Many clubs across the Premier League have taken advantage of the 'pure profit' nature of selling players to help with the profit and sustainability regulations but Tottenham are not in that position.
Selling academy products can be a goldmine for football clubs because such players have very low amortised values as little to no transfer fee was paid out for them to begin with. What they are then sold for can be counted as almost 'pure profit' in the accounts which goes towards balancing out transfer spend.
There have been plenty of examples of academy players sold on for big amounts in recent years to prevent clubs falling foul of PSR and the risk of major financial or points penalties.
The main example of Tottenham doing so came with the sale of Harry Kane two years ago to Bayern Munich for almost £100million in total. In that same summer Spurs chairman Daniel Levy sanctioned the sales of Harry Winks for £10million to Leicester and then the following year took more than £20million for the sale of Oliver Skipp to the Foxes.
Skipp, however, was the last remaining outfield club-trained player at the club - an important thing when it comes to registering a squad for European competition. Such players need to have been on a club's books for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.
If you do not have four such seniors players then spaces must be left in your 25-man squad. Currently Tottenham only have goalkeeper Brandon Austin who qualifies for that so their Champions League squad for this coming season can only contain a maximum of 22 players, unless they were to bring back a former academy product such as those mentioned above or others like Kyle Walker-Peters or Dennis Cirkin.
That reason alone makes it unlikely for Spurs to take advantage currently of the 'pure profit' angle to sell their academy players for major fees unless they are sure they will not progress to the first team. Otherwise this problematic scenario will continue long into the future, apart from those young players they have signed at 18 eventually becoming club-trained years down the line.
Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray for example will be able to be registered on the youth B list from the 2026/27 season to ensure they do not need to be registered in the main European squad before eventually becoming club-trained.
It's also worth pointing out of course that Tottenham's high revenue and deductables such as their stadium depreciation makes it difficult for them to breach PSR rules in the first place anyway.
Football finance expert Swiss Ramble estimated that Spurs had around £93million per year of allowable deductions when it came to PSR compliance, with that figure made up of depreciation of £70million, £15million on youth development and £3million each on the women’s team and the community.
Using those allowable deductions, Spurs came out as net positive for PSR in 2021/22 at £32million, negative for 2022/23 at £2million given the heavy £95million pre-tax loss, and net positive for 2023/24 at £66million. That £96million sum, added on top of the £105million that as already allowed, meant that the club had some £201million in PSR headroom before having to be concerned about any kind of Premier League punishment. That was one of the healthiest PSR positions in the Premier League.
Next season’s position will likely see less wiggle room, but Tottenham are unlikely to be concerned about compliance given the breathing space they have already created over the years.