Tottenham Talk on Monday 9th Aug
Tottenham Talk on Monday 10th Aug
OK, today in our cosy little chat over a cup of your favourite morning brew (it's tea here), I'll talk of the financial timebomb a major European league winner has got themselves in.
I talk of current Serie A champions Inter Milan, who as I reported a couple of months ago, are on the financial precipice.
Maybe you didn't realize the seriousness of that blog post and the implications which the choice of some, those I block, could put Spurs in.
The wrong owner can kill your club.
Barcelona and Inter Milan are facing bankruptcy, Barca can no longer afford to keep Messi.
The situations are different but with the same outcome potentially.
Barcelona have been financially mismanaged while Inter became reliant on Chinese money.
The Chinese government thought they could buy acceptance through football and encouraged firms to invest in it, hence the rise of the Chinese Super League and signings on ridiculous money of stars.
It was Government backed.
But the Chinese government changed it's mind and decided to pull out of football so now the Chinese Super League is on the decline and firms are stopping investment in football.
Companies are no longer encouraged and helped to take money out of China to invest in European football clubs.
The club is reliant on that money though.
It is reliant on inflated Chinese sponsorship deals, which will all cease when Sunning no longer own the club, expected to be within a year.
Between 2017 and 2019 they received €260m from these Chinese sources so no buyer wants to get involved, certainly not at the €1bn the Suning Group are asking.
They have loans with investment forms which they are likely to default on when they become due.
Oaktree will then own Inter Milan.
The same thing happened to AC Milan.
They owed €300m to Elliot Management after Yonghong Li took out the loan to buy the club and defaulted.
It is a real possibility it could happen to Inter.
Inter’s net spend of €352m over the last five years is still the highest in Italian soccer and yet head coach Conte left because they wouldn't spend more.
Martinez has reportedly told friends he has his “heart set” on joining Tottenham after talking with Paratici.
The Italian Champions have posted a loss of €102m in their latest financial results.
The Sunning Group owned a Chinese Super League team, Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty, which they renamed Jiangsu Suning.
They invested heavily, bought stars and won the Chinese Super League.
Within weeks the club folded amid financial difficulty. They couldn't find a buyer because of huge debt and the staff and players were owed 8 months wages.
This is the same company that bought the Premier League TV rights for China at £523m, but they could afford to pay and deal collapsed.
The Suning Group has huge debts and are restructuring to stop themselves going under, football does not figure in the restructuring.
Suning wants to sell Inter, they have to, but they have one of the most inflated wage bills in Italy and on top of a global pandemic and loss of income, aren't an attractive proposition.
There are various payments due this summer of £144m, the Sun reported they owe Manchester United £47m for Lukaku, now on his way to Chelsea for £97.5m.
So even after that sale they will still have to find £46.5m plus the cost of buying players to replace the ones they have to sell, like Lukaku.
There are reports of them looking to replace him with 35-year-old (36 next March) Edin Džeko.
Inter’s net spend of €352m over the last five years is still the highest in Italian soccer and yet head coach Conte left because they wouldn't spend more.
Silverware came before the club and by chasing the Serie A title, the club have financially screwed themselves.
They won't be challenging this season, nor for the foreseeable future, that is if they can stay afloat even.
The business comes first as it funds the football.
I repeat yet again what Sir Alex Ferguson said on TV in a programme about him after his retirement, you have to have a successful business off the pitch to have success on the pitch, and by that he meant regular success, not a one-off success.
You have to be careful what owners you have.
Manchester United don't have a Sugar Daddy, but have a greater income than any other Premier League club.
Even Sugar Daddy money has to be paid back at some point under FFP rules today and yet that's what simpletons want for Spurs!
You see their tweets, they would happily do an Inter and screw the club for donkeys years to come.
The more revenue streams the club has, the less reliant it becomes on one. What will happen to some clubs if the TV money bubble bursts?
They'll be gone, some have totally unsustainable wage bills up to 80% of turnover, that's suicide.
Winning Serie A and UEFA Champions League football isn't financially providing for Inter is it.
You must be careful what you wish for.
Clubs in Italy lost €754m, with turnover falling half a billion euros last season alone.
Inter Milan’s players and staff were asked to give up their salaries for two months by the club president Steven Zhang.
They want to generate €80m this window and cut the wage bill by an absolute minimum of 15%.
Inter Milan are reportedly €640m in debt even after the owners pumped €695m into the club!
The tweet above suggests every player is available for sale, they'll sell anyone to raise money.
With the mismanagement the anti-Levy anti-ENIC anti-Tottenham smattering would empty, Spurs would end up in the same position, having to have a fire sale to stay afloat.
The 'it can't happen to us' cry was probably and I can tell you still is the view of Inter fans on Twitter.
Trouble on the horizon, big time.
Lautaro Martínez
Lukaku gone and now Spurs have had a bid accepted for 23-year-old (24 in August) Argentinian international (28 caps, 14 goals, 3 assists) striker Lautaro Martínez.
Both their main strikers could be gone.
Lautaro Martínez has scored 37 goals and had 16 assists in 100 Serie A games, in 6,375 minutes, the equivalent to 70.83 games.
Assessing his time in minutes takes 29 games off his appearances and makes his figures look better.
He scored a goal every 172 minutes and has a goal participation time (goal or assist) of 120 minutes.
So 70.83 full games and 53 goals or assists.
Not bad in a league where they take pride in defending.
His agent says Martínez is happy at Inter but he may yet be told to leave by the owners who may well have negotiated with Spurs without Inter officials knowledge, their position is that bad.
It is being reported that the club say he isn't for sale, yet you don't agree a fee for someone who isn't for sale.
This isn't a straight forward situation with Inter's financial troubles.
As revealed above, they have £144m to pay this summer.
The sales of Hakimi and Lukaku bring in £148.38m but they need replacing so there is still more money to raise, a wage bill to reduce and forward planning, as there will be more bills next summer.
This is not dead, as some would have you believe.
I'm not saying it will come off, but it's not dead by any means.
As we know, Paratici agrees several deals then fits things together, including outgoings to then decide who to actually buy.
And Spurs fans think you just choose your first option and try to buy them then work down your list, afraid football transfers don't work like that.
Paratici is bringing to light a fairly standard practice. I have written about it before but now it's Paratici doing the educating so perhaps a few more will take it on board now.
Dušan Vlahović
Paratici had meeting with Fiorentina last week, Dušan Vlahović's agent flies to Italy next week to discuss a possible contract extension or sale.
He may be our main target but, as reported before, he has stated previously that he wants to stay at Fiorentina for another season before he moves.
We'll see if that is the case.
You will see that Manchester United have spent more than Manchester City and do not have a Sugar Daddy owner.
Well, I don't want to make the post too long for you, as usual it is packed with news, insights and common sense views.
Loans and Options
You might be asking why we are looking at loan deals with options or obligations to buy.The answer is twofold.
Firstly the stadium has been empty so by delaying payments for a season, Spurs get a seasons revenue from the new stadium under our belts before we spend the money.
At the moment, our 'game changer' hasn't even seen a full season of fans yet, so let's hope this season is that season.
The second part is that if it is an option to buy, we get to view the player and we are in control of the situation.
If it is an obligation to buy then we are not in control.
There are of course transfers where we are sure but still initially have a loan deal and have easy targets to achieve, like starting 10 games to activate an obligation to buy clause.
Takehiro Tomiyasu
Now that the Olympics has finished we will see the signing of the Japanese player for whom we have had everything agreed for a while now.
The press of course want to make a drama out of nothing happening. Paratici who went to Italy for a series of meetings didn't have one planned with Bologna, why would he with everything already agreed in principle.
Kyah Simon
Australian forward (100 caps, 26 goals), 30-year-old (31 next June) Kyah Simon has signed for Tottenham Women on a 2-year deal.
Simon is the first Indigenous player and just the ninth Matildas representative to make 100 appearances for Australia.
She was with PSV but had injury issues and is now the latest in a number of signing by manager Rehanne Skinner as part of her summer rebuild.
Tottenham Women have released 11 players this summer and signed 7 so are probably not done yet.
Duje Ćaleta-Car
News from France and newspaper L'Equipe that West Ham have submitted a bid for 24-year-old (25 in September) Marseille centre-back Duje Ćaleta-Car.
However they were informed that the Croatian international (16 caps, 1 assist) has already agreed to join Spurs.
The Hammers bid was worth €14m (£11.87m - US$16.47m - AUS$22.39m) and £150,000-a-week (€176,935 - US$208,125 - AUS$282,940) but he turned it down.
L'Equipe say West Ham returned with a bid of €17m (£14.41m - US$20m - AUS$27.19m) but that Ligue 1 side Marseille want €20m (£16.96m - US$23.53m - AUS$31.98m).
That backs up a story from the Croatian media a week or so ago that I reported on as a part of my Tottenham Transfer Talk round-ups.
Tottenham have held talks with 28-year-old (29 next February) Wolves centre-back Connor Coady and 29-year-old (30 in November) Brighton captain Lewis Dunk.
Transfer Spend
Now I haven't checked the figures below so I'll just take them at face value to make a point.
You will see that Manchester United have spent more than Manchester City and do not have a Sugar Daddy owner.
They just have a huge income, in the same ball-park as Manchester City.
City have built their business to pay for the clubs transfers, they do not come from a Sugar Daddy. OK, we can argue over dodgy sponsorship deals and being unable to prove anything in a court of law without Man City co-operating, but the point is they are not using a Sugar Daddy as so many assume they are.
You can see Chelsea expenditure isn't huge either, but Spurs fans assume that their transfers are funded by a Sugar Daddy.
That should further show our supporters that, much as they would have liked ENIC to buy players, they are not allowed to now, the books must balance.
Stay positive folks.
3 comments
Happier days Bob
1. I wrote a post on the refinancing of a loan and thus the fact we would have money this window.
2. The players we are bringing in are on lower wages than those going out so we are saving weekly on the wages bill.
3. The stadium will have spectators and generate more revenue.
4. Deals like the Romero deal are an initial loan, so we aren't paying until next summer.
5. Transfer payments are usually in instalments over the term of a players contract, so 50m euros for Romero for instance would be a 10m a year for 5 years. Not always the case but usually, sometimes over 3 years etc.
6. A stadium naming rights deal is expected imminently, in the final stages of negotiation.