The look on Daniel Levy’s face as Craig Dawson turned away to celebrate his equaliser for West Bromwich Albion during Monday’s 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane betrayed the Tottenham chairman’s realisation that only a football miracle will see his club end its 55-year wait to become league champions this season.
Spurs have been good, at times they have been breathtaking, but in the end, the combined talents of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Hugo Lloris and manager Mauricio Pochettino are unlikely to prove enough to deny Leicester City their first-ever league title. This has been Tottenham’s best chance of title glory for half a century, but the dream will not become a reality and Levy, being the astute strategist that he is, will also know that this season’s near miss will deliver as many problems as positive signs for the future.
And just in case Levy attempts to blank out the negatives and focus solely on the good times which may lie ahead, the gaping hole in the ground just behind the main stand at White Hart Lane will offer a daily reminder of the pitfalls which lie ahead.
Spurs are on the brink of a golden era, but they are also entering a perfect storm which will test Levy’s resolve, and the club’s business plan, to the limit. It has become something of an elephant in the room, but with Pochettino’s young team showing signs of becoming a dominant force for years to come, can Spurs keep the team together at the same time as building a new stadium which could eventually cost as much as £750m?
If all goes to plan, Spurs will be in their new 61,000-capacity stadium, which is the reason for the gaping hole in the ground, in time for the start of the 2018-19 campaign and it will be funded by a combination of debt, stadium naming rights and advance hospitality ticket sales. Currently operating without debt, Spurs are in a strong position to take on the loans required to fund the construction work and this season’s success on the pitch will undoubtedly enhance their position when it comes to securing naming rights, which could be worth in the region of £30m a year.
The Premier League’s new £100m-a-year broadcasting deal and prize money from participating in the Champions League next season will also help sustain Levy’s plan to ring-fence funds for squad strengthening and ensure that building work on the pitch is not affected by building work off it. But life, and football, is never quite so simple and Spurs only need to look across North London to understand the difficulties in ensuring that the team remains the focus of attention when funds are required to service the costs of paying for a new stadium.
Arsene Wenger was forced to accept the sales of Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and others as Woolwich attempted to retain a strong financial footing in the aftermath of their move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium in 2006. Can Tottenham avoid Pochettino being faced with the same book-balancing exercise with the likes of Kane, Alli and Lloris, or indeed, will the highly-rated Argentine manager be tempted to take his talents elsewhere to work for a club without the burden of having to pay for a new stadium?
As Graeme Souness remarked before Monday’s draw against West Brom, every superpower in world football will now want to prise Kane from Tottenham’s clutches and, although the 22-year-old is Spurs to the core, would he seriously be able to resist a pay rise of potentially three times his current salary in order to stay at White Hart Lane? And if he did, Kane would justifiably expect Tottenham to reward him for his loyalty, so would Levy break his pay structure to do so, knowing that Alli, Lloris and the rest would then be knocking on his door for similarly lucrative financial uplifts?
But ultimately, every footballer has his price. United cashed in on Cristiano Ronaldo, Liverpool sold Luis Suarez and Spurs, of course, sold Gareth Bale.
United were prepared to pay in excess of £100m to lure Bale to Old Trafford three years ago, ultimately failing to hijack his move to Real Madrid, and it is a safe bet to suggest the Glazer family would sanction another world record bid to sign Kane. Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real would also join the chase, while Alli would attract similar interest, so this is the problem that Spurs and Levy must face and address.
Their title challenge this season has thrust Spurs and their players into the big league, but that comes at a price. And can they really foot the bill by paying the going rate to keep their exciting squad together at the same time as investing in bricks and mortar?
