Daniel Levy on Tottenham’s transfer activity and Premier League’s ‘unsustainable’ spending
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Published 25/07/2017 at 22:24 GMT
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy has spoken out about the level of spending in the Premier League this summer, describing the transfer fees as unsustainable.
Daniel Levy
Image credit: Reuters
Spurs have yet to add to their squad this summer, but have opted to sell Kyle Walker to Manchester City for a record fee for a full-back (a record that has subsequently been broken by City’s purchase of Benjamin Mendy from Monaco).
And Levy says that the current conditions of the transfer market will not last.
My view is that it's totally unsustainable. I'm not sure if that's the view of the other Premier League clubs, but certainly the prices that are being paid for other Premier League players I can't see it being sustainable in the long term.
I think I am a custodian of this football club. This club has been around since 1882 and when I leave it will be somebody else. I think we have a duty to manage the club appropriately. I don't think that long term for any club it's sustainable to spend more than you earn. You can have periods where you do but over the long term you can't.
I think that some of the activity that's going on at the moment is just impossible to be sustainable. You know if somebody is spending £200m more than they're earning then eventually it catches up with you. You can't keep doing it.
Spurs are looking to strengthen their squad in the hope of improving on last season’s second-place finish.
But Levy has again stressed that it is important to balance those transfer desires with the expenditure required to build the club’s new stadium in north London.
"We've managed the club, we think, in a very appropriate way," he said. "We've invested a lot of money in physical facilities for long-term growth. So we've got one of the world's best training facilities. We've invested over £100m in that facility.
"We're now investing in the stadium. The stadium is fundamental because with that we get more fans and more income and that's the way to clearly have a more sustainable business.
At the same time the academy is important because we can produce our own players. We don't have to go and spend £20, £30m, £40m on a player and obviously that homegrown player has an affinity with the club that a player we buy doesn't. That's what the fans want to see. They want to have that passion. That's what you get with a homegrown player and that's why people love Harry Kane and sing that he's one of our own.
“Regardless of the stadium project, today our position on transfers is that we have a coach that very much believes in the academy," Levy continued. "Unless we can find a player who would make a difference he would rather give one of our academy players a chance so that's regardless of the financing of the stadium.
"It is a challenge and we have to find the right balance but it's not impacting us at the moment on transfer activity because we're not yet in a place where we've found the player who we definitely want to buy but can't afford to buy."
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