I agree with this. I love talking about Spurs as it is something that is close to me, as I am sure it is for everyone else that has a contrary view to me.
The bit that I find incredible is the sensationalist "we are ****", "player x is ****", "Poch is ****", "Levy is ****" type comments because it is way OTT. Why do I think it is OTT? Because our performances, league position, performance in cups etc.... showed that we are not ****. We finished 2 points ahead of Liverpool in sixth, 4 points ahead of Southampton in seventh and 8 points ahead of Swansea in eighth. We were 6 points off Man United in fourth and 11 points off Ar5ena1 in third.
Us not signing Berahino, Nije or whichever other forward yet is not going to see us plummet and be overtaken by the likes of Stoke (10 points behind) and West Ham (17 points behind!).
Financially speaking we are the sixth biggest in terms of turnover. The team that are fifth biggest (Liverpool) have approx £76m more in revenue. £76m. The team that is fourth (Ar5ena1) have approximately £120m greater turnover. The UK club that comes after us in terms of turnover is Saudi Sportswashing Machine with £130m which is £50m less than us.
Then you add in the fact that we have spent £30m+ on a training complex and up to end of June 2014 have spent £81m+ on the stadium. That is a fair chunk of our full turnover without having paid for any costs! We have been spending this money for a number of years, granted, but those around us are not spending that. Does it not stand to reason, therefore, that something has to give?
If people are frustrated that we haven't signed player X or Y "to get us into the top 4" then you will always be frustrated until our turnover is at a level that compares with them. It simply cannot be done, without going into debt. The money is not there! Try and do this regularly over a number of seasons, and the debt pile increases.
We showed that we could compete with the big boys on football field. We did break into the top 4 twice recently! Liverpool did it once in the same time period despite having a far greater revenue and no comparable infrastructure costs. I'm sorry to turn this into a boring accounting post, but unfortunately this is the lot that we are given. It is akin to asking yourself why your wage will not buy you a the Ferrari that David Beckham has just bought. Stamping your feet, saying "stick your neck out", "speculate to accumulate" are just not going to work.
If we did "speculate to accumulate", to just the tune of £30m say. That's not uncontrollable debt at all. Where is the guarantee that that will work? You only have £30m, and you have it the once because to get another £30m speculation you will need to take a further £30m out. So would it not make sense, that if you were speculating, you'd be that extra little bit cautious and instead of putting it on the latest shares/saving scheme on the market that has shown a late surge, you may just do quite a bit of research. Enough to make you feel comfortable that this "speculation" is grounded and will deliver value. Otherwise, you're in a worse situation than you were originally as you have £30m to pay off.
Yes, we have a new EPL deal coming in. That comes in next year! To spend it now, you need to take the debt now. Yes you can pay it off next year when the increased, guaranteed earnings come in but then you can't spend it next year.
Then we have the irony. When we had a windfall from the Bale sale, we did "speculate" and we "speculated" wildly reinvesting the whole windfall into players and not into anything else. We bought 7 fully fledged, well rated internationals. They didn't have EPL experience, but that's still not to say they couldn't have been a success. Henry, Viera, Berbatov, Modric, Torres (in his first liverpool spell) to name but a few. 3 of the 7 have gone. Of the 4 remaining, 2 have been quite good and 2 not so. What people are asking for now, is that we "speculate" on Shaquiri, Affelay and whichever other foreign international Stoke, West Ham or whoever has spent their money on!
Ahh, but we should have spent that money on players with proven EPL experience. In that transfer window, the following players (over £5m) with EPL experience were transferred:
1. Stephen Caulker;
2. Lukaku;
3. Chamakh;
4. Arouna Kone;
5. Curtis Davies;
6. Huddlestone;
7. Livermore;
8. Mignolet;
9. Fellaini;
10. Remy (was a loan);
11. Andy Carrol; and
12. Downing.
Which of these players would you want in your team?
We could go out and spend £40m on a load of players. There have been plenty of transfers. Proven EPL quality this season in the form of Cech, Sinclair, Michah Richards, Connor Wickham, Deulofeu, Milner, Ings, Clyne, Benteke, Sterling, Delph, Schneiderlin, Caulker, Seb Coates, Kaboul, Trippier, Alderweireld, Capoue, James Chester, and Lambert. Other foreign imports have also come in. That will keep a lot of people very happy until the point one of them fails. Then they become poor buys, and why didn't the technical director, scout, Levy see this coming. We should have spent that extra £10m and got some real quality. Stupid penny pinching Levy. And the circle continues.
I'm being deliberately simplistic, because, you know what, I would imagine a fair few of those foreign signings would be quite successful. But they're a risk. For every Berbatov there is a Soldado. When people say "why haven't we signed Shaquiri or Ayew" because it is obvious that they will be successful I point you to Soldado, Paulinho, Lamela, Falcao.... There is no obvious.
