I know we don’t want to talk (more) about the possibility of Tottenham Hotspur being relegated from the Premier League. And if you ask me honestly, I still don’t think it’s especially likely that Spurs end up going down, even after everything that’s happened. Remember the “outrun the bear” anecdote — Spurs don’t have to outrun the bear, they just have to outrun one of West Ham, Nottingham Forest, and Leeds. Maybe throw Crystal Palace on there too?
The financial hit to Tottenham should they go down would be pretty catastrophic, especially if Spurs don’t immediately bounce back up to the Premier League next season. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or vastly overestimating how easy it would be to get promoted again. But if you were curious, there’s some good news — according to David Ornstein, all Spurs players DO have relegation clauses in their contracts that would reduce their wages by as much as 50% should Spurs drop down.
The Athletic can reveal that most members of the first team squad are on deals which include mandatory salary reductions and the vast majority would see their earning slashed by around 50 per cent.
It was a provision factored into all existing agreements struck before Daniel Levy’s departure as executive chairman in September, granting Spurs an element of protection against the doomsday scenario of demotion.
— David Ornstein, The Athletic
This isn’t particularly revelatory. Relegation clauses in player contracts are practically boilerplate additions, and the vast, vast majority of contracts in the Premier League have those clauses in place. The clubs that don’t have those contracts are often completely screwed if/when they do go down, and the one thing we know about Daniel Levy is that he is not stupid and he negotiated the majority of Spurs’ player contracts. So this doesn’t make Spurs special at all, it’s just evidence that that Levy did due diligence for the unthinkable happening at Tottenham. Which might be actually now “thinkable,” and I hate it.
Notably, Ornstein says “most” members have relegation contracts, but not all. If we’re being generous to Johan Lange and the now-departed Fabio Paratici, you’d think that the most recent signings would have those clauses too; I can see scenarios where younger players on professional contracts or who are the fringes of the first team squad might not have those in, probably because their salaries are such that reducing them wouldn’t provide much of a net financial benefit. I’d like to think that the Lange/Tici signings would also have clauses, but, well, you know I’m not particularly enamored with how Lange has run things since arriving and so I’m not going to assume anything.
None of this is GOOD, but at least we know Levy had a little foresight into what might be possible, however improbable.