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Daniel Levy - Chairman

I'm thinking more of everyone on £100k which sounds crazy for now but is very palatable in the new world

But some players are simply not worth £100K

And what has Winks done to deserve £100K a week

Janssen £100K a week? Really

Sissoko is on too much money as it is
 
Also to say, the guys that are getting a lot less in my example are either new to the league and focused on settling in, or young and know they need to improve, or under performing and that we'd be happy to move on.

It really is all about strategy, and for so long we acted like we didn't have one to compete with the top clubs. To be the 6th best, sure. We leveraged our brand and commercial income to play at about par, but to get into the top 4 we needed something else. I think Levy thought the Bale money was our chance to really compete but when it showed that other clubs can always spend more and that actually building a team is what's required, it was like the final lesson. From that point on, he realised we needed to reduce expectations in order to build.

There's a good book called Good Strategy Bad Strategy, and Spurs now apply a lot of the concepts from there. Whether by luck, repeated failures or Levy reading that book, we've finally got to a point where we will consistently compete.
 
But some players are simply not worth £100K

And what has Winks done to deserve £100K a week

Janssen £100K a week? Really

Sissoko is on too much money as it is

I wouldn't be surprised if Winks, on average in the weeks that he played, earned more than Sissoko this year. Or close to it. Or maybe not too far behind if he was.

The only thing I would love to know if all of my hyperbole is correct is injuries. Maybe Lamela is even more upset about being injured because he knows he'll make less this year because of it? How do we ensure fairness in this regard?
 
But if that salary data is concentrated heavily on the top performers, there's probably an idea there that bonuses are playing compatibly more of a part? Overall, we may not be spending much relatively speaking, but as with my Sissoko example, he's probably taking a 75k base but whose to say Alli hasn't been pulling 150/200k a week on average including bonuses this year when it's all taken into account? I may be totally wrong, and maybe it wouldn't be sustainable, but that's a way of paying only our real top performers the top wages that can compare. Similarly Kane must also get an absolute wedge which moves him up there, and I imagine Toby and Jan must get a heavy amount for clean sheets plus wins. We can do this because the likes of Trippier, Lamela, Sissoko, Wimmer, Janssen, Winks, CCV, Davies, Vorm, GKN are probably paid comparatively a lot less. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear Vorm getting a comparitively high base compared to lots of other members of the squad because he has less chance of making appearances for example.

Maybe someone with the time and inclination could look into our last accounts and see if that works? Of course, there's no reason why a Man United also couldn't offer heavy win bonuses, but they will also have a squad with more experienced players that can realistically demand it be higher. As long as our young players are consistently rewarded with new terms, key roles, constant improvement and more money through bonuses than they've ever dreamed of, they're probably very happy. When they hit Walker's age for example maybe they start thinking about the money (although guys like Toby, Jan, Mousse and Hugo don't seem to mind) maybe we will move them on, but only after we've got the best out of them and probably when their inclination to run quite as much or focus too much on the 'system' is reduced.

When we compare the wage bill between clubs it includes bonuses. We could see this when we qualified for the CL under Redknapp and the wage bill jumped because of performance bonuses. It will be interesting to see whether the same happens again or whether we have moved away from that type of incentivisation.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick here but the discussion was around whether we would be closing the gap on the clubs above us in terms of wage bill. With this, how the contracts are structured is irrelevant, all that matters is how much we are paying in total and I cannot see that increasing significantly in the near future.
 
But some players are simply not worth £100K

And what has Winks done to deserve £100K a week

Janssen £100K a week? Really

Sissoko is on too much money as it is

You don't pay them that until their ready. They would be in fringe player bracket earning competitive money but with the carrot of the big money
 
Actually on this strategy point, you can kind of see why Arsenal have struggled. It's almost like Wenger is still operating as if they are at Highbury and they may as well not have bothered with the new stadium at all. Poch has a playing style that demands lots of young players to bring them up a level. We don't need big name stars for it to work. Wenger was similar at Highbury but with their higher commercial revenues they are still operating like a smaller upstart. Their playing style neither gets consistently higher the expected performances from youngsters nor does it get the best out of star signings like Ozil. It's all very awkward and lacking in strategy.

It's like scaling a start up. The challenge is always whether their leadership can grow themselves from managing ten people, to managing 50, to managing 500. Some, like Mark Zuckerberg, are exceptional. But most of the time you replace the leadership in the business with people who have the experience at the right scale.

When we move to the new stadium, and once we can actually start using the money on transfers, I'd expect Poch needing to 'scale' and maybe altering a style that gets the best out of youngsters. Right now if we have to pay back the stadium and then operate with low net spend, it's fine, I think nothing needs to change. But at some point, either our core players are going to get older and expect more money, or expect to be managed in a different way, and we will need to adapt.

I wonder whether Levy will help stay ahead of the curve on this one, and make the right changes when required. Poch has shown himself to be adaptable, but hopefully he scales. Because Wenger didn't, and their decline has been a long time coming.
 
an argument can be made that stepping players gradually aids their development

you won't find an agent or player that agrees though probably
 
When we compare the wage bill between clubs it includes bonuses. We could see this when we qualified for the CL under Redknapp and the wage bill jumped because of performance bonuses. It will be interesting to see whether the same happens again or whether we have moved away from that type of incentivisation.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick here but the discussion was around whether we would be closing the gap on the clubs above us in terms of wage bill. With this, how the contracts are structured is irrelevant, all that matters is how much we are paying in total and I cannot see that increasing significantly in the near future.

Not if the contracts are structured in a way that means the majority of that money is significantly weighted (perhaps more so than at rival clubs) in the hands on the few top performers, no? If we do it that way, it means me avoid the problems of being unable to pay players increases, for fear of the whole squad demanding relative parity and ruining our structure. This way, you are paid what you earn, and means even if the total is overall less than our rivals, we can still pay our top performers at something resembling the top end of what they can expect at the relative stage of their careers.

Having been part of the start up world for a little while it's really interesting, because Spurs are definitely operating like innovators and demonstrating a lot of similar traits in our strategy right across the club. The interesting thing will be whether we can operate like a corporate once we have the resources, and can we make the appropriate changes to do that.
 
the problem is that the ability level across the squad is quite flat, there shouldn't be much disparity across the team in wages, if one players justifies a bump because that's what they would get at United then 10 others can say the same
 
if I was managing another (bankrolled) club it would be prudent to put it out there that I wanted to sign, let's say, Rose, and that i'd pay him 200k a week, that's all it takes, maybe his head gets turned and the deal happens, it's money well spent and my team is better for it, but say he stays because Levy found the money to bump him, I win anyway as Levy has to give 7/8 other players the same bump as they are just as important as Danny, that's another half million a week Spurs can't use to sign the next Dele Alli
 
Also to say, the guys that are getting a lot less in my example are either new to the league and focused on settling in, or young and know they need to improve, or under performing and that we'd be happy to move on.

It really is all about strategy, and for so long we acted like we didn't have one to compete with the top clubs. To be the 6th best, sure. We leveraged our brand and commercial income to play at about par, but to get into the top 4 we needed something else. I think Levy thought the Bale money was our chance to really compete but when it showed that other clubs can always spend more and that actually building a team is what's required, it was like the final lesson. From that point on, he realised we needed to reduce expectations in order to build.

There's a good book called Good Strategy Bad Strategy, and Spurs now apply a lot of the concepts from there. Whether by luck, repeated failures or Levy reading that book, we've finally got to a point where we will consistently compete.

Levy has been spot on with his strategy for a very long time.

Remember what we've been competing with. Since Levy took over Arsenal turned their CL money into a new stadium massively increasing their income. Emirates Marketing Project and Chelsea were financially doped to get in/stay in the top 4 and Man United established themselves as a financial powerhouse. Overtaking that by good strategy alone is a massive task for any club. And we've seen other clubs try and utterly fail.

Levy has been smart for a very long time. There have been set backs (as there will be), there have been mistakes (as there will be). But overall he's done a very good job for a very long time and we're now reaping the rewards.
 
Levy has been spot on with his strategy for a very long time.

Before 50 people reply and this thread goes off on the same old arguments... I'd say Levy has not been "spot on" but he has got most things right and is the best Chairman in the league. I've always appreciated his approach, although occasionally some signings have baffled me.
 
Before 50 people reply and this thread goes off on the same old arguments... I'd say Levy has not been "spot on" but he has got most things right and is the best Chairman in the league. I've always appreciated his approach, although occasionally some signings have baffled me.

Just to be clear I'm not saying he's been spot on with all his decisions. That's an impossible standard to hold anyone to. But that he's been spot on with his (overall) strategy. That has helped him in getting most things right.
 
Before 50 people reply and this thread goes off on the same old arguments... I'd say Levy has not been "spot on" but he has got most things right and is the best Chairman in the league. I've always appreciated his approach, although occasionally some signings have baffled me.

Fair comment. Though 'spot on' 100% of the time is pretty much asking the impossible. He isn't perfect, nobody is, and in Daniel's case that very occasionally becomes glaringly obvious. But even with his faults....best chairman in the league, as you say. It's hard to ask for too much more than that.
 
Haven't posted in this thread for a while. I've never been shy to be critical of him at times when I believed he deserved it but credit where it's due, to be in the position we are now is a massive credit to him, the manager and the players.
 
Danny Boy


Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

Oh Danny boy, the Spurs, the Spurs are calling
From Park Lane, Paxton and shelf side
The seasons gone, and all the gooners are crying
Tis you Tis you we salute, forever our pride
 

"Job well done lads, let's go one better next season, even the season following in our new home..."

or "Emirates Marketing Project offered me 30 million for Kyle Walker this morning.. I told them to triple it!"

On a serious note, whole hearted congratulations should go to Daniel.. He organised a fabulous day yesterday and has been largely responsible for our steady upward trajectory over the last (nearly) two decades.
 
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