Deals are done as a package where transfer fees are only one part of it. Older players tend to be on higher wages, especially the likes of Gallas/VDV etc who have been around the big boys of Europe.
Take Scott Parker. His transfer fee was, what £8? Doesn't sound too much, but according to most sources his wages were astronomical at West Ham and he actually had to take a pay-cut to come to Spurs. Just shows what a tight ship we run compared to other clubs. Parker is probably on one of our top salary packages, he signed a 4 year deal if I remember correctly (i'm just doing all of this off the top of my head so don't bite my head off if i'm wrong), say he's on £60k a week, that's £12m over 4 years and add signing on and agent fees and you're looking at a £25m-£30m commitment for the club.
Before Redknapp joined we tended to seemingly splash the cash a bit more, we paid higher transfer fees for young players, but their wages weren't as high so the deals put in place were probably about the same as those for Pienaar, Crouch, Parker etc.
You sign someone like Helder Postiga, he's 21 and he's on his first pro contract with his home-town club. He costs a bit upfront (about £10m all in all) but his wages won't be high and if he doesn't work out (which he didn't) he's still young enough that someone will take a punt on the potential again and in the end we sent him back to Porto for £5m plus Pedro Mendes which probably equated to getting our money back.
I think levy wants to go back to this kind of deal, which is why Redknapp got the bullet (this isn't ITK, it's just a guess based on some minor info that i do know, plus press speculation, ITK rumours and reported transfer dealings in the press).
