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Why gambling with Spurs future is folly


Why gambling with Spurs future is folly


Why-gambling-with-Spurs-future-is-folly

Big debate going on all morning on Twitter with valid arguments on both sides of course, but why do people have to resort to personal insults? Children not matured yet.

The whole argument is should you gamble or continue on the upward path we are on, following sound business practices.

I, as you know, support Levy and while we have money to spend, gambling is not the option.

Why?

Well everyone assumes if you gamble and buy players you succeed, but there is no guarantee in that. Leeds United tried it when in the Champions League and it destroyed their club. To suggest that can't happen to Spurs is stupid, of course, it can. I bet you Leeds United fans would have said exactly the same thing.


We all want a host of trophies, not just one and need to build a sustainable business to pay the wages that winning trophies regularly demands.

In an ideal world, gambling would succeed, but the leagues are littered with clubs who have tried it at their various levels and failed, some getting relegated when spending to win a league.

Look at the other side for a moment, that downward side, if, Spurs gambled, spent heavily and failed to achieve Champions League football. That is essential for profile, for commercial and sponsorship income, TV and prize money, all the things that actually pay the wages of the players.

Entrance money doesn't.

OK, assuming no Champions League, we then have an unsustainable wage bill we are tied into for the next 5 years. It is inevitable, we then have to tighten our belts. You can't seriously expect a splurge one window and it not to affect future windows with a reduced income expecting the season after.

Does that not takeus back to where we don't want to be, the club with less money in the wrong competition and thus a club. Players will only come to if they can't secure a deal to a Champions League club home or abroad.

If Spurs express an interest to a player, they don't wet themselves and fall over themselves to join, we are not Real Madrid or Barcelona.... yet.

Transfers are paid for by instalments over the term of a contract. Thus our instalment income is subtracted from our instalment expenditure on players and the difference, to our set transfer budget, is what we have to spend. Additional money can, of course, be added to that, but those figures play a big part in what we can spend.

It is why we try to get the best deal on players, the same as any other club buying or selling.

How many gamblers are successful?

How many gamblers fail?

Plenty of fans say we should gamble. Are they right?

The downside is too great to risk.

Failure means stagnation, not growth as we have now, it means going backwards instead of forward. The same fans will still moan because they are jealous of Sugar Daddy clubs and to try and behave as if that is us isn't a sensible option.

What we can afford isn't based on one season. It's a forward projection of income, from which you set budgets, including a wages budget.

Players have contracts for 5 years, thus your wages expenditure must be able to be covered by your budget or you have to reduce it. Success and of course you can increase it.

What you don't do, is increase it to a level you can't afford in the hope that success will mean you can afford it,

That would be illogical, yet it is the advice of those whose money it isn't.

COYS

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14 comments

  1. Wholeheartedly agree with this post...besides which, I believe that the level of player salaries and transfer fees has reached (or is reaching) a plateau...even Woodward has blinked and maybe 'smelt the coffee'.
    That said I would still like to see our left side reinforced defensively before the window closes, but I won't be pointing the finger of blame should that not happen.
  2. It does appear that the 'great unwashed' are pursuing their normal approach to the lack of transfer activity on our part.
    Putting aside the fact that our benefactors have invested huge sums into the club's infrastructure, very little of which has been acknowledged by the scum that call themselves supporters, they fail to realise that their constant attacks show a lack of confidence in our manager & players, the implication being that the current squad is not good enough to progress further without more signings.
    The chavs are desperate to hang onto what they have and yet another poor sap has been invited to perform managerial duties..
    The arse are going through a remodelling process and, if reports are to be believed, it's from the boardroom right down to the ballboys!
    Maureen is throwing his toys out of the pram (as usual).
    The bin dippers have forked out £150m in an effort to maintain their 4th place and now Klopp has the unenviable task of integrating 4 new players …
    • They are not benefactors. The stadium will be paid for by sponsorship and fan-generated revenue. Levy and Lewis have not invested any of their own money.
    • Ok Josh substitute 'guardians' for 'benefactors'(a term DL has used recently).
      Personally I don't have a problem with the financial side of THFC following tried & tested business tenets.
      It's quite normal for businesses to take on debt in order to expand...why spend when you can borrow at historically low rates of interest?
      We have to wait & see if the jump in our commercial revenue will be sufficient to service that debt (don't forget the hotel and apartment blocks also).
      I know that anything I say will not alter your point of view Josh...you expect a billionaire to put his hand in his pockets and rain money on the club although I think you should get used to the idea that 'it ain't gonna happen'.
      Meanwhile lets bask in the expectation of a world class sports & entertainment centre.
      "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything" - G B Shaw.
    • Huh? Where did I say I expected a billionaire to rain down money on the club? I simply pointed out that enic aren't paying for the stadium, contrary to what you believe.
    • They say money doesn't grow on trees. This is also true about loans. If you believe that the collateral for these loans are not part of ENIC's bottom line then I'm afraid your understanding of business and finance is probably too far off base even to continue a discussion. It's almost as if you think that buying and running a football club is a cheap and straightforward thing to do.

      Outside investors don't manage the project generally - and certainly not in this case. That's done by ENIC, and that's why having Levy at the helm is so important.

      Don't take my word for it. Have a look elsewhere - other clubs' blogs etc. - and see how they view him. Most of them would kill for such a chairman, and laugh at many of the Spurs supporters bleating about wanting a sugar-daddy chairman, just as we laugh at the Arse ones for always bitching about a manager that most clubs would have killed for over the last couple of decades.

      Come on. Think about what you&…
    • This comment has been removed by the author.
    • We seem to have misunderstood each other Josh and are at cross purposes but what I can assure you is that ENIC is paying for the stadium through retained cash and short term borrowing facilities and I wouldn't be surprised if there were guarantees (from Lewis for example) underwriting at least part of those loans but that's supposition on my part.
      I you believe that ENIC is not paying then to whom did those banks lend money to?
  3. Like Hibbs I see this as a no-brainer Clive.

    However we've managed it, and I suspect it was more by judgement than luck, we have a formula that's clearly working to improve our prospects year on year. How anyone could think that it's a good idea to abandon that approach when it's been so successful, in spite of not providing immediate and overwhelming success, is absolutely beyond me.

    Thankfully, we still have Pochettino and Levy running the club - and I can think of none better in either position.

    COYS!!
    • That's the irony about the complaints from people moaning about a lack of signings. It's this measured approach that has got Spurs to this position to begin with! The days when we used to splash out on Bentley, Bent etc or when we wasted the Bale money (Eriksen aside) got us nowhere.
    • Indeed. Very true.

      COYS!!
  4. When you see comments from other clubs' sites how they would be happier with Levy at their helm - it just shows how simple-minded are so many of our own supporters that can never be comfortable unless the cash is splashed in an uncontrolled frenzy.

    Frankly, it's hard even to comprehend that level of stupidity.

    COYS!!
  5. Poch knows we limped across the line in the final week with a fatigued side, most of whom will be returning without having had adequate rest. He didn't complacently expect fatigued players to repeat last season's achievement, which is why he took the unprecedented step of publicly calling for Levy to be brave this transfer window and strengthen the team early and with quality. That's something Ferguson did every sumner and something he doubtless advised Poch to do.
    • You'd be surprised.

      Many believe Levy is the one stopping transfers, but actually Poch is very confident about who he wants. If those players aren't available he often won't go for the backups. He's extremely selective about the types of players he wants to work with. Attitude and flexibility are very much the attributes he most values.

      No, Pochettino is not blind to the problems experienced by many of our players when the big international competitions come up. Nevertheless, he understands their importance and, being the winner he is, works within those constraints.

      He was certainly suggesting we continue to be brave, but that's the opposite of going out and splashing the cash. His approach is to build and build. To put things into place that will serve for the long term. Never has he been a proponent of the type of approach where you rely on buying quality in. Actually, I would say he's actually one of the leading lights of the opposite approach.

      So - be …