Regardless of whether they win the Europa League, Tottenham are set for a serious makeover this summer.
It seems likely that while he will doubtless remain Tottenham’s all-seeing eye, Daniel Levy will cede at least some operational control to new CEO Vinai Venkatesham, who is set to join the club a year after quitting North London rivals Arsenal.
Meanwhile the departures of Ange Postecoglou, Johan Lange and Scott Munn – head coach, sporting director and chief football officer respectively – are seemingly a fait accompli.
TBR Football understands that Levy has told Postecoglou that Spurs are considering other options, while Lange and Munn are seen as responsible for Spurs’ recruitment failures in recent seasons.
But while the quality of Tottenham’s work in the transfer market has been poor, the perception that owners ENIC and Levy have been spend-thrift is wide of the mark.
The myth that Tottenham haven’t spent enough
Amortisation – which is how football clubs account for transfer fees over a period of time – has boomed since the move away from White Hart Lane. In 2017, it was £43m. In the last financial year? It was £136m. For context, that’s more than Premier League champions Liverpool in the same period.
Spurs’ wage bill has risen in lockstep with revenue since the move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2019. Much is made of their low wages-to-turnover ratio (about 42 per cent at the last count), but the likes of Real Madrid have had stupefying success with a very similar ratio.
And yes, Spurs are being outspent by the Big Six and now challenger clubs like Newcastle and Aston Villa in the aggregate, but that is because a lack of success on the pitch has created a vicious cycle under ENIC’s self-funding model. In fact, recent years have seen the owners forced to put money into the club via equity for the first time.
In any case, a growing contingent of clubs are proving that success is not quote rigidly indexed to revenue as was once assumed. Look at where Spurs and United are in the table, then look at Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton.
Tottenham’s failure isn’t financial. The money is there thanks to the commercial department, but the football smarts aren’t.
They have lurched from one football vision to the next, executing each poorly. Stories of a culture of failure within the club never go away and the club has squandered the financial advantage that the new stadium give them, and other teams are now catching up.
While there will inevitably exits this summer, one familiar face is set to return.
TBR Football revealed Fabio Paratici has agreed terms to come back to Spurs, where he will have the final sign-off on Postecoglou’s managerial successor if the Aussie does depart this summer.
The Italian will be allowed to resume work at the club on 1 July, when his 30-month ban from football – with which he was hit for his role in Juventus’ financial scandal – expires.
Previously, Fabio Paratici was Spurs’ managing director of football. This time, his official title will be that of technical director. And while his exact brief isn’t known, recruitment and retention will be in his wheelhouse.
But how accurate are reports that Spurs will need to sell before they buy this summer in the face of cash flow concerns?
“Having five or six Premier League clubs in the Champions League next summer is going to have a significant impact over the summer of 2025,” says University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire in exclusive conversation with TBR Football.
“Spurs owe £337m in outstanding transfer fees. A big chunk of these are due in the summer window.
“This creates a cash outflow concern, although the club does have substantial cash resources and borrowing facilities, so there won’t be any problems in making these payments.
“Committing to new transfers might be slightly more complex, however.”
It seems likely then that Paratici will need to player-trade Spurs out of the mess they find themselves in.
Europa League victory would be worth £100m-plus to Spurs
With Spurs potentially 90 minutes from the Europa League final ahead of Thursday’s semi-final clash with Bodo/Glimt on Thursday, how significant would a backdoor entrance to the Champions League be for Spurs and Paratici’s
“Wining the Europa League is probably worth £100-120m to Spurs realistically,” says Maguire, “and even if they have a modest season, the stadium is very much geared towards extracting cash from fans attending Champions League games.
“They have a higher yield per fan than any other club in the Premier League with the exception of Chelsea. On the back of that, a full stadium in the Champions League five or six times next season will be transformational.”
Could Tottenham continue multi-sports push with NBA franchise?
The slings and arrows of the season-on-season churn of football mean that Spurs are still subject to revenue volatility, despite their magnificent work on the commercial department.
One of Levy’s visions for the club to address this problem is to branch further into the multi-sports market, like many of their counterparts on the continent.
Real Madrid, for example, have an attached basketball franchise that generated around £20m in annual revenue.
Spurs have flirted with other sports. Their links with the NFL and Formula One are deep, while they routinely stage other combat and field sports at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
They have, however, stopped short of making a formal move into sport.
But with the NBA looking to launch a professional league in Europe, that could potentially change.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said he is actively courting London and Manchester football clubs to send a team to the would-be league. Spurs would naturally be one of the first cabs off the rank.
