The realities of football, Europe

For Tottenham to move from being competitive to actually challenging regularly for trophies requires us to build the business and grow our income. In football trophies are won by money, if you can't pay the wages you can't win basically.



As pointed out in previous articles, 44 of the 49 trophies highlighted (Premier League, FA Cup & League Cup) have been won by teams with more money than us, the last 20 Premier League titles won by teams who had more money, 17 of the last 19 FA Cups, 7 of the last 10 League Cups and we won one of the others.

Teams without the money of the top 5 have won 5 out of those 49 trophies, Tottenham have won 20% of those, the remaining 4 trophies have been won by all the other 14 teams put together. Why have none of these 14 sides put together a side that regularly wins trophies, if it is all down to a manager and putting together a team? It is about who can pay the wages for the very best players today, anything else is a dream of yesteryear?

When you are in that position, and especially our position, you have to look for every little advantage you can, that may mean pioneering and not simply doing the same old thing that has always been done or the same thing that everyone is doing now. If you do then you change nothing. Tottenham should be looking to make a difference and that's why I bang on about an unexplored area in football but considered essential in individual sports, the sports psychologist.

A team is a bunch of individuals playing together, if one or two do not have the right attitude the team is not performing at it's optimum. Working with players individually to develop them mentally could give us an advantage. If we lead the way we become attractive to players as we provide something nobody else is providing, not voluntary work with a sports psychologist but compulsory work with one, it should be part of our training.

The other area we should be working on is vision. Look at Andrea Pirlo at 36 in 2 days, 19th. he is as good as he is and has gone on at the top level as long as he has because of his vision. He knows what is around him all the time and can play an instant ball out of trouble. the majority of footballers have to collect the ball and consider their options before selecting a pass and playing it.

They do it quickly but it still takes longer. many a player dwells too long on a ball, vision training helps to prevent that, yet clubs don't work on vision, they work on understanding a system and what a teammate might do. That's essential but add vision to that are create a team of Pirlo's, all mentally highly motivated for every single game and you have a chance to make a difference without money.

The downside? There isn't one, you either improve the players or they stay as they are and we stay as we are.

Money talks. Sugar daddies are no longer allowed. owners are not allowed to pump money in for players or wages. If you are expecting a new owner to come in with billions and we start buying all the top players think again, wages can only increase by £4 million a year so it is impossible for us to pay their wages anyway.

The only way we can increase the wage bill significantly is if we increase the commercial revenue, that can be spent on wages, so who is best to increase the commercial revenue of the club? We all want a better football team but that is the bottom line, commercial income. The new TV deals have a fixed amount that can be spent on wages, £56 million in 2015 and £60 million in 2016 so it can't come from there.

Another point to remember before we look at the commercial income of domestic and European competitors is the competition itself. Tottenham are only the 6th richest team in England so have little to no chance of winning a Premier League title (20 of last 20 won by money) but go to a country where there is less competition and you have a chance of titles, even if you may pick up lower wages. If you want to win something as a player Tottenham is not a pull, not until we can increase our income.

Let's have a look at the commercial income as a percentage of total income and see where Tottenham stand in Europe.

Club (Country) - Total Income Figure - % from Commercial Income
1   Real Madrid (Spain) 460 million 42% from Commercial Income
2   Manchester United (England) 433 million 44% from Commercial Income
3   Bayern Munich (Germany) 408 million 60% from Commercial Income
4   Barcelona (Spain) 405 million 38% from Commercial Income
5   Paris Saint-Germain (France) 397 million 69% from Commercial Income
6   Manchester City (England) 347 million 48% from Commercial Income
7   Chelsea (England) 324 million 35% from Commercial Income
8   Arsenal (England) 300 million 26% from Commercial Income
9   Liverpool (England) 256 million 41% from Commercial Income
10 Juventus (Italy) 234 million 30% from Commercial Income
11 Borussia Dortmund (Germany) 219 million 47% from Commercial Income
12 AC Milan (Italy) 209 million 41% from Commercial Income
13 Tottenham Hotspur (England) 181 million 23% from Commercial Income
14 Schalke 04 (Germany) 179 million 49% from Commercial Income

Of the top 14 clubs in Europe financially we derive the least income from the commercial side of the business, which suggests we are not a big enough name. I seem to recall about a year ago, or was it two, we replaced the lady in charge of commercial revenue. I may be wrong but I do seem to recall that.

You look at all the other sides and they are regularly all in the Champions League so clearly that creates more commercial opportunities, but many of those sides have little competition to get into the tournament, in England there are 5 sides better placed than us to achieve it, an uphill battle all the time.

Atletico Madrid, for those who are wondering, are 15th on the list. They won the Spanish title and got to the final of the Champions League through a team ethic, rather than on an individual. That is something we are trying to replicate at Tottenham, the team above the individual, the better the individual player the better as long as the fit and support the team first ethic.

It makes sense to list the bigger clubs in England financially at this point so you can compare our commercial income to theirs.

Club (Country) - Total Income Figure - % from Commercial Income
19 Newcastle United 130 million 20% from Commercial Income
20 Everton 121 million 11% from Commercial Income
21 West Ham United 115 million 17% from Commercial Income
22 Aston Villa 111 million 23% from Commercial Income
25 Southampton  106 million 9% from Commercial Income
27 Sunderland 104 million 16% from Commercial Income
29 Swansea City 99 million 9% from Commercial Income
30 Stoke City 98 million 15% from Commercial Income

You can see that commercially wise we are in a better condition than our rivals with only Aston Villa able to generate the same percentage. Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner is a billionaire, what would you all say if he bought Spurs? A new owner does not guarantee investment.

To fill in the European gaps for you:
15 Atletico Madrid 142 million
16 Napoli 138 million
17 Internazionale 137 million
18 Galatasaray 135 million
23 Marseilles 109 million
24 AS Roma 107 million
26 Benfica 125 million
28 Hamburg 101 million

Another point regarding player purchases at this point is that in the UK we have to purchase a player outright, in many parts of Europe they don't have to. In Italy it is common to buy 50% of a player, Porto (Portugal) has been built on buying  a percentage amount of a player, often 33% I believe.

Partial third part ownership is prevalent so a side can be built with better players than they would normally be able to buy. Talented Brazilians come over to go into the shop window for bigger European clubs.

Tottenham not only have to compete with that situation, but the pull of less competition to win trophies, the chance of Champions League football, quite apart from 5 richer clubs in the Premier League. Throw all that together and ask as a player why would you choose Tottenham?

Maybe a few more fans will then understand that simply because Tottenham want a player it is not Daniel Levy refusing to throw money around that sees him sign for someone else. Fans reality and player reality are two different things. If Levy just throws money at a player then he is the wrong player because he is playing for money ad not for Tottenham, do we want a team of Adebayor's who will only perform when they feel like it?

Higher wages have to come with a higher chance of winning trophies and playing in the Champions League. For Tottenham to achieve that we have to be in Europe to keep our name in the frame and build our commercial income. First step is the new stadium for which there have been legal objections outside our hands.

The strategy, the goal from Daniel Levy is clear if you want to see it and has bee for a while. the aim, goal, has remained the same, yes we tried a short cut buying when we had the chance, yes it failed, not everything works. We have returned to our original policy and brought in people we believe are the best to help us achieve that.

Paul Mitchell, Head of Recruitment and Analysis for instance and Rob MacKenzie, Head of Player Recruitment haven't been given a chance to show what they can do yet, this summer will be the acid test for them.

Like it or not Tottenham will remain in limbo, whoever is owning the club, until the new stadium is built and we start to see greater match day income (Arsenal is double ours) together with increased commercial revenue.

Unfortunately while most of us can see a future and a new stadium there will always be a tiny tiny minority that want to and do see this.


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