Tottenham have failed to sell a single first-team player, with Thomas Frank not afforded much wiggle room to overhaul his new squad.
Spurs' perceived lack of spending has served as a backdrop to many of their recent transfer windows, with Daniel Levy telling fans in March that the club must spend within its means.
For the year ending in June 2024, the Lilywhites had post-tax losses of £26.2million.
This represented a drop from their £86.8m loss the previous year, despite a £21.4m decrease in revenue.
Fans would have hoped a first European trophy in 41 years would alter transfer plans this summer, especially under a new manager.
And in terms of incomings, that initially looked to be the case, after Mohammed Kudus completed a £55m move from West Ham.
Tottenham had already completed the signing of Japan international defender Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale.
Meanwhile, they have also turned loan stars Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso into permanent additions to the squad.
However, the Morgan Gibbs-White saga has slowed their momentum in terms of incomings, which has highlighted their real issue: selling.
As Levy pointed out, Tottenham have invested over £700m net in player acquisitions since opening the club's new stadium in April 2019.
How much have Spurs made in player sales?
According to Transfermarkt, the north Londoners have only recouped £293.6m from outgoings.
A huge chunk of that outlay is being propped up by the £86.5m Bayern Munich paid up front for Harry Kane in 2023, with another £8.5m due in potential add-ons for the England captain.
Tottenham's record goalscorer is one of just 13 players to command a fee of £10m or more since the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool six years ago.
Heung-Min Son remains the only starter from Mauricio Pochettino's line-up in the Champions League final still on the books at the club.
The exits of the 10 other players banked Spurs a combined £152.9m - a figure already surpassed by Chelsea during this summer alone.
Excluding Kane, that number drops to £66.4m - money covered by their Blues rivals, with the sales of Joao Felix and Djordje Petrovic.
Why do Spurs struggle to sell players?
And that's been a continued theme since 2019, where Chelsea more than treble what their north London neighbours have in outgoings.
The Blues have made almost £1bn on player sales in that time, with Spurs behind Southampton, Leicester, Leeds, and Bournemouth.
As per the Telegraph, Tottenham's inability to sell well is put down to two main factors.
That is unrealistic valuations on their players, and a failure to effectively identify to cash in - highlighted by the fact that four of their 2019 Champions League starters left on free transfers.
This has been a huge problem this summer, with football finance expert Stefan Borson revealing that they need to sell some of their stars or benefit from a cash injection to strengthen their squad.
“Daniel Levy is not in a position to put any more money in,” he told White & Jordan in April. “He’s a very wealthy guy because of his holding of shares, but unless he sells those shares, he doesn’t have the cash to put into the club.
“That leaves the Lewis Trust - not Joe Lewis himself – the Lewis Trust being effectively the only funder around for Spurs from a cash perspective because they can’t raise any more debt.
“On top of that, they potentially have some covenant issues, and so the problem they’re going to have is nothing to do with Financial Fair Play, it’s to do with actual cash. How do they actually pay for things?
“Unless they either raise money from one of their shareholders or sell some footballers, they won’t have the cash to pay for new footballers.”
Tottenham have belatedly tried to rectify the situation by triggering an option to extend Son's contract to protect the latter's value.
Al Ahli, Al Nassr and Al Qadsiah are three clubs to have expressed interest this summer, and the trio are prepared to shell out £34m for the South Korean - a far cry from the £51m bids that were tabled for him in 2023.
Yves Bissouma and Richarlison are both on the club’s pre-season tour in Asia despite Tottenham being open to offers for each this summer.