Tottenham Hotspur: Wielding the double edged sword

For many of Premier League followers irrespective of their club loyalties, Spurs have been the team to watch this season. The London outfit has been a fresh whiff of hope for lovers of the beautiful game for their consistently breathtaking displays. It is even more remarkable considering the gulf in resources between them and the traditional big four.

Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart, Adebayor may have lit White Hart Lane alight with their displays but there is always a lingering doubt about their destination next season. Bale’s displays against Inter had already earmarked him as the next star in Barcelona, Madrid or the noisy neighbours in Manchester. Modric has been openly coveted by Chelsea and Manchester United who need a midfield maestro to take over from ageing stars fast running out of gas. Adebayor on the other hand may pledge loyalties for decades but his wage demands and his track record suggest otherwise.

The root cause is the gulf in resources. These are not the days when players are known for their loyalties when they can pocket astronomical wages elsewhere. As Harry Redknapp himself put it that you can’t tell a player not to leave when someone offers to triple their wages and provides a chance to compete consistently and realistically for the biggest trophies. The ceilings on the wage structure though ideologically correct and economically prudent does nothing but ties Spurs’ hands in competing in the wage market (and hence the transfer market).

So where does this take Tottenham despite being outstanding this season. What would it do to the team’s morale of performing so well and then finding its match winners leaving for bigger and greener pastures? Is that why Harry keeps flirting with England job knowing all too well his predicament at club level?

What’s the solution? Unless a billionaire investor takes some interest in Spurs, the writing looks well and truly on the wall. However, that too has its stumbling blocks from a business point of view to a prospective investor – Spurs have little or no global appeal, their stadium size and match day revenues are no dangling carrots, and finally they are in a league where unlike PSG (in Ligue 1 in France) and Anzhi Makhachkala (in the Russian Premier League) immediate funds would not guarantee even a moderate degree of success. So this leaves Spurs to find a billionaire investor, who loves Spurs and has pockets and patience deep enough to sustain economic losses in the initial years – a heady and rare combination indeed!

So unless an act of billionaire providence happens, Spurs might find themselves in the ‘Berbatov’ situation – the Bulgarian striker in 2008 apparently refused to play for Spurs in order to force a transfer to Manchester United. Modric all but chose the same path this season.

What this does is even though Spurs should be landing a Champions League spot, they risk losing the stars who took them there in the first place. And the worst part is that even if Daniel Levy and co land hard bargains and get millions from the sale of these ‘stars’, the wage structure would ensure that they don’t get players of a similar caliber. And then the vicious cycle would begin all over again – Champions League pursuit would dilute their league position and then Harry ‘the Houdini’ would have to conjure up another miracle with the resources (or the lack of it) he has.