Tottenham to land 'heavyweight' replacement as senior man departs

Tottenham Hotspur will be hit hard by the departure of their chief financial officer Ryan Norys in the coming months.

That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that Norys was the "architect" of the club's "revenue machine," alongside Daniel Levy.

The finance expert joined the Lilywhites back in 2022 as their commercial director, but has now left them to join MotoGP.

Wyness outlined the role of chief financial officer as a "crucial" position, and made it clear that Spurs need to bring in a "heavyweight" replacement who is well-respected within football.

The CFO is typically responsible for managing financial strategy at a club and aligning that with its sporting ambitions.

Norys has previously also held key financial roles at Roma, and Wyness is adamant that he must be replaced by someone of a similar calibre.

Tottenham must be careful to avoid 'spiral'

Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Tottenham could potentially fall into a dangerous "spiral" where their on-field struggles affect their revenue streams.

He believes Norys was a key figure behind Spurs' move to establish themselves as one of the Premier League's leading commercial clubs, and his exit could easily cause that to slip.

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, Wyness explained why it is crucial that Tottenham replace Norys "as soon as possible."

"With Daniel Levy and then Ryan Norys, those are probably the architects of the revenue machine we're talking about. So once your architects have gone, you've got to be pretty quick to put people in place to keep it running," he said.

"Now, a lot of the things that are put in place, like the NFL contract, were multi-year, so there isn't going to be a short-term impact on those sorts of things. 

"But we just talked about the problems of getting commercial sponsorships in there right now. So it's absolutely crucial that the chief revenue officer is replaced with a heavyweight player as soon as possible.

"It's a difficult position to fill, but they've got to do it quickly, and they've got to get somebody in who's respected in the industry, because otherwise that revenue machine will start to decline.

"When the performance on the pitch is also in trouble, then that's a spiral that becomes very hard to get out of. So Spurs once again are very Spursy on the commercial side right now."

Stefan Borson's verdict on Tottenham buying more '£100m players'

Former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson told Football Insider earlier this week that it is highly unlikely that Spurs have another big summer of transfer spending next time around.

The football finance expert believes that the Lilywhites will "restrain" themselves in the market next summer, especially if they don't secure Champions League football.

Borson made it clear that he cannot see Tottenham bringing in more "£100million players" in the coming windows.

Instead, he expects their business to be far more measured and calculated, having worked to overhaul the squad for Roberto De Zerbi this summer.