Tottenham owners are reportedly ready to rip up the club’s wage structure this summer.
According to a report from The Guardian, Joe Lewis and Tottenham‘s ENIC ownership are looking to conduct a significant overhaul of the first-team squad at the end of the season.
The report claims that this will take place if Spurs avoid Premier League relegation this term, as relegation to the Championship would naturally accommodate sizeable changes in this department anyway.
It’s reported that there is an acknowledgement from within Tottenham that there has been an underinvestment in player wages for a number of years.
This comes after comments made by former manager Ange Postecoglou on The Overlap, with the Australian criticising the club for not being able to attract certain players due to not offering competitive salaries in comparison with their rivals.
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How does Tottenham’s wage bill compare to rivals?
As detailed in the aforementioned report from The Guardian, Tottenham’s wage bill is the smallest of the “big six” clubs in the Premier League.
In the most recently published financial accounts for the 2023-24 season, Spurs’ annual wage bill was listed at £222million, which in comparison with Man City’s £413m, shows the stark contrast in spend.
Recent signings such as Conor Gallagher and Xavi Simons will see that figure increase, but still not to a level where the Lilywhites are competing with the top clubs in the division.
Meanwhile, it’s stated that just 42 per cent of Tottenham’s revenue for the 2023-24 season went into the wage bill, which for the Premier League, is considerably low.
It shouldn’t have taken Championship reality to kick Spurs into action
So, whilst Tottenham chiefs look ready to finally loosen the purse strings and bring their wage bill spending to a level that will compete with the biggest clubs in England, Spurs fans won’t be kissing their feet.
The reality is that this has been far too long in the making, and it simply reads like a boardroom that is only now realising relegation can happen to this football club if they don’t stump up the cash.
That’s simply not good enough, and only gives further merit to the words of Postecoglou about Tottenham having everything to be a big football club infrastructure-wise, but not acting like one financially.
The prospect of Championship football has seemingly woken Tottenham chiefs up, but it should never have had to get to that stage for them to assess their spending and realise change is needed.