Our transfer policy

[Spurs_Bear]

1) Why is it always Levy's hard-headedness - isn't his opposite number being hard-headed in offering a clearly low-ball transfer fee and leaving the unsettled player to kick up a stink and weaken his parent club's bargaining position (no player should ever do that, or even be in a position to do that )?

2) The same claim was made in relation to us not accepting Chelsea's insultingly low offer for Modric last summer. This summer Bale, Walker and Caulker all signed new contracts, VDV committed to the club despite having interest from Germany that would regularise his domestic situation a tad, Adebayor, who has already been here and so knows a bit about Dan Levy and his outlandish ways, is apparently keen to repeat the experience, and Vertonghen (who most clubs at the top end of Europe were interested in, has joined, and so has Sigurdsson, who could have went to Liverpool. And that is not including the other players who I believe will join before the end of the window. I hope this answers your question.

SP I rated this post 'funny' due to having fat thumbs. Seeing as its a pos rather than a neg I dont expect you really give a hoot but just thought I would let you know.

 

[karsten_finkle]

Levy took over a club struggling. On the pitch finishing 8th was good but the fans demanded so much more. Our stadium is only a 36,000 seater, our training facilities were nothing special, we only had 3 successful youngsters in 15 years (Campbell, King and Carr) and we were going nowhere.

We were spending money on over-the-hill players who had no sell on value and were of a lower quality than the top teams had anyway so unsurprisingly we were going nowhere. We were throwing money away and not getting much in return.

We don't have artificial money like City or Chelsea and the bigger stadiums and consistent CL football grew a huge gap in income Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal compared to ourselves.

If people think we're going to compete with these clubs by adopting the same strategy then I'm at a loss.

Our transfer strategy is simple. We buy younger players and slowly incorporate them into our team. BAE, Walker, Kaboul, Dawson, Lennon, Bale, Sandro and Defoe were a mixture of young players making a step up and taking a while to settle in and those from a lower division who fit in straigth away but had to work on their all round game more.

We have bought a few more obvious players. VDV, Pav, Bentley, Bent, Parker, Palacios, Modric and Dos Santos. These were players with better reputations but when they don't work out they are costly mistakes. Our finances don't allow much room for error.

So Levy has to be very meticulous with our money. A huge wage bill can cripple a club. Newcastle and West Ham got relegated after poor financial mismanagement and Liverpool are in decline after poor but expensive signings.

Levy doesn't do expensive quick fixes. Sure he could offer Inter a few extra million for Leandro then pay him £20k a week more than he'd like to get it done quickly. Great if it works out. We get a Brazilian international who fires us to title glory.

But what if he doesn't settle in? What if the party lifestyle and newfound money becomes more exciting to him than his football career? We have some money for high wages but I'd rather it go to those who have been at the club for several years and we know are good professionals than take a shot on someone we know little about.

Our transfer policy is a meticulous one that doesn't allow us to get pushed around and pay what we don't want. If we bring in a quick fix it is on a short term deal like we had for Nelsen and Saha.

Looking at the long term and not being pushed around has moved us from lower midtable to top 5 and within budget. As frustrating as it is I'm glad Levy hasn't buckled under the pressure started paying over the odds just to please some fans.

We can't compete with the clubs above by using the same transfer strategy with a quarter of the money.

Really sorry about the disagree rating... In fact I couldn't agree more I just seem to have thumbs that are great if you're a hooker with a beaver akin to a wizards sleeve but not so great if you're trying to agree with a post on a mobile...

...i will now go and cut them off and bleed to death slowly in the corner

 

[StartingPrice]

SP I rated this post 'funny' due to having fat thumbs. Seeing as its a pos rather than a neg I dont expect you really give a hoot but just thought I would let you know.

On the contrary, I often sit in the tree outside the flat, hoot hooting, while looking for suitable rodents to devour...the doctors tell me my Owlmania is incurable, but not inscrutable, apparently

 

[nedley]

I love daniel Levy

I love our standard transfer policy. We puch above our weight and I am proud of that.

However, our inability replace Berbatov in approaching 9 windows is nothing short of disgraceful.

 

[StartingPrice]

I love daniel Levy

I love our standard transfer policy. We puch above our weight and I am proud of that.

However, our inability replace Berbatov in approaching 9 windows is nothing short of disgraceful.

I wouldn't go that far.
It is frustrating.

 

[nedley]

I wouldn't go that far.
It is frustrating.

I believe it's worse that that. I mean whoever watched Pav and thought him as a player who could attempt to fill Berb's boots should have been shot as soon as we were treated to a glimpse of his fantastic touch or work rate. Anyways....enough of that.

Bless pav.

However, I'm hopeful we'll get 1 or 2 forwards in by the end of the month.

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

Levy took over a club struggling. On the pitch finishing 8th was good but the fans demanded so much more. Our stadium is only a 36,000 seater, our training facilities were nothing special, we only had 3 successful youngsters in 15 years (Campbell, King and Carr) and we were going nowhere.

We were spending money on over-the-hill players who had no sell on value and were of a lower quality than the top teams had anyway so unsurprisingly we were going nowhere. We were throwing money away and not getting much in return.

We don't have artificial money like City or Chelsea and the bigger stadiums and consistent CL football grew a huge gap in income Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal compared to ourselves.

If people think we're going to compete with these clubs by adopting the same strategy then I'm at a loss.

Our transfer strategy is simple. We buy younger players and slowly incorporate them into our team. BAE, Walker, Kaboul, Dawson, Lennon, Bale, Sandro and Defoe were a mixture of young players making a step up and taking a while to settle in and those from a lower division who fit in straigth away but had to work on their all round game more.

We have bought a few more obvious players. VDV, Pav, Bentley, Bent, Parker, Palacios, Modric and Dos Santos. These were players with better reputations but when they don't work out they are costly mistakes. Our finances don't allow much room for error.

So Levy has to be very meticulous with our money. A huge wage bill can cripple a club. Newcastle and West Ham got relegated after poor financial mismanagement and Liverpool are in decline after poor but expensive signings.

Levy doesn't do expensive quick fixes. Sure he could offer Inter a few extra million for Leandro then pay him £20k a week more than he'd like to get it done quickly. Great if it works out. We get a Brazilian international who fires us to title glory.

But what if he doesn't settle in? What if the party lifestyle and newfound money becomes more exciting to him than his football career? We have some money for high wages but I'd rather it go to those who have been at the club for several years and we know are good professionals than take a shot on someone we know little about.

Our transfer policy is a meticulous one that doesn't allow us to get pushed around and pay what we don't want. If we bring in a quick fix it is on a short term deal like we had for Nelsen and Saha.

Looking at the long term and not being pushed around has moved us from lower midtable to top 5 and within budget. As frustrating as it is I'm glad Levy hasn't buckled under the pressure started paying over the odds just to please some fans.

We can't compete with the clubs above by using the same transfer strategy with a quarter of the money.

i don't necessarily disagree with a lot of your post. all chairmen have to be meticulous with the money of the club they're running, (with a few exceptions). the fact that levy does this doesn't mean others aren't. in fact there is far more margin for error in our signings than there are in some other clubs in the premier league. levy is not doing anything differently to 95% of all other clubs when he does this. it's an error to claim he is.

also, liverpool are not in decline as a result of poor but expensive signings. they are in deceline because they are unable to match the wages of chelsea, (and now city), and arsenal and united have stadiums that allow them to gain a huge amount more in revenue than anfield does for liverpool. anfiedl is restricted both in its capacity to expand but more pertinently in its ability to house corporate spectators. this is where united and arsenal capitalise. the expensive signings they have made have come after they've dropped out of the CL places.

i would much rather see progress year on year and sensible financial model geared towards long term growth and success on the pitch. the unfortunate thing is that the premier league ownership model does not reward that.

 

[dontcallme]

Really sorry about the disagree rating... In fact I couldn't agree more I just seem to have thumbs that are great if you're a hooker with a beaver akin to a wizards sleeve but not so great if you're trying to agree with a post on a mobile...

...i will now go and cut them off and bleed to death slowly in the corner

Or you could just click on 'undo rating'.

 

[dontcallme]

i don't necessarily disagree with a lot of your post. all chairmen have to be meticulous with the money of the club they're running, (with a few exceptions). the fact that levy does this doesn't mean others aren't. in fact there is far more margin for error in our signings than there are in some other clubs in the premier league. levy is not doing anything differently to 95% of all other clubs when he does this. it's an error to claim he is.

also, liverpool are not in decline as a result of poor but expensive signings. they are in deceline because they are unable to match the wages of chelsea, (and now city), and arsenal and united have stadiums that allow them to gain a huge amount more in revenue than anfield does for liverpool. anfiedl is restricted both in its capacity to expand but more pertinently in its ability to house corporate spectators. this is where united and arsenal capitalise. the expensive signings they have made have come after they've dropped out of the CL places.

i would much rather see progress year on year and sensible financial model geared towards long term growth and success on the pitch. the unfortunate thing is that the premier league ownership model does not reward that.

Not saying Levy is the only meticulous chairman and we have more income than many clubs in the Prem, I agree with you there. But name another club in the Prem doing as well as we are on a similar budget. Find a club whose net spending is on a par with ours and competes for CL places.

Liverpool are in decline because they are doing the opposite of Levy. They are spending big on players who are of a lower quality than the mega-spenders. They're doing what we used to do pre-Levy and wondering why it isn't working. Just needs Acquilani, Henderson, Carroll and Downing to flop and before they know they have players on wages others won't pay and taking massive financial losses on them.

I think we are seeing the rewards of our long term strategy. We've finished in the top five 5 times in the last 7 seasons. The fact that for some that isn't progress enough doesn't take away from the fact that it very blatantly is progress.

 

[hellava_tough]

I love daniel Levy

I love our standard transfer policy. We puch above our weight and I am proud of that.

However, our inability replace Berbatov in approaching 9 windows is nothing short of disgraceful.

I'm inclined to agree with you there

Decent players seem to be out there, but for some reason either our scouting network aren't picking them up or the board aren't sealing the deals...or both

If you look at some of the players Everton, Newcastle and Fulham have signed, it makes you wonder what exactly Tottenham's transfer policy is

 

[StartingPrice]

I believe it's worse that that. I mean whoever watched Pav and thought him as a player who could attempt to fill Berb's boots should have been shot as soon as we were treated to a glimpse of his fantastic touch or work rate. Anyways....enough of that.

Bless pav.

However, I'm hopeful we'll get 1 or 2 forwards in by the end of the month.

I'm really not sure it is quite that simple.
As I said when he was actually here, I believe Pav grew up in a footballing culture where he had one job, and that was to score goals, everything elsse was someone else's responsibility, so he was literally stunned to find out somuch more was expected of him here. It was like replacing chalk with cheese and then telling the cheese to suddenly become one of them fancy dan cheeses you get at Christmas with bits of chilli and peppers and thangs through it. He wasn't helped by the fact that the regime that he was brought in for was replaced almost immediately and the replacement just didn't fancy him - we all know how important it is for strikers to get regular game time and feel confident. I'm not making excuses for him, because too often to cover-up, he was shockingly bad.

And after that we bought VDV. Let's not obfuscate here - folk may quibble about whether Rafa is a striker or not (with the concensus being on the not), but at the end of the day he takes up the place of a striker in the squad, you wouldn't play him and two other strikers, now, would you.

Last season we had Ade to compliment him - and there is your two strikers, for those who still want to think in terms of 4-4-2.

What our real problem has been is that we had strikers equipped for a 4-4-2, while trying to leave it behind, and no replacements for VDV/Ade, meaning we had little option but to switch systems when one of them was injured, exhausted or off form. Now we have Sigs who can cover for Rafa, and, hopefully, Leandro, or similar, to cover/compete with Adebayor (who, I assume, we will also have).

Also, RatKnip bought Crouch and Defoe (as well as returning Keane, who was bombed out for defying him over a Chrimbo knees up, not because of dreadful form before that Christmas, as some would have it). And, like it or not, Defoe and Crouch were good enough to fire us into the a respectful position in the first season and the CL in the second.

So, really, no-one (and I mean absolutely no-one on here) would have thought that Keane and Pav would have been so disastrous, and Defoe and Crouch weren't they got us to a higher level and it was obvious they weren't good enough for that level (much like players who fire a team to promotion, and then have to be replaced). So there is a bit of backward writing of history going on in regard to how long we took to replace Berbatov effectively (we did, Crouch and Defoe were enough to get us into the CL, were we really needed the higher quality of a Berbatov), and a bit of rewriting of history, in that we had a highly effective strikeforce in Ade/VDV last season.

Like I said, it is a bit disappointing but lets not go overboard on it. There are other reasons that we failed to maximise on our position twice in three years (although, again, lets not forget we did actually finish 4th last season, and would have CL football but for the most improbable of CL final victories, so lets not rewrite history there, too).

 

[kazzah9]

Or you could just click on 'undo rating'.

It's not there on a phone...

 

[Lilbaz]

Sorry but I haven't read the majority of posts in this thread. I do respect all your views but I'm finding it a bit difficult to focus (cause I'm pissed).

Anyway succesful transfer policy. How much did we pay for the squad and how much is it worth now?
Compare that to the rest of the league and we will get a true answer.

 

[karsten_finkle]

It's not there on a phone...

I'm so glad you said that, looked everywhere for it last night and was beginning to think it was an impossible quest (like the search for the holy grail, or the womans g-spot)

Will complete the quest when i get into work...

 

[luptic]

i look at the players some clubs have bought over the last few years like cabaye, cisse, etc, and i cant remember the last time we went out and unearthed someone that has given more than his price tag said he would. Maybe Walker, but wasnt it naughton that we were interested in?
Having sold the likes of pav, niko, pineaar, berbatov we have never fully replaced what we sold with someone that could do a job in their place.
It did however seem like this summer we were going to pro active in the summer signing vertonghen and gylfi sigurdsson, but what we the fans have wanted for years is one maybe two strikers, then a winger to cover lennon and bale, and maybe a young gk.

I can see why levy would be holding out, but that does us no good, having to integrate them into the squad etc. and with the handicapped footing we find ourselves at the start of the season.

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

But name another club in the Prem doing as well as we are on a similar budget.

we pay the 6th highest total wage bill in the league. we are far enough behind those that pay more and far enough ahead of those that pay less to have no real peers that our performance can be benchmarked against. if any club has suffered as a result of the lax ownership regulations in the english premier league, coupled with the fairly arbitrary barrier to the champions league riches that 4th place in the league represents, it's us.

i'll turn your question around if i may; name another club in the premier league operating on a similar total wage budget?

 

[dontcallme]

we pay the 6th highest total wage bill in the league. we are far enough behind those that pay more and far enough ahead of those that pay less to have no real peers that our performance can be benchmarked against. if any club has suffered as a result of the lax ownership regulations in the english premier league, coupled with the fairly arbitrary barrier to the champions league riches that 4th place in the league represents, it's us.

i'll turn your question around if i may; name another club in the premier league operating on a similar total wage budget?

Aston Villa. Since Levy we've pulled away from them in a major way. They pulled themselves up to 3 successive top six finishes but due to financial mismanagement they couldn't capitalise on their improvement on the pitch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/23/premier-league-accounts-profit-debt

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

Liverpool are in decline because they are doing the opposite of Levy. They are spending big on players who are of a lower quality than the mega-spenders.

any chance you would be prepared to put a date on when liverpool's decline started? i'd say it was around 2008. around the time when hicks and gillette realised they weren't going to be able to fund the move from anfield to another stadium in stanley park or anywhere else and around the time they put the kybosch on rafa benitez in the transfer market. around the time of the famous interview where he banged on about 'focussing on training and coaching the players we have'.

the current owners have spent big to try to halt and reverse that decline, but the club was going backwards a few seasons before they bought big on henderson, downing, carroll et al. as long as they keep going backwards i don't suppose it really matters when it started, from a spurs point of view.

 

[JimmyG2]

Buy cheap; sell dear. Classic capitalism.
Like capitalism it favours the rich and rewards the very rich even more
with minimal safeguards for the man in the street trying to make an honest living
in a world of rogues. That's THFC by the way.
Like capitalism it's a bit hit and miss.
The fact that we haven't signed a striker for several years
and relied on a 41 yr. old keeper and several has beens in the name of experience
last season is testament to this.
It sort of works as described by several people above.

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

Aston Villa. Since Levy we've pulled away from them in a major way. They pulled themselves up to 3 successive top six finishes but due to financial mismanagement they couldn't capitalise on their improvement on the pitch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/23/premier-league-accounts-profit-debt

we now pay quite a lot more than villa do in total wages. this is why we have pulled away from them in recent years. during their 3 year stint as the 6th placed club they paid more than us. lerner has since seen 4th place in the league as a glass ceiling and decided to withdraw funding for wages. basically he can't afford to fund the next step personally, and villa, (for similar reasons to liverpool actually - the stadium), can't afford to invest from their own revenue streams.

it's not really 'since levy' either. i think you're being a little too easy with the stats there. villa consistently finished above us for years. if anything it's 'since redknapp' that we have overhauled villa. not that i expect that last comment to be taken seriously since he's now persona non grata.