Let's talk about the wage bill

[BehindEnemyLines]

I think you underestimate United, their annual income is absolutely massive. Fuck me they pay Lindgard £100k a week.

Not at all, I was merely pointing out that with Utd there is an eventual constraint by their income (albeit a lot lot higher than ours), whereas Chelsea and City are effectively unlimited.........which is why I suspect we may see wage caps appear at some point, especially when Madrid and Barcelona start to get effected.

 

[Archibald Leitch]

Jesse Lingard earns more.

so we need to sell more shirts, nappies and commemorative dvds to compete financially!

No. We need an owner who is prepare to sink three quarters of a billion of his own money into the club like Abramovich has with Chelsea. That's the total of their cumulative losses since he bought the club, and he's about to sink the same again into the club to pay for their new stadium.

 

[Donki]

Not at all, I was merely pointing out that with Utd there is an eventual constraint by their income (albeit a lot lot higher than ours), whereas Chelsea and City are effectively unlimited.........which is why I suspect we may see wage caps appear at some point, especially when Madrid and Barcelona start to get effected.

Honestly would love a wage cap but it will be a farce like FFP. World football with a cap would really even everything out but it's unworkable.

 

[Krule]

Correct me if my mathematics are wrong but if we gave a first team player a £50,000 a week pay rise now that would cost us £2.6m a year...if we awarded what we consider to be our first eleven top players that deal the annual total would be £28.6 m. If that was given as part of a three year contract extension the total wages cost increase would be £85.8m. Subsidise that with the £50m we received for Walker and we could afford to handsomely reward our current first eleven a significant wage increase over three years for a total extra outlay of £35.5m (Ross Barkley ???)......roughly just £12m a year.
Does that make sense or has the merlot kicked in ????.... Hic !

 

[Pauleta01]

The PL is not an even playing field and we have statistically outperformed our spend on wages for about 5 of the last 8 years which is quite extraordinary. This is due to skill (Levy's negotiations, spotting Poch, and player identification) and an awful amount of luck - 1. Producing Kane (this has happened twice before in my lifetime Hoddle & King) 2. Toby, Wanyama, Son, Alli, Eriksen all being signings massively out performing their fee's 3. Finding in Poch one of the top 3 coaches in the world.

I mean FFS we are currently sitting on a nest spend positive position of +68m for past 5 years! How is that even possible let alone sustainable when all other top teams are on average minus £200m for same period (with exception of Arsenal).

So in short through a combination of skill and luck we find ourselves in a position above where our investment suggests we should be, and in the end you cant beat the house always unless you have a magic formula no one else knows about. So if we want to stay where we are we have no choice but to join the wages party. But not in a City reckless type way. City are paying wages through financial doping! Their sponsorship deals are valued way above their position in the market place.

We cant go on being smarter and luckier than everyone else.

 

[worcestersauce]

Not wishing to compete with the biggest payers, say £200k does not mean you can only pay £100k, there is a lot of space in between and whilst we can't compete on wages with the clubs for whom money has no value we could stand our ground against other top clubs if we raise our wages above the level of the ordinary and ultimately that is what we will have to do.

 

[fortworthspur]

we have the 6th highest wage bill in the prem and the 6th highest revenue. I dont think there is much room for Levy to maneuver.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Do we pay our players more or less than the players at Leicester City, you know the team that won the PL a couple of seasons ago.

They actually won something, not come a close second or third?

 

[fortworthspur]

reading the guardian data is depressing. where we get killed is in commercial profits (merchandising, sponsorship, etc). We are at 60 million - all the other big clubs are well over 100 million with united at 268 million per year. I dont know how you grow your brand to sell more shirts and get bigger sponsorship deals other than try to do what we are doing - flashy stadium, deals with the NFL, overseas tournaments in the summer, etc.

 

[Indacupfortottenham]

we have the 6th highest wage bill in the prem and the 6th highest revenue. I dont think there is much room for Levy to maneuver.

I thought that too, but what I also think needs to be factored in is that some of our players in the current market are worth well over a hundred million quid!
We need to protect that when the time is right and I think we've done a good job so far of giving most of the players we want to keep long term contacts recently, and keeping that potential value within the squad. We will up salaries when the time is right to protect the asset not because Danny Rose wants a castle up north somewhere.

 

[DCSPUR]

Correct me if my mathematics are wrong but if we gave a first team player a £50,000 a week pay rise now that would cost us £2.6m a year...if we awarded what we consider to be our first eleven top players that deal the annual total would be £28.6 m. If that was given as part of a three year contract extension the total wages cost increase would be £85.8m. Subsidise that with the £50m we received for Walker and we could afford to handsomely reward our current first eleven a significant wage increase over three years for a total extra outlay of £35.5m (Ross Barkley ???)......roughly just £12m a year.
Does that make sense or has the merlot kicked in ????.... Hic !

winner and something i had mentioned at the start of the summer....

wonder whether Levy was too stadium focused this summer? Which would be reasonable seeing as he just signed the whole lot to new deals!

 

[piedpiper]

reading the guardian data is depressing. where we get killed is in commercial profits (merchandising, sponsorship, etc). We are at 60 million - all the other big clubs are well over 100 million with united at 268 million per year. I dont know how you grow your brand to sell more shirts and get bigger sponsorship deals other than try to do what we are doing - flashy stadium, deals with the NFL, overseas tournaments in the summer, etc.

Start winning trophies. Stop buying players you have to google (oh i couldn't resist that last one)

We have all said how poor United and Arsenal are over the last 2-3 seasons...but they winning trophies and investing in players to keep improving.

 

[fortworthspur]

Start winning trophies. Stop buying players you have to google (oh i couldn't resist that last one)

We have all said how poor United and Arsenal are over the last 2-3 seasons...but they winning trophies and investing in players to keep improving.

yeah, thats the easy answer but look at Leicester. They will sink back into obscurity soon enough. And if you want to win trophies every year or two you need more money.

 

[Classof17]

We have the best training facilities and stewardship in the country, we are a talent sausage factory. We produce the leanest premium cuts, and are becoming obtuse with profit from our juicy meat business market , now a quality assured worldwide recognised brand.

We've got decent intel into where to buy the raw cuts cheaply often from overseas.

We can even fund and bankroll a new factory very soon with the expanding business model and brand awareness, hell even Koreans and NFL junkies will be gorging by the plateload if our projections are to be respected.

Keep churning out then sausages and keep quality control tight so we don't source shitty meats from gash farms, those ruddy soldados and sissokos, highly alluring continental brand names that probably foster creme vineyards, but should stay away from the flesh farms.

Keep churning out them spaghetti strand meat coils into the agape mouths of the hungry oil tycoons and prince Madeevs of the modern world. They have the dolla to show for their voracious carnivorous appetite that isn't satiated lest whetted until they have clustered together a team of premium cut strands churned out by the hard working factories of this world of which we are now the bojangles.

Mr lewis the factory foreman, has at last he can say invested wisely.

 

[piedpiper]

yeah, thats the easy answer but look at Leicester. They will sink back into obscurity soon enough. And if you want to win trophies every year or two you need more money.

Hundreds of millions the world over now know who Leicester are though as a result. The exposure from winning the title was/is HUGE.

Unless we win trophies like the FA cup and the title we will never compete for better sponsorship.

 

[fortworthspur]

Hundreds of millions the world over now know who Leicester are though as a result. The exposure from winning the title was/is HUGE.

Unless we win trophies like the FA cup and the title we will never compete for better sponsorship.

yeah, but if they dont buy a shirt or if doesnt lead to a better sponsorship it doesnt mean squat to the bottom line.

Id argue getting to the quarterfinals or better of the champions league regularly is the best way to pick up foreign fans and the TV pay-out for that alone is good.

 

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Unfortunately for us, West Ham can pay Hernandez £140k pw because for every one of him they have 3-4 first teamers worth £20-30k pw. Our best 13-14 players are all worth big money and get around the same each but we don't have the clout of City/Chelsea to make that number well over £100k

 

[piedpiper]

yeah, but if they dont buy a shirt or if doesnt lead to a better sponsorship it doesnt mean squat to the bottom line.

Thats my point...win trophies to raise our profile. This leads to increased brand awareness and better shirt sales etc.

We would also attract a better quality of player etc.

 

[fortworthspur]

Thats my point...win trophies to raise our profile. This leads to increased brand awareness and better shirt sales etc.

We would also attract a better quality of player etc.

I agree, but one trophy every 10 years wont do it. And to win more often we are going to need more money. Its a fine line Levy is walking.

 

[piedpiper]

I agree, but one trophy every 10 years wont do it. And to win more often we are going to need more money. Its a fine line Levy is walking.

Many of our fans portray us as a club that cannot afford to pay related salaries. Im not talking City/PSG/Real/Varca level here..but we can surely outspend what West ham/Leicester or even what Crystal Palace pay their top earners. Instead we pat ourselves on the back for the moral high ground.


Look i feel we are so close to the title...we needed to have not sold Walker invested in that extra quality off the bench. This is or has been the closest we have come in my 28yrs of supporting Spurs to winning the title...we needed to push on....Levy chose to standstill.