Levy makes makes honest admission about Spurs summer transfers, fans will be worried
By Harry Sykes
Tottenham’s chairman has blasted the ‘totally unsustainable’ transfer market in the UK ahead of the new season, in an outburst that will worry Spurs fans.
Spurs are still the only club in the Premier League not to sign a player this summer, and although they have youth players like Josh Onomah on the cusp of the first team, fans will be worried that their club is going to lose touch with their big-spending rivals.
However, Levy has said that he won’t risk bankrupting the club to try to keep pace with the Premier League big-hitters.
Talking in The Sun, Levy said, “We have a duty to manage the club appropriately.
“Some of the activity that is going on at the moment is just impossible for it to be sustainable.
“Somebody spending £200m more than they’re earning, eventually it catches up with you. And you can’t keep doing it.”
So far this summer, Manchester City have spent over £200m strengthening their side and they’re still looking to bring more players in.
Manchester United have spent £100m, including £72million on Romelu Lukaku and Arsenal broke their club record with a successful £45m bid for striker Alexandre Lacazette.
Even Everton are splashing the cash, on the back of Lukaku’s sale, with £100m spent on a number of new recruits including Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane.
Tottenham are building a new stadium at the moment but Levy says this isn’t the reason that Spurs haven’t signed anyone yet.
“Obviously when you’re building a stadium of this magnitude and it all has to be privately financed – there’s no state help whatsoever – it is a challenge.
“We have to find the right balance but I can honestly say it is not impacting us on transfer activity because we are not yet in a place where we have found a player that we want to buy who we cannot afford to buy.
“Our position on transfers is that we have a coach who very much believes in the academy, so unless we can find a player that makes a difference we would rather give one of our young academy players a chance.”
A report in the Mirror claimed that Josh Onamah could be the next to make the breakthrough to the first team.
They claimed that manager Mauricio Pochettino was including him in his plans for next season and wanted to tie him down to a new long-term contract on improved terms.
Football Insider verdict:
Levy’s outbursts will be worrying for Tottenham fans on a number of levels. Everyone knows that the transfer market is inflated and that clubs are paying over the odds for players. However, Spurs are yet to sign anyone, despite losing Kyle Walker to rivals Manchester City. Bargains are still out there – Leicester bought N’Golo Kante to the Premier League for less than £8million and won the league arguably on the back of that transfer – so just saying players are too expensive is disingenuous. Ironically, Leicester pipped Spurs to the league title that year and Spurs narrowly missed out to Chelsea the next year. Fans will now be worried that the squad isn’t good enough to compete again – and that these comments from Levy are being put out there to warn Spurs fans not to expect much this summer.
In other Tottenham news, former Hull boss Phil Brown has suggested that Spurs have received bids for two of their key players.