The Daily ITK Discussion Thread

[Lilbaz]

It's got to be a valid concern when you hear this from more than one, even more than two sources.......

Anyone who wants to carry on living in Levy la-la land, fill your boots.

Players will always want more money. Sanchez wants £400k a week to stay at arsenal.

I'm sure if poch wants to keep them they will be offered improved contracts (how many signed new contracts in the last year?) if not they will be sold. Levy will keep our wages around 50-60% of turnover regardless.

 

[Jamturk]

Surely Levy realises it's not worth building a 61000 stadium if you don't fill it, and you need a good, competitive team to do that.

 

[samspurs92]

It's not a surprise, we need to start paying our players what they are worth otherwise it's all going to get messy quite quickly.

If I was Toby and saw that Michael fucking Keane was on £100k a week, I'd be questioning how much my employers value my contribution.

 

[Jamturk]

It's not a surprise, we need to start paying our players what they are worth otherwise it's all going to get messy quite quickly.

If I was Toby and saw that Michael fucking Keane was on £100k a week, I'd be questioning how much my employers value my contribution.

So you're advocating following the lemmings?

Also this team has won nothing, so they're not that fucking good are they.

 

[Sum Monsterism]

Also, just to add to this. The guy I got the info from is a spurs supporter, so I don't reckon he would be on the wind up

yeah 'cos none of us like winding up the others!

 

[Bobbins]

It's not a surprise, we need to start paying our players what they are worth otherwise it's all going to get messy quite quickly.

If I was Toby and saw that Michael fucking Keane was on £100k a week, I'd be questioning how much my employers value my contribution.

But this is the problem - Keane isn't worth anything like that money. But the new tv deal has sent the entire football world completely insane so that bang average players are apparently now able to command six figures a week. A WEEK!

So the only apparent answer is to join the circus and pay our players even more.

It might be what's expected but it sticks in the throat.

 

[SpartanSpur]

It's got to be a valid concern when you hear this from more than one, even more than two sources.......

Anyone who wants to carry on living in Levy la-la land, fill your boots.

Agreed, and even a small unrest in the camp can lead to big problems on the pitch, such are the margins at this level. Of course our stars will be looking at the likes of Lingard, Keane and Lovren and scratching their head. The slow start to our transfer window will annoy some too.

My guess would be Walker, Rose, Dier (due to Utd interest) and Toby. Alli deserves another rise but seems focused on kicking on even more next season. Hopefully we'll settle some of this with deserved pay rises to these key men in the coming months. Season tickets at Wembley aren't any cheaper and there are 18,000 more, I can't see the rental being that much, and TV money keeps rising. No excuses...

 

[danielneeds]

Squad wants to be paid more shocker!

Of course there is going to be some rumbling amongst the squad this summer, but you know what, until they win something, or perform half decently in the CL Levy is well within his rights to tell them to keep schtum.

On the flip side, I'm sure Levy wants to keep the squad together, and with the turnover and revenue increase kicking in next year, he can raise the wages in line with that. One thing's for sure, he won't break his golden rule of wages-to-turnover. It's part of the founding principles of how he runs to club.

 

[dagraham]

Yeah I think fans sometimes forget players don't think like they do. I'm sure they enjoy playing for Spurs and challenging at the business end of the table, but they don't give a stuff about building things slowly, any moral victories or doing things the "right way".

All they care about is playing at the highest level, with the best players, winning as many trophies as they can and getting paid as much as they can while they are doing it. Hopefully the money side comes at the bottom of that short list, but I suspect for some it's all just as important.

Obviously we are building a very expensive stadium and can't throw money around willy nilly like some clubs, but our turnover has increased massively with over achieving on the field, CL qualification 2 years in a row and the huge TV deal. All revenue which wouldn't have been factored into investment decisions for the stadium build. Now it may be that Levy sees this increased revenue as a chance to pay down more of the stadium and it could be argued that it's the correct decision, but it's risky because we are on the cusp of things and players and even the manager to a lesser extent want success above sound financial long term management and lower interest payments.

In football if you stand still you inevitably go backwards and players are impatient and if we don't consolidate our position (and we made the same mistake last time we were seemingly on the verge of great things) then we run the risk of all the good platform we have built coming down, despite the new stadium.

 

[buttons]

As others have said, if the unrest is true, why on earth did the majority of the squad sign new contracts during the season just got? The money flooding into football isn't a new thing, last summer was a bonkers transfer window too (see Bolasie, Sissoko etc).

 

[DCSPUR]

two [OK THREE] points to consider:
1. these wages are out of line with some very good European clubs
2. this feels like a bubble
3. clubs like Palace etc. would be better off spending their new riches on structural improvements: stadium, training ground, youth development --- long term sustainability

 

[Jamturk]

We are doing very well in the scheme of things,

enjoy it

 

[Sum Monsterism]

two points to consider:
1. these wages are out of line with some very good European clubs
2. this feels like a bubble
3. clubs like Palace etc...

err...

 

[Dirty Ewok]

So you're advocating following the lemmings?

Keep in mind the astronomical rise in revenue from the TV deals. Players and their agents know about this and will expect some of those increased revenues to eventually trickle down to their pay packets.

The way a player and agent will see it is that if £50m is the new £30m in terms of transfer fees then wages of £100k/wk are the new £75k/wk.

Thus far it seems that Levy isn't buying into these new economics or at least we aren't hearing of him doing so.

Not so hard to think that the players would be frustrated with it, club is bringing in more money than ever before players will want their cut of it. Honestly i am more surprised that we have had so few pieces of ITK saying that the players want more money.

 

[chaching]

Even if it's a fictitious (I'm sure it's not JS) story the facts behind it simply can't be denied. We were low payers before this mass injection of cash, we must be the stingiest of the lot nowadays. When Everton, Crystal Palace and West Ham start offering multiple players 100k a week you know the goal posts have changed considerably. We're on a really solid financial footing with our current wage bill but it's inevitably going to get squeezed (and hopefully increased) very soon.... or the team will get broken up over the next couple of years

Last year our wage bill was £121.2m, Evertons were £83m, West Ham £79.8m, Crystal Pallace £55m. So we are not the stingiest. and that isn't the issue IMHO. Evertons will rise but I doubt it will overtake us.

The problem (if you call it that) is we have a lot of very high performing players where those teams may have one or two that may or may not (but not definitely) make our team. The major issue is that Man City paid £225m, Man Utd £220.8m, Chelsea £218m, Arsenal £200.5m & Liverpool £165.6m. That is what we have to compete with which until we are in the new stadium and paid off the loans will be very difficult to get anywhere near.

Lucky enough the majority of our high performing players are on long contracts and seem to buy into Pochettino. So they may be grumbling that Man Utd are paying Lingard a stupid amount of money and they can earn more but we are in a position that we can name our price and the majority will still play for Pochettino. Its not ideal but as stated our problem is that we have too many high quality players so its not a terrible place to be in. Now if Pochettino left then that could end up being a disaster.

 

[Now it's Spursonal]

Im just dying for some ITK on some random player ive never heard of. Then I can obsess over his youtube videos and jump to the conclusion that if we dont sign him we'll get relegated and Barca will sign him and he'll be the next Messi in 3 years whereas we'll be fighting relegation in league 2. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Objectively speaking, it's weird to me that players will sign a new contract and sometimes multiple new contracts during the season but as soon as the window opens they're moaning about their wages. Are they thick? Stop agreeing a deal you're not going to like and your problem is solved

 

[Hercules]

Last year our wage bill was £121.2m, Evertons were £83m, West Ham £79.8m, Crystal Pallace £55m. So we are not the stingiest. and that isn't the issue IMHO. Evertons will rise but I doubt it will overtake us.

The problem (if you call it that) is we have a lot of very high performing players where those teams may have one or two that may or may not (but not definitely) make our team. The major issue is that Man City paid £225m, Man Utd £220.8m, Chelsea £218m, Arsenal £200.5m & Liverpool £165.6m. That is what we have to compete with which until we are in the new stadium and paid off the loans will be very difficult to get anywhere near.

Lucky enough the majority of our high performing players are on long contracts and seem to buy into Pochettino. So they may be grumbling that Man Utd are paying Lingard a stupid amount of money and they can earn more but we are in a position that we can name our price and the majority will still play for Pochettino. Its not ideal but as stated our problem is that we have too many high quality players so its not a terrible place to be in. Now if Pochettino left then that could end up being a disaster.[/QUOTE]

 

[Bobbins]

Objectively speaking, it's weird to me that players will sign a new contract and sometimes multiple new contracts during the season but as soon as the window opens they're moaning about their wages. Are they thick? Stop agreeing a deal you're not going to like and your problem is solved

 

[Hercules]

Do not take it that Poch is totally happy, despite his media front, players sign new contracts with assurances and promises. It cuts both ways. We have come 3rd/2nd respectively. You have to adapt accordingly. I know a few agents and high profile players, and how it works.


Anyone going to harp on about 'shouldn't sign contracts etc...' is living in cloud cuckoo land, and do not really understand how it really works. We have been fortunate to have landed Poch the way we did. How long will it last depends on Daniel Levy. New stadium excuses, as factual as they are only goes so far.


Our main players want success. If we do not achieve that within the next season, or evidential signs of progress will have at least 4 of our players (if not more) demanding moves.