The transfer season used to be a time in the season where Tottenham Hotspur, and in particular Daniel Levy, became notorious for doing the best pieces of business. In stark contrast, Tottenham have done next to no business whatsoever, and the fans want an answer as to why we haven’t been able to secure more than 3 players, despite seemingly being linked to the entire footballing universe.
The media will always find links and rumours to Tottenham Hotspur, because the fans love a good rumour. We use our imagination and picture how things could be if we signed the player in the papers. The media also feature Spurs a lot, because no one really knows what is going on, and for all we know, these rumours could be true. The lack of transparency is a concern for some fans, but in legal terms, if Spurs were to announce every player they wanted, it would scupper any chance of the transfer. The price of the wanted player would probably triple because everyone knows that we have the money. I mean, we have the 3rd richest owner in the Premier League!
But it isn’t the owner who is in charge of the transfers; it’s the chairman. A certain Daniel Levy. Now, Levy is arguably one of the most polarizing characters in English football, not quite controversial, but on the borderline. He splits opinion amongst the supporters, and whilst he has done some good things for Tottenham, you could easily come up with reasons as to why he is a negative influence on the club. Anyone who can get £10M for Paulinho is a genius in my eyes, but a man who drives a hard bargain rather than just get business done is a frustrating character. Fans don’t like him because he doesn’t want the best for the club. It’s something that only Levy himself can answer, but as a businessman, he looks for the money first, hence why it took so long for the Gareth Bale transfer to go through. Mainly, because Levy knew that if Tottenham had £85M in the coffers, and players’ prices would go soaring. Just a shame of who we bought with that money.
This is why Spurs hardly make any noise when it comes to transfers, because we have money to burn. Saido Berahino has had about 4 different price tags in the past week, Victor Wanyama suddenly became pricier than Bastian Schweinsteiger once we announced our interest, and that effectively ruled out the move. Berahino looks most likely, but if it doesn’t then West Brom have pulled a Levy on Levy himself.
But what Levy needs to realize is that in modern football, you need to spend money to do well and then make money because you’ve done well. It’s a vicious cycle that Tottenham know all to well. Something needs to change, we know that, but the people who make the changes don’t understand that.
Business needs to be done early on, as Chelsea showed last season. Jose Mourinho claimed in his first season back that he was one striker away from winning the league. The next season, he went out and bought Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas before the World Cup, and guess what? They won the league. Who’d fancy that, a team doing business early does well!
It’s too late to say that Tottenham need to do their business early, but it’s a lesson that we should really take on board.
