Euro Sport France report we've bid £13.3m for Jean Michel Seri - which is merely £18.7m shy of his release clause, which I'm sure we were no doubt told. A bid of £13.3m + Sissoko would have been more logical.
Monaco have announced that illegal approaches have been made to Kylian Mbappe by PSG and Manchester City. Monaco are to complain to the FFF and FIFA. Given that Citeh are already the recipients of a ban on signing youth players, this could mean a hefty fine or a transfer ban? If only Citeh had a big bag of swag to spend on buying such matters off...........Oh, they do? oh, okay then? Looks like they'll have to do a grovelling Klopp-type apology and get off scot-free.
Would be true if there were shareholders taking profit (on the few occasions it comes) as dividends etc. It feels like Spurs are the only top 4 club that care about competing/ running on a sustainable business model more than glory achieved by being bank-rolled by a Sugga Daddy.
The club motto is to dare is to do. We are so far away from that right now. The current squad is so close to being champions and winning trophies, If we don't have a good season then expect a lot of them to move on to clubs where they can earn more money and win trophies. Winning trophies and titles is the best business model not spending less than you bring in every window.
I get your frustration but a couple of points. 1) I do not think we have people using us as a cash cow, I think we are bei g run as a business. We raise money in order to spend and we make sure that we spend a manageable amount of our income on player wages. I read that we spend approx 60-65% of our income on wages. Paying players £150k plus would effectively involve us spending over 110% of our income on wages. This would involve debt which puts us at risk of being this decades Leeds or Portsmouth. We spend what we can afford on transfers cos of the same reasons. Our lack of transfers are doing my head in but it would be mad for us to be throwing money around on players we either can not afford or do not improve us *coughSissokocough*. 2) we came within a fag paper width of going out of existence in 1991. It took the sale of Gazza and winning that years FA Cup to save us. For all his faults Alan Sugar helped save us. I honestly do not think that some remember how dier things were back then (not a dig at anyone) and do not think people realise how easy it would be to screw up now. The new ground and the NFL matches are attempts to dramatically raise our income and though it may be a slower way to build it is the right way to go imo
Spurs put in bid to sign Messi. < to dare is to do > What are Spurs using to pay his transfer/wage costs ?? < meanwhile, back on planet Earth ... > "Winning trophies and titles is the best business model not spending less than you bring in every window." So every season, 19 PL clubs are not operating the "best" business model.
We have to acknowledge that the vast majority of our players are well aware that there would be queues of far wealthier suitors lining the Seven Sisters were they to announce their intention to leave. In fact, every single one of our starting XI bar possibly Dembele due to his age and injury problems would find a new club and treble or even quadruple their wages in a heartbeat. So what keeps them at Spurs? The belief that they are a crucial part of a very special project. This is something that Poch has emphasised repeatedly and is constantly overlooked by the media who blithely assume that more money = happier squad. It absolutely doesn't. We have without question the best team spirit and atmosphere in the league if not the country and is palpable to all who care to notice it. This group of players have the chance to make history - not just to piss off somewhere to be a galactico in a team of galacticos with so many trophies they need personal museums. I mean real, genuine history. The kind written by Leicester last year, by United in 99, by the double team in 61. The kind that people never forget. I hate to say it, but in 50 years time will anyone remember that a guy called Gareth Bale played for Madrid? Not many. And if they do, will the recall that time fondly? I doubt it. But if Dele Alli, a player plucked from lower league obscurity, helps Spurs to lift the title for the first time in almost 60 years in a brand new stadium....that is the stuff of legends. I would like to think that most of this group appreciate that next season at Wembley could be really, really tough. I would like to think that they will have the patience and foresight to grin and bear it long enough for the Big Push in our first year at the new stadium.
Where did I say we should bid for Messi? Maybe I'm old school but I want to see the club win trophies instead of having a healthy bank balance. Since 1991 we have won 2 league cups, that isn't good enough. We are in a position now to win some trophies if a couple of right additions are made.
If we win a trophy at the expense of a top 4 place and CL football, we won't be able to afford to raise the wage ceiling again next year. That is just the nature of the beast. Ultimately only the players themselves - and perhaps Poch - knows what motivates them more: money or trophies.
1. the club has not enjoyed the league form and cup success it did in the 1980s, PRECISELY because somebody decided that the club having a "healthy bank balance" did not matter. 2. you are lucky there is a "Since 1991" to even debate for Spurs.
Not necessarily: if that trophy we win at the expense of a Top 4 finish is the Champions League, I think we'll be able to balance the books...
For all United's money, their best team contained Beckham, Scholes, Neville's, etc. Our best team since 61? Perry man, Hughton, Miller, Hoddle, Hazard, Galvin. Plus Falco and Brooke. Maybe growing your own is THE BEST WAY if you can pull it off but it's really difficult. Really difficult. Remember 'To Dare is To Do!'
I'm not saying risk the future of the club, but we repeatedly don't invest when we should and can't keep overachieving every season. Buying new players doesn't guarantee success by any means, but every team on the planet needs to constantly invest and change their team, especially when you're in the Premier League and Champions League.
I first need to clarify whether you are confusing should with could (or "Could I ?? Should I ??" as I call it) .
The day a player takes a pay cut to join a team will be the day that I put a single shred of credence in this "I want to win trophies" bollocks. Go on. Just one. Out of the hundreds of transfers that players make "to win trophies" are there *any* that are so committed to this quest that they take a pay cut? Has that ever happened?!