/wk, he was underrated prior to last year but rightly at this stage deserves a pay rise, I am actually quite surprised (gladly so) that he is still here.

Look at the business world (which spurs are part of) the best CEOs in the business get headhunted by the best companies which pay the best salaries. Companies have to in order to keep the best talent. With the new money floating around the prem it is the same as inflation, everything costs more.

So if we were to sign, for example (only!) say, Ronaldinho and pay him more than our wage cap amount (which some argue we will have to do to attract 'top 4' type players) the other members of the team will feel rightly aggrieved.

So what I propose is simple, a large increase to the win bonus so that all players in the team benefit and this can be included as part of Ronaldinho's salary negotiations.

Yes, players do want to be part of a team going somewhere like we are this year, hence Bent's decision. But he is an exception to the rule. If we were to qualify with Champions League this year I suggest we reward firstly our current players and then offer a new wage cap of say 60k next year we would stand a chance of keepin Berbs et. all next year. Maybe we would have to renegotiate a few contracts but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

In short, with more money in the game and salary inflation, to keep our current wage structure would be risky in the long run.

We are in good, even great hands with Jol, Levy and co but remember nine times out of ten, the talent always follows the money.
:clap:
 

Arnoldtoo

The thinking ape's ape
May 18, 2006
35,335
54,966
Newcastle are a prime example of a club trying to buy their way up the League and failing. West Ham and Man City are the next ones to follow the same route, and they are taking just as big a risk. As has been said before, getting players in on an immediate high salary and a long contract is an expensive gamble. It hasn't worked for Newcastle, and there is no guarantee that it will work for the other two.

Chelsea are also a time bomb. If the row between Abramovich and Mourinho last year had resulted in the former walking away, where would they be?

The route to the top which Spurs are taking involves getting in players who, in the judgement of BMJ & DC, will "improve the squad" - that's always been the mantra - not superstars. If they don't, because the Premiership is a different beast to the other European leagues, then you are not left with high earning reserves who are difficult to offload. Whether you agree with that plan or not is up to you, but no-one can argue that it isn't working at the moment. The squad, and the club, is improving and is the best in a long long time.

Having said that, there must come a point where the salary cap is a barrier to improving the squad. When that point is reached - and the Spurs management might recognise it almost as soon as us experts on SC - then the cap must be raised, not only for new signings but, more importantly, for the established successes who will form the core of the team as we push to the next level.

There will still be players who don't want to come because of the "low" starting salary. But they will be the ones who are either looking just for the money or who are not confident enough in their own ability to risk having to prove themselves as part of that core. And, though some of them will be successes elsewhere, they are the sort of players we can probably do without.
 

choffer74

Member
May 3, 2005
61
0
I see what you're saying, and I think Spurs will eventually break their pay scale, as they should. It would be unfair to offer Berbatov £50k and expect him to be content with it. If he felt so inclined, he could easily move to ManU, play in the Champions League and make double the wages. We should reward him for his loyalty, and show how much he means to the club by breaking with our wage scale.

It doesn't have to be a black and white issue- that we've gotta stick with our current system or we'll turn into Chelsea. We can still responsibly pay players, but pay them more than £50k per week. What if we do make the CL, and are linked with a few world class players, who express serious interest in us? Surely, we couldn't expect them to cut their wages in half to play for us.

Finally, all the people who are out criticizing Petrov are all hypocrites. Berbatov was in the same situation as Petrov. He was being courted by ManU and a lesser club (Spurs). He appreciated the attention he received from Spurs, and didn't feel that he got the same from ManU, so he signed with a weaker team. Maybe, Petrov was put off by Spurs for the same reason Berbatov was put off by ManU. To say Petrov is a money-grubbing mercenary is ignorant and close-minded. You're only looking at it from a Spurs-centric view, yet if you heard the same shit about Berbatov being greedy, selfish and lazy for signing for a lesser team, you'd call them crazy. So unless you know the whole story, quit making so many (ignorant) assumptions.

I'm not sure we'll break our pay scale. Its there for a reason - financial stability. Levy and the board have shown over the years that they run a tight ship, and we're now one of the best run teams around. So its unlikely that we'll change that. However each year they will reassess the pay scale dependent on how well we've done, the revenue we're had etc. I'm sure if we get into the champions league we'll not only start paying higher wages to new signings, but will offer a lot of the existing players improved contracts to match.

Secondly your point about Petrov isnt really valid. Berbatov would have got paid more going Man U, so in coming to us (a lesser team) he was actually the complete opposite of a mercenary. He came to us for footballing reasons, not monetary gain! Petrov on the other hand chose Man City over us, and will get paid 20k (?) a week more. Its not hard to see why people are calling him a mercenary! Personally i think it wasnt just the money, I'm sure Sven still has pulling power :wink:, and in theory they could be challenging for a place in Europe this season.
 

sebo_sek

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2005
6,023
5,168
I maybe the only knight in shining armour arounf here, but my head is beginning to spin from all these amounts.

I'll tell you what I think. Ł30.000p/w is about PLN165.000 a week in Poland. To put that into perspective, after a month's work, you have a house, a car and a kickass holiday.

I am sure that berba is still thinking of going back home after his career ends and is doing similar multiplication in his head. Someone said that it would be unfair to offer him JUST 50k... Jesus can you hear yourself? That would be PLN275,000 here. The above list after two weeks. When Les Ferdinand signed for the Barcodes at 48,000 people were saying what a mountain of an amount that was - today they wouldn't even bat an eye.

Footballers get paid too much everyone knows that. But some of them are thinking longterm especially if they are foreign and their national currencies exchange at a very good rate.

Yes he deserves a pay rise, but I dont think it is a priority for him. He is making double of what he got in Germany, simply by switching from Euros to Pounds.

I can't speak for other players, but this is still a very much complex-infested Eastern European mentality. We don't advertise as much, but it is there.

It's not sexy, but could part of the answer of why he is happy at 22,000.
 
Dec 8, 2005
948
0
load of shit

we can get class players to come on board within our wage structure. So Petrov was after one last payday, big deal, fuck him. We have bought better players on the last 3 years than any of us would ever dreamed of 10 years ago and if you remove the dirge from your eyes, you will see we are competing, we're improving every year and we're attacting a lot of players we would never have before.

Breaking our wage structure for 1 28 year old LW mercanery would cause our club more harm than the good he would bring.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
May 15, 2004
138
17
So if we dont break our wage structure and pay over inflated wages we wont be a top team with top players.?
Excuse me OP, but open your eyes, we are a top team, not THE top but a top team with an excellent squad all HAPPY to be here.
Levy knows how to run this club its evident....so let him get on with it, if he wants to up the structure he will, and when he does it will only be at the right time.
This club is healthy prosperous and going places, we dont need to keep up with the Jones's
The top four are looking over their shoulders at us and watching us break the monopoly they hold on this league....and weve done that without turning into the new Leeds (soon to be spammers).
If it aint broke....DONT FIX IT.
 
Nov 11, 2006
37
0
Slight digression from the threads that precede this but of course as a non-Uk domicilliary Petrov would have been able to have part of his salary from us structured as a payment for services whilst on European duty and would therefore not be taxed on it in the UK. However, even that would not mean the net paid by us came anyweher near to the amounts suggested to be paid by Man City.

Back on topic, I like our approach but agree it needs to be adapted. I like the idea of getting players in on reasonable wages but with a promise if they are good and loyal. This would be by raising them based on performance and loyalty in subsequent seasons. It avoids the inflated wages for new players (that quite often fail as pointed out above) but rewards our best and loyal players adequately and so keeps them at The Club - promoting stability.
 

vietnam1973

Member
Jun 23, 2006
649
21
im delighted tottenham have a structure, footballers are all gready bastards anyway, ther should be a wage cap of no more than £20,000 a week, just think of that figure 20 grands a massive amount of money! the ticket prices would come down aswell, im sorry but footballs becoming or has become an elitist sport
 

N10toN17

New Member
Jan 22, 2007
1,288
1
We do not want to copy the philosphy of Wet spam, citeh and the barcodes, they are throwing high wages at players, who otherwise wouldn't touch them with the preverbial barge pole.

It means they will need to produce high finishes in the league asap and if they don't they'll be in trouble, add to that the fact that some of these players will flop and that squad morale may suffer as well.

We've brought in young, hungry and talented players, if they perform and bring us to the next level, they will have there wages negotiated upwards, simply, you perform and we'll pay, a much better philosphy. Levy is not going to risk our medium to long term health for a short quick fix, it doesn't work, Leeds anyone?
 
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