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Spurs ‘New’ Money

3 min read
by The Fighting Cock
In football, as with life – there is rarely smoke without fire. Even the most far fetched of stories has a spark… The rumours regarding ‘new’ money at Spurs is certainly one that deserves attention and one that won’t go away. The signs are there, there’s a different feeling about Spurs at the moment. Obviously […]

In football, as with life – there is rarely smoke without fire. Even the most far fetched of stories has a spark…

The rumours regarding ‘new’ money at Spurs is certainly one that deserves attention and one that won’t go away.

The signs are there, there’s a different feeling about Spurs at the moment.

Obviously the excitement of AVB and the expectation of what the new regime will bring Is partly to do with that – but look a little deeper…

There is a confidence about all connected with Spurs – almost like there has been a plan in place for a very long time, and only now are the first signs of this coming to fruition. Tottenham Hotspur have – under the guidance of Daniel Levy have been run impeccably – certainly on the financial side. Our climb from mid table non enteritis, to slugging it out with Europe’s elite has been remarkable – more so when you consider the size and financial wealth of ‘some ‘ of our rivals.

The club has punched well above it’s weight over the last few years especially, not only keeping on the coat tails of the two Manchester clubs, Woolwich, Liverpool and Chelsea – but in the case of the later two finishing above them. In Liverpool’s case…consistently now. Yet right now – at this very moment, on the eve of another long campaign – it feels different.

Gareth Bale’s contract extension is telling. Already committed to the club – he put pen to paper on a (if you believe some reports) circa £100k deal, smashing our ‘unbreakable’ wage structure. A one off – for our most valuable asset…NOT the case.

[linequote]There is a confidence about all connected with Spurs – almost like there has been a plan in place for a very long time, and only now are the first signs of this coming to fruition.[/linequote]

Gylfi Sigurdsson’s arrival (reportedly ) circa £70k, blowing Liverpool out of the water and securing the deal.

The long drawn out saga of Jan Vertonghen is another clue. Heavily linked to Woolwich for the majority of the last campaign. Reports even suggested the deal was close, if not already done. Yet against the odds the Belgium and former Ajax captain is now a Spur. Turning his back on Champions League football and making it plainly obvious that it was only Spurs he wanted to play for ‘publicly’

The expected arrival of Hugo Lloris is another pointer, of a yet to be told story at the lane. French reports are certain that he is heading to the lilywhite side of north London. Again, some claiming that he is only interested in one team. The same Lloris who is captain of his national side and could just about pick a club from the cream of Europe… he looks to have chosen Spurs.

The above obviously doesn’t include Adebayor, who although, would take a pay cut from his astronomical salary at City – the fact we are suddenly in a position to even contemplate the permanent signing is light years away from where we were, just a few short months ago.

Levy is aware of what happened to Chelsea and Manchester City when their new money was revealed, it really was a case of add a nought to any proposed transfer fee.

Those of us with a cockerel firmly tattooed to their chest are fully aware that our leader is no mug and while I don’t expect the untold riches of Sheikh Mansour – something has happened.

Wouldn’t it be just like Daniel Levy to play the biggest blag of all and announce our ‘NEW’ money and it’s origins…sometime shortly after the transfer window on September 1st?

[author name=”SpursDreamer” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2354535023/image.jpg” twitter=”SpursDreamer” website=”spursdreamer.blogspot.co.uk” tag=”SpursDreamer[/linequote]

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

58 Comments

  1. DiamondLights
    20/07/2012 @ 2:30 pm

    Just one problem with that, we are a public listed company so we are bound by law to reveal it are we not?

    • john reed
      20/07/2012 @ 2:37 pm

      not any more.levy & Enic delisted spurs a while back in order to make it easier to gain outside investments… well thats what i read anyways.

      • Money
        21/07/2012 @ 8:31 am

        Levy DID delist Spurs i.e. we are not a public listed company any more.

    • spurs guvnor
      20/07/2012 @ 2:37 pm

      We have delisted from the Stock Exchange.

    • TD
      20/07/2012 @ 2:38 pm

      Er,no we aren’t.

    • jimmyzz
      21/07/2012 @ 10:44 am

      not so. delisted in january

  2. Hezza
    20/07/2012 @ 2:34 pm

    No we delisted a few months back. We are now private ltd company.

  3. CJ1
    20/07/2012 @ 2:34 pm

    Not a PLC anymore mate, de listed a few months back which was the first sign that something was afoot!! There is big things going on at Spurs right now, no doubt!! The money is available somehow and now we really are gonna be able to challenge!! COYS!!

  4. Gary Mabutt
    20/07/2012 @ 2:35 pm

    Thought we de-listed last year DiamondLights?

  5. Royspur
    20/07/2012 @ 2:36 pm

    We de-listed a few months ago. The City can go f#ck itself.

  6. Henry Percy
    20/07/2012 @ 2:36 pm

  7. Dublin YID
    20/07/2012 @ 2:38 pm

    I am pretty sure we are not PLC any more, opening the door for a more attarcative investment. Not 100% on that but pretty sure.

  8. Starsky
    20/07/2012 @ 2:40 pm

    Diamond, didn’t we recently “de-list” so we could do some fund raising for hte stadium *wink wink*

    However, we havent really been extravegent have we? We’ve bought Sig and vert for under £10m each, and, said goodbye recently to Pav, Corluka and Niko (cash in and wages off), waved a goodbye to the wages of Saha, Nelson, Ledders (sadly) so we’re probably up on the deal even giving Bale a pay rise, after all, we didn’t pay much for him, so he’s probably “written off” in the bookkeeping sense.

    If we buy big it will be with funds from Modders, but I wouldn’t expect we spend that all in one hit, maybe split between a keeper and striker, hoping we have enough in midfield with Sandro, VDV, parker, Hudd, Jake, Lennon, Bale, GDS, etc.

    However, if we suddenly sign Hulk for 35m and Moutinho for 30m, and Lloris for 15m, then I’d buy into the New Money theory.

    • Clarkspur
      20/07/2012 @ 3:07 pm

      I’m with Starsky on this one. Our spending so far is actually more conservative than our usual “buy anyone for £15M” mode of operating.

      I think the fumes coming off the oil money rumours have gone to everyone’s heads. The increase in wages are thought to be a strategic increment from the previous 75K ceiling, with CL money only just arriving along with bumper payouts related to the renegotiated TV rights deal for the EPL.

      As matey just said, if we scooped Hulk, Moutinho and Lloris (and let Modric shine shoes in the reserves until 2016) then I’d be lapping up the ‘new money’ chatter.

    • tom
      20/07/2012 @ 3:08 pm

      spot on fella.. we actually lost a lot in tv revenue, sponsorships etc because we missed out on CL.. really set us back. i would happily however take the modders money and give it straight to porto for Hulk.. fu** adebayor.

      • carlos
        21/07/2012 @ 1:56 pm

        spot on lad fuck ade hes always shite after he proves his point in his first season at a new club, hulk damiao or llorente please.

  9. BernardBurnside
    20/07/2012 @ 2:42 pm

    We were de-listed earlier this year to enable us to more easily raise investment for the new ground.

  10. spurs guvnor
    20/07/2012 @ 2:45 pm

    Its all relative to the new financial fair play rules coming in, even if we got a sugar daddy we wouldnt be able to splashout like City, allthough teams are cheating with naming rights.

    • Clarkspur
      20/07/2012 @ 3:13 pm

      FFP won’t work. Football teams are legal entities working in a market of free enterprise. If Citeh sell a pasti for 100M to Sheikh Enstevens then no one can stop it.

  11. John Hume
    20/07/2012 @ 2:48 pm

    Load of shit.

    If we’ve got ‘new money’ then why did Chelsea blow us out the water for Oscar?

    If we’ve got ‘new money’ then why are we still haggling over a million here an a million there for Lloris and Ade?

    • Jacky Treehorn
      20/07/2012 @ 3:13 pm

      Perhaps there is new money.Does that mean we have to start acting stupid with it?
      Oscar may ormay not be worth £25m and how many clubs will pay £170k per week to Ade?
      A fool and his money are easily parted.

      • petespurs
        21/07/2012 @ 9:51 am

        and as we know, Mr Levy is no fool when it comes to money …..

    • ParkLane
      20/07/2012 @ 3:24 pm

      I don’t believe there’s any investment either. But there could be investment but Spurs are still trying to pay what players are worth. Just cos Chelsea regularly pay double what a players worth doesn’t mean Spurs will.

    • Rod
      20/07/2012 @ 10:07 pm

      Here here its like wining the lottery and still haggling in lidel and primark trying to keep it secret lol if we have new money accept we will get ripped of for a year or two and enjoy it!

    • spooky
      21/07/2012 @ 12:15 am

      Having money might not necessarily mean we’re going to do what City do. Which IMO would be a good thing. It might simply mean we have money for the stadium, wages and more transfers. Ever consider that we might not rate Oscar at £25M? Especially if we plan to sign another midfielder for a similar price.

      • Rod
        21/07/2012 @ 7:57 am

        I hear that but what is the point of having a new stadium with no players its like becoming the new Arsenal i understand oscar might not be worth 25 mil but then i believe if u have money why haggle for the odd mil if you really want the player it doesnt add up. Spurs are already owned by a billionare and i see not much difference in how we go about business this year or last. If and i repeat if there is ‘new money’ i believe it is soley for a new stadium and nothing else

    • DessySpur
      21/07/2012 @ 12:37 pm

      Because we are not stupid and dont need to pay 25 mil for Oscar, we are shrewd not money wasters like Chelsea.
      Wake up for Gods sake what a stupid comment derrrrr

      • Rod
        21/07/2012 @ 3:00 pm

        Oscar isnt the issue he may or may not be worth 25 mil the issue is if u have money then its gonna come out at some point so why not now? Why keep it secret and try and squeezze an extra 2 mil here and 1 mil from the modric deal sell him buy your players early and move on

    • Shannon
      21/07/2012 @ 3:24 pm

      I believe we didn’t want Oscar, eventually. At least not at the asking price.

  12. Alexandre
    20/07/2012 @ 2:50 pm

    There are signals for sure:
    1) Hoardings around WHL, meaning a further step toward New Stadium work as reported by Spurs official website;
    2) Players coming to Tottenham when they had other options;
    3) PLC delisting move:
    4) Bale extending his contract before AVB´s official announcement as Spurs manager;
    5) Spurs entering the world of video games which will help Club Brand awareness worldwide;
    6) Association with an american sports company for kits and material plus a tour in the US. Americans know best how to market anything and Spurs are a already established brand that needs a little push to stardom;
    7) Finally, I was always wondering why AVB chose to come to Spurs. It´s a very risky move for him because managing at PL would not be a wise choice after his failure at Chelsea. It would be safer for him to go Spain or Italy to rebuild his image (and pride). If he accepted a return for a club whose pretensions for a title push are not that big, then he must have heard pieces of intel we have no knowledge about.

  13. My Heart Is White
    20/07/2012 @ 2:52 pm

    I wonder if the new sponsorship from EA FIFA, has paid for the extra in wages??

  14. Starsky
    20/07/2012 @ 2:56 pm

    There’s loads of clubs signed up with EA Sports, its no sugar daddy for sure.

    • My Heart Is White
      20/07/2012 @ 2:57 pm

      No, OK, Ta! I wasn’t sure, just checking.

  15. PatNevin
    20/07/2012 @ 2:56 pm

    Don’t see it myself. I think the feel good factor is down to having a new manager and a top class player stating he wanted a move here, rather than to our nomadic neighbours. When a team changes manager, they always spend, it’s part of the new man getting his own team together. Like starsky said, if we suddenly spend out big on a couple of high profile players i’ll buy into this idea but as is, nothing there for me to get too excited about. Any new money coming into the club will surely go towards the stadium cost anyway?

  16. craig
    20/07/2012 @ 2:59 pm

    we have been bought out on the quiet all will be revealed soon we will be the richest club shortly the qatar royal family who tower man city richies! and they plan to keep Dan Levy in the hot seat.

    • spurs guvnor
      20/07/2012 @ 3:53 pm

      Check the forbes rich list!!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. R Black
    20/07/2012 @ 3:02 pm

    Something is definitely afoot, the fact levy is still so tight he squeaks is irrelevant, I know a lot of Rich people who are majorly tight, thats partially how they got wealthy in the first place.

  18. Will
    20/07/2012 @ 3:04 pm

    Adebayor is typical of teh new breed of pseudosuperplayer, who, because some oil rich idiot wanted him, gave him a massively overpaid wage fit for a world class player and yet he is not one, but he still thainks that he is worth that much money.
    IMHO he is a greedy, unrealistic sod. If he scored as much as he wa spaid i could see the reason but to do so you have to occasionally be in the box to compete witht he keeper in catchin g those 10000 crosews per sewasona nd he does not do this.

    I think that we should get Damiao and one other and dump Ade and let Anzi pay through the nose for him.
    MC are goiung to be so full of overpaid players that they cannot unload as no one else can/will pay them the same wage that it will constipate most of Lanacashire and this will have some longterm effects.

    • nic
      21/07/2012 @ 3:47 am

      No hes not, he gives his money away to people with a lot less than you. He was also on that bus where he saw teamates killed and injured. I think hes a good bloke!

  19. tom
    20/07/2012 @ 3:04 pm

    Actually we were a publicly listed company it was changed about 2 months ago to generate more revenue.. seems like its working

  20. RonnyCOYS
    20/07/2012 @ 3:10 pm

    There’s a rumour circulating (I’ve heard it from two different sources this week) that an official announcement will be made on 26 July that ENIC have done a deal to sell the club to the owner of Gulf Air (a relative of the owner of Man City). The Gulf Air stadium. WATCH THIS SPACE!

  21. Seb
    20/07/2012 @ 3:11 pm

    If we had investment from an outside investor, wouldn’t they want recognition for their contribution?

  22. Chris
    20/07/2012 @ 3:12 pm

    Spurs are no longer a Plc. they annoucse back in Nov 2011 that they are delisting.
    http://www.spursornothing.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10253

    We have new money were just keeping it quite, who or where its from no clue but its been said its from US.

    It may even be part of a Naming Rights deal thats signed but levy wants to keep quiet till transfer window closes.

    Either way New money or New Owers Keep Levy as Chairmen.

  23. Terry yid
    20/07/2012 @ 3:28 pm

    Being a share holder I know we have delisted. I was at the AGM in december when the proposal was voted through. If you look at the stock market under leisure we are no longer there. We are now a private company. The reason given was so that we could get finances from scources the stock market would not allow us to do!!!!!!!!

  24. TMWNN
    20/07/2012 @ 3:40 pm

    There is no secret investor. People are letting their imagination run wild.

  25. James
    20/07/2012 @ 3:43 pm

    Gulf Air is a multi state owned company, so whoever sold you that info I hope you kept the receipt.

  26. Bunn
    20/07/2012 @ 4:37 pm

    Whatever it is, I just hope that we don’t do it like Leeds. They spent a lot of money to bring players in. The amount of money spent were much more than they could earn with the assumption that success will follow i.e. Champions League spot. When it turned out it didn’t, the club were in huge debt and the downward spiral begun.

  27. cookiebun
    20/07/2012 @ 5:34 pm

    All you budding ‘cityites’ Spurs last day of trading on the stockmarket was the 13th January 2012.
    It’s here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16571738

  28. McDan
    20/07/2012 @ 5:37 pm

    Perhaps it is just that the new deal with sky will bring in more money. I mean it isn’t as if we have suddenly spent hundreds of millions on players and wages.

  29. SydenhamYid
    20/07/2012 @ 6:35 pm

    Not spent much last few years. Rainy day has arrived!!

  30. Jamesyid
    20/07/2012 @ 7:13 pm

    We have a sugar daddy.
    His name is Joe Lewis .
    No “new” money, just the same money and lots of it.

  31. tillysdad
    20/07/2012 @ 8:13 pm

    RonnieCOYS, I live in Bahrain, and Gulf Air is owned by the government here, not an individual. The govt took it over when first its gulf neighbours and then private investors ditched it and nobody else could be arsed to run it – in 2009 it made a net loss of over 500 million dollars. Perhaps they need Alan Sugar. Besides, although there are loads of us Spurs fans here in Bahrain all the youth football training and charity clubs are run by Arsenal – they even come into the school I work at to train the Autistic kids, and a very good job they do as well.

  32. stretchthfc
    20/07/2012 @ 8:26 pm

    I, like several others here, do not think we have any “new money”. We simple have taken a step back to re-evaluate the way we do business. I think Daniel Levy has come to the realization that we can no long compete with what other CL caliber clubs are offering (MANUre, Citeh, ARSE-anal, Liverfool, Chelski). I think our star assets deserve to be in the 100K (don’t get me wrong, they’re all overpaid) range to be competitive and encourage other stars to join us.

    I’m also encouraged by the way Vertonghen said he wanted to join the club, but the manager or team. He sees the value we’re building. I just wish others saw us the same way. Not just a stepping stone to a larger club, but view us as a top club. Whether Modric goes or not, if we make two key center forward signings then will not only become a PL powerhouse, but we will attract even more talent.

  33. GHYID
    21/07/2012 @ 9:47 am

    Is it me or is everone forgetting we just got paid 50Mill from Underarmour? my guess is its this money that Levy is willing to splash about and unfortunatly there is no Oil soaked Suger daddy

    • Acton_Yid
      21/07/2012 @ 11:40 am

      The Under Armour deal is worth £50m over 4 or 5 years, I think. It’s not £50m in one hit. Besides, I heard the Qataris were interested in buying a 25% stake in Tottenham Ltd ? Might explain if Lewis was more willing to loosen the purse strings than usual…

  34. DAVEY SMITHSON
    21/07/2012 @ 10:19 am

    I had enteritis once, terrible.

  35. chopper
    21/07/2012 @ 11:17 am

    According to the 2011 Annual Report, published in November 2011, ENIC had exercised its preference share options and held 181,793,258 ordinary shares in Tottenham Hotspur plc representing 85% of all those issued. However, at the 2011 AGM Chairman Levy announced that the board was intending to delist from the AIM exchange as the listing restricted the club’s “ability to secure funding” in connection with the redevelopment of the White Hart Lane site known as the Northumberland Development Project. On 16 January 2012 the club announced that the club had been transferred into private ownership following the delisting of shares which had been implemented at of the close of dealing on the previous Friday the 13 January. (taken from wikipedia)

  36. Arcticspur
    21/07/2012 @ 12:37 pm

    I can´t exactly say I see much change in the way we are conducting our business from previous years. Verthongen is a great signing, but IMO not exactly evidence that we are changing our structure. Bale signing a new contract was more expected than un-expected. Gylfi is not exactly a world-class signing which should make us title-contenders.

    Levy is still doing what he has more or less always done. Willing to spend money on exciting talent which would have a re-sell value. Even if we splash 25 mill on Moutinho and 20 on Leandro, I would say that we have not changed our way of business. Both these players fit into Levy´s favorite category; young, talented and re-sell value.

    I hope we continue to run our club in the same way as Levy has done. Most of our key-players today were more or less unheard of when Levy signed them. It has not been “world-class” signings that has made us take the leap forward. Bale, Lennon, Dawson, Sandro, Walker, BAE, Modric are examples of signings that no-one(except modric) expected great things from. And still we have exciting talent within our squad with caulker, coulibali, ceballos, kane and carrol expected to soon take the next step.

    I am proud that we are the top team in england not doing our business like everyone else. And remember that tottenham is probably one of the top 10 clubs in the world.

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