Twitter talks wages


TOTTENHAM TALK


There are big discussions going on on Twitter around the topic of wages and what Spurs can afford and what we can't.

Some people seem to think I have made up these figures. They are all from each clubs last audited accounts that are in the public domain.

Manchester United WAGES £232m
Arsenal WAGES £195m
Manchester City WAGES £198m
Chelsea WAGES £224m
Liverpool WAGES £208m
Spurs TURNOVER just £210m
They show the situation as at June 2016 and while we have increased income since then, so does every other club, so shouting  we have the money to increase wages (which we have done anyway) forgets that so does everyone else, so our  wages in relation to them will still retain it's huge gap.

For instance, we have a new £30m Nike shirt deal, well Chelsea have a new £60m shirt deal so immediately form that source they have £30m more income than we do. This is one example of commercial and sponsorship income coming into the club and what we are fighting against. Cover that across all commercial income and it isn't hard to see the problem. Other clubs simply have a greater income than we do and we have to cut our cloth, especially when our stadium is being paid for from our turnover.

Yes we have loans, we have financing for the stadium, but what most seem to forget is that servicing those loans, paying the loan payments, comes from our turnover, the same turnover that is paying the wages.

I know fans don't like it, but the reality is the wages situation is going to remain the same while we build our commercial income once we are in the new stadium. Until then we have to punch above our weight, develop the next stars and superstars. We have to do something similar to what Monchi did at Sevilla in winning the UEFA Europa League 5 times while buying a selling players each season.

Yes it is important that we win a trophy to help keep our players here and we have to have the leeway to be able to increase our wage level next summer as well as having already increased it last season, when everyone signed new improved contracts.

How much are Champions League wages? £150,000-a-week?

Let's do the same sums we did before.

Two new players on £150,000-a-week = £300,000-a-week.
That comes to £15.6m annually.

Hugo Lloris will have written into his contract that he, as captain, must be the clubs highest paid player so he will need a £50,000-a-week wage increase.
That comes to £2.6m annually.

Harry Kane will need parity so that another £50,000-a-week salary increase to pay.
That comes to £2.6m annually

Toby Alderweireld will want parity so from £70,000-a-week that is an increase of £80,000-a-week.
That comes to £4.16m annually.

Dele Alli will need paying the same wage to keep him as long as we can so from £65,000-a-week, that is an increase of £85,000-a-week.
That comes to £4.42m annually.

Christian Eriksen will need an increase and if we are increasing our top wage by £50,000-a-week, then he is going to want as much of that as possible, say £40,000-a-week.
That comes to £2.08m annually.

Eric Dier will want the same as Eriksen at least so another £40,000-a-week wage increase.
That comes to £2.08m annually.

Danny Rose, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Son Heung-min and Victor Wanyama are all going to want the same, so 5 X £40,000-a-week = £200,000-a-week.
That comes to £10.4m annually.

Erik Lamela, Kieran Trippier, Vincent Janssen and Ben Davies will then all need increases, what will they get £30,000-a-week, so 4 X £30,000-a-week = £120,000-a-week.
That comes to £6.24m annually.

Harry Winks, Georges-Kevin N'Koudou, Michel Vorm and Kevin Wimmer, what will they get £20,000-a-week. so 4 X £20,000-a-week = £80,000-a-week.
That comes to £4.16m annually.

Cameron Carter-Vickers is making his way but will still need a wage increase now we have raised our wage structure so how about £10,000-a-week.
That comes to £520,000 annually.

Total = £54.86m per year

Where does the money come for that next season and the season after? Assume for a minute that we don't qualify for the UEFA Champions League so our revenue drops by £30m while you have increased the wage budget by £54.86m, that's is an effective difference of £84.86m. Where is that money coming from for the next few years, not just this season?

We haven't factored into the equation the cost of buying these two world class players, how much are they going to cost? A minimum of £30m each, although in today's market more like £50m, which will buy you another Kyle Walker standard player. That's an expenditure of between £60m and £100m on top of the £54.86m you have just raised the wages by to buy these 2 players.

Total increase in outlay between £114.86m and £134.86m plus a potential drop in income for a season of £30m, offset by 20 home games producing an extra £1m per game (which is what Arsenal match day income increased by) £20m. Our situation would be much worse than it is now and financially the club would be at risk with loan payments on a stadium to pay for.

Our total turnover in the 2016 accounts was £210m, yes it has raised, so has everyone else's and we will have already budgeted the increase in TV revenue and shirt deal money into our financial projections and therefore our affordable wages budget.

You can argue all you like on Twitter, the reality is somewhat different than the anti-Levy see it I'm afraid. ENIC's money is not our money and they have no obligation to pump it into the club, it isn't a toy for them, the same with most club owners, who are generally investment companies these days.

The situation at Spurs won't change for a while yet.


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