Unlike most of their rivals at the top of the Premier League, it seems that Tottenham aren’t too concerned about profit margins and spending, already using over £60 million this summer to bring in Etienne Capoue, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Roberto Soldado.
When you compare them to the rest of the top clubs in England (Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal), Spurs are actually the second biggest spenders in the league. Chelsea have been slightly busy, but not too much, spending £31 million so far which is very unlike Jose Mourinho. Manchester United have made no significant signing except one young Uruguayan player for £1.5 million. Arsenal? Young, yes, but for free, and that’s about it, while Manchester City remain in the lead with over £97 million spent on new players.
This is the second straight season in which Tottenham are spending big money, using £64.6 million to bring in Lewis Holtby, Ezekiel Fryers, Hugo Lloris, Clint Dempsey, Moussa Dembele, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jan Vertonghen and Gylfi Siggurdson. Not all of them have turned out to be bingo signings, but Tottenham hardly spend too much on one player, with Soldado being the only one over the last couple of years to cost more than £20 million.
While Tottenham might not be competing for the biggest names in European football, and it’s hard to do that without a huge stadium (with a capacity of “only” 36,000) or any Champions League football (only once since the beginning of the competition), they’ve been quite successful in a slightly lower tier, while trying to go for players who are mostly just before their footballing peak, while often coming at lowered prices due to contract situations.
Has it been paying off? Probably. Spurs have finished 4th or 5th for the last four seasons, something that hasn’t happened since the 1960’s, when they were last crowned English champions, and Jimmy Greaves was still scoring goals for them.
But completely putting in a stake at the top of the mountain which means being a member of the top 4 has alluded them. Even when they have managed to finish fourth in 2012 the UCL spot was taken away from them by Chelsea due to them winning the competition. Last season it ended up going down to the final weekend of football.
Gareth Bale might be the difference between success and failure to accomplish the goal this year. Looking at their squad, they probably have a better one, individually, than Arsenal. Manchester United are fragile, and Spurs didn’t lose to them last season. Chelsea and Manchester City might be bigger problems, but Spurs, with Bale, if he finally gets out of this depression, should be worthy challengers. Money isn’t everything, but Tottenham have been spending enough of it quite wisely to make it matter in the long run, and finally put them in a position to finish in the top 4 and actually make it mean something.