Tottenham and the transfer market

[Dubwise]

I am am curious as to what people think about how Spurs conduct themselves transfer wise

I see us as a club that is notoriously difficult to deal with, in the sense we will try and squeeze every dollar out of a potential sale and save every dollar in a potential purchase now obviously this makes sense in a normal economic situation but football is not a normal economic situation

Sometimes you need to over spend to get what you want when you want it and sometimes you have to undersell to get rid of something for anything at all

Some of Levy's dealings have been amazing, the price we got for Palacios and Crouch being the perfect example and obviously VDV but when i hear about us jeopradising deals for a play like Leandro over 1 or 2 million pounds it annoys me

Are you happy that we are a club that is incredibly meticulous in their spending or do you wish we would take a gamble more often and make quick moves in the transfer market for immediate effect but obviously raising the level of risk? Are you happy that we are frugal and seem to make purchases that are economicaly sound but lack a bit of excitement?

I am not advocating us living beyond our means ala Leeds but i would like for us to take that exotic gamble and i wake up one morning and see that we have bought say Cavani for 35 million pounds.

The good thing is as long as we are run by Levy will always be financially stable which is most important but, arghhhh, it frustrates me that every single transfer seems drawn out or a last minute bargain buy

Anyway, i guess what i am asking is, do you like our transfer policy or does it frustrate the hell out of you?

During the transfer window it annoys me, but then when i look at it in hindsight i always feel we are very shrewd and possibly the best run club in the league

Also, my apologies, this is my first night on the forum and i have been posting like mad, as i stated in previous thread i don't now any spurs fans so i am getting things off my mind in bulk, i apologise for just barging in and talking a lot of rubbish, i don't normally post this much, i felt i should put in a disclaimer

 

[tototoner]

Good post and you make a lot of good points

Levy is doing exactly the right thing now, but with increased Stadium and regular CL money will we pay more wages and then we'll be able to attract any player in the world, especially if FFP kicks in and is followed.

 

[tototoner]

Harry from his press conference just now made a very telling comment on just this issue

from Ben Pearce ( Twitter )

" Redknapp said that finishing in the top 2 or 3 won't convince players to commit long-term - it will always be about the money "

 

[Kendall]

Happy with it. We are very well run and few million here and a few million there adds up. You have to remember we've taken massive hits on the likes of Bentley, Hutton and Keane recently. That will wind Levy up as he usually has a knack of getting full value back on players.

If we have an amount we think a player is worth, I'm happy we don't go over it for the hell of it.

 

[Dubwise]

Good post and you make a lot of good points

Levy is doing exactly the right thing now, but with increased Stadium and regular CL money will we pay more wages and then we'll be able to attract any player in the world, especially if FFP kicks in and is followed.

Glad the post made sense, i feared it was total jibberish based on too much shiraz.

I guess at the end of the day i am glad to see us doing things the right way, for instance if the league suddenly put in place a salary cap we would be fine as we live within our means where as Man City would probably only be able to field Yaya Toure.

I guess a good question to ponder is, would u be happy if we became a rich mans toy and got success or would you find it a hollow acheivement

I really don't know the answer from my point of view, it would be exciting being linked with the likes of goetze and hazard and having players like ballotelli on the bench

I guess i would never be unhappy to seeing spurs win, so if we got a rich backer i would just go along with it and hope we don't end up in league 2 in 5 years in administration becasue the rich man got bored

I kinda digressed from my original topic there, so now there are multilple things to ponder, ohh the philosophical musings of a drunk football fan

I guess that it is also impossible to make a post with more paragraphs that start with the opening words "i guess"

I GUESS

 

[talkshowhost86]

Harry from his press conference just now made a very telling comment on just this issue

from Ben Pearce ( Twitter )

" Redknapp said that finishing in the top 2 or 3 won't convince players to commit long-term - it will always be about the money "

I think this is very much the crux of the badger. It doesn't matter if we have £35m to spend on one player (which I suspect we do if we want to). With our wage structure those sorts of players aren't in our price bracket. The obvious retort to that is that we should amend our wage structure and whilst I agree there is probably a little bit of room for manouvre, I don't think we'll ever be a club that offers 150k a week in wages (which is the sort of amounts players like Cavani can command).

By putting one player on that amount, others will start to want the same and then our entire wage structure is shattered and I'm not sure there's a way around that if we want to remain economically sensible.

We'd all love Spurs to be able to go out and buy the likes of Cavani but the reality is that those players are only available to clubs who aren't aiming to run their clubs like a business. Unless we get an oil rich tycoon who is happy to plunder his cash into Spurs then we have to operate like a business and Levy is definitely the right man for the job.

Yes he can be frustrating and yes sometimes he gets it wrong, but would you rather be watching a £100m + team in 6th (Liverpool) or a £50m team challenging for the title?

Good post though from the OP. I think it sums up the combination of respect for what Levy has achieved with that underlying desire to take it a step further so that we can buy whoever we want.

 

[wooderz]

We are a rich man's toy, Joe Lewis is minted...he just doesn't like to waste his money!

 

[cockerel downunder]

Just ask David moyes whether he'd rather have levy as his chairman! Or Leeds fans...

 

[doowaa]

The only time I get frustrated with it is when we miss out on a target because of money or when a player leaves over money issues. But then again our chairman can take pride in the fact that he has ran a fairly tight ship over the last few seasons, he has always backed our managers within reason and we are now seeing the fruits of his investment on the pitch.

Focus on what Spurs are doing, not the other teams like City, or the worst offenders Liverpool. Be thankful that we have a chairman who would never sanction the deals they have done over the last twelve months. Carrol 35m, Henderson 18m, Downing 18m, Coates 8m, adam 7m, Suarez 20m. That doesn't include how much they're spending on those guys wages, and it's not working out too well for them.

I'm happy with our spending, I like our chairman's style and I hope that he is rewarded with Champions League football this season. Anything else is a bonus.

PS welcome aboard.

 

[dontcallme]

It can frustrate at times. People still talk about the first two games as a time when we were genuinely lacking in certain areas. An extra million would probably have got us Scott Parker for the beginning of the season. It looked like a great deal getting Parker for £5m, and it was, but holding out has potentially cost us.

Overall though I love out transfer policy. We aren't going to get the likes of Cavani by putting in a huge bid because our wage structure won't allow for it. We are competing at the top end of the table by living within our means. Levy has put together a fantastic squad. Some were bought with huge potential and others were already top quality.

It can frustrate at times but financially we are punching well above our weight.

 

[Paolo10]

We arse about in the market far too much. With the scouting network we have and our profile I think it makes us look like mugs when we're scrabbling about in the last seconds of windows regularly.

Yes, we've got a few good deals out of it, but lately there's been a distinct lack of spending and just because we've gotten value for money in some cases before doesn't really make it any better for me.

The two windows last year when we were in the CL really stick in my throat.

And yet STILL, we have no permanent solution to the striker issue.

 

[akie]

Im certainly happy with our policy, you would be hard pushed to find a club completely happy with there policy (city doesnt count as there must always be a worry of the sheikh pulling out), we have the best compromise, a chairman who will spend on the right player, only sell at the right price and a stable wage budget

 

[talkshowhost86]

We arse about in the market far too much. With the scouting network we have and our profile I think it makes us look like mugs when we're scrabbling about in the last seconds of windows regularly.

Yes, we've got a few good deals out of it, but lately there's been a distinct lack of spending and just because we've gotten value for money in some cases before doesn't really make it any better for me.

The two windows last year when we were in the CL really stick in my throat.

And yet STILL, we have no permanent solution to the striker issue.

That's a little bit unfair. We have a striker who is actually better than any of the strikers we can afford so that seems like a good solution to me.

Also unless you've got endless amounts of cash (which we don't) then 'scrabbling around' on the last day is how pretty much every club does it.

Also the reasons for the lack of spending are surely very clear?

 

[Paolo10]

We should have more than enough cash to sign a permanent striker that would be an upgrade on Pav, there was supposed to be money for bids for Aguero, Rossi and Llorente. We've spent practically dick all since then.

I'm just curious as to where the money went and I'm not talking £2m for Pienaar or £5m for Parker. If there was something concrete about the ground and the money being saved for that I'd be fine and all, but as it stands it's not.

It's about time we we splashed a bit of cash, it's well overdue IMO, especially if we want to maintain the level we're at and build, because you know come the end of the window or when the summer comes the other big hitters will be trying to knock us back down to Earth with serious spending.

What happens if we can't agree terms with Ade and then Modders fucks off? It could still happen and well, it hardly bears thinking about.

We want to shake this thing of being a selling club? We might do when we spend something like what we get paid for our best players.

 

[mattyspurs]

Welcome to the site Dubwise, glad you are getting stuck in straight away.

It's a difficult one as others have alluded to already. We would all love this super mega star striker signing, but firstly they are few and far between, secondly when they are available they all want to wait for the big clubs first, unfortunately we are not classed as one at the moment, althought we are heading in the right direction, thirdly, they all want huge wages, which we can simply not afford with our capacity at the Lane.

I applaud Daniel Levy for the way he has run the club, yes, he has made mistakes, but who hasn't. We puinch above our weight for the money we spend in wages, that is truly a magnificent acheivement, and you've got to hope that somewhere along the way a few big players might just sit up and take notice of how well we are doing and want to take a punt on us.

But for the time being, until we build that shiny new stadium, I am happy being run as we are. If we miss out on targets then so be it.

 

[stemark44]

In the near future I can't see us spending big money on players.
Levy has been caught in the recent past with big signings like Pav,Bentley,Keane,Crouch,Palacios and Bent and even though with tough negotiations we have got most of our money back for some of these players,it has been a huge risk.
I think until we get a new stadium we will be looking at loans and players coming to the end out of their contract's with other clubs.
That's where the value is.

 

[mattyspurs]

We should have more than enough cash to sign a permanent striker that would be an upgrade on Pav, there was supposed to be money for bids for Aguero, Rossi and Llorente. We've spent practically dick all since then.

I'm just curious as to where the money went and I'm not talking £2m for Pienaar or £5m for Parker. If there was something concrete about the ground and the money being saved for that I'd be fine and all, but as it stands it's not.

It's about time we we splashed a bit of cash, it's well overdue IMO, especially if we want to maintain the level we're at and build, because you know come the end of the window or when the summer comes the other big hitters will be trying to knock us back down to Earth with serious spending.

What happens if we can't agree terms with Ade and then Modders fucks off? It could still happen and well, it hardly bears thinking about.

We want to shake this thing of being a selling club? We might do when we spend something like what we get paid for our best players.

Paolo, we probably have got the cash to spend on some players, but it's all well and good making an offer that may well be accepted, it's another trying to agree terms with a player of the status that you mention.

Aguero, around 200k a week at City
Rossi, could commmand in excess of 100K at other clubs
Llorente, rumoured to have wanted 140k when we made an offer in the summer.

We simply cannot compete at the moment with these wages.

Also, your other point, if we finish above Chelsea and Luka still goes to them in the summer, and we have offered him 100k per week, as has been rumoured, then he can go. It is all about the money with him and not potentially winning things.

 

[rsmith]

I have a feeling that Levy will surprise a few people this window.

He has always run the club on the basis of sound financial decisions. I'm sure he realises that being within spitting distance of the Premier League title, it's worth pushing the boat out (by his standards).
It's likely we need to replace Ade at the end of the season anyway, so if there is a world class striker available, I'm sure Levy would do whatever is necessary to bring him in now.

 

[donny1013]

It used to frustrate me over the last few years, mainly last January when we really needed a CF to push on but it just didn't materialise. But I look at where we are now and think Levy has done an unbelievable job.
Citeh and Chelski are the exception to the rule, they won the lottery, then you have Liverpool (first US owners) Pompey, Blackburn, Villa, Everton and to an extent Woolwich who haven't exactly flourished due to new ownership or the fact the owners don't know what their doing. We are very lucky to have Levy in charge.

 

[Paolo10]

Paolo, we probably have got the cash to spend on some players, but it's all well and good making an offer that may well be accepted, it's another trying to agree terms with a player of the status that you mention.

Aguero, around 200k a week at City
Rossi, could commmand in excess of 100K at other clubs
Llorente, rumoured to have wanted 140k when we made an offer in the summer.

We simply cannot compete at the moment with these wages.

Also, your other point, if we finish above Chelsea and Luka still goes to them in the summer, and we have offered him 100k per week, as has been rumoured, then he can go. It is all about the money with him and not potentially winning things.

I'm not talking about buying the Aguero's of the World, I'm saying that money should still be there for players like Leandro, Remy, younger players that haven't made massive moves yet. If you're paying scouts to tell you Messi, Aguero and C. Ronaldo are good players, then it's money for nothing.

If we do not upgrade the 3 players most of us seem to have issues with (Pav, GDS, Bassong), (which realistically is very doable and again we should have the finances to so) then someone is failing.

If Luka does go in the Summer for whatever million, we will scrimp on a replacement, just like Berbatov and then we're back in the shit again.

It's time we broke the cycle.

You don't have to sign superstars to strengthen, but if we don't strengthen, we'll lose all ours and our newly aquired position with it.