£134m Tottenham transfer bonanza on cards as Daniel Levy set for face-to-face talks
Tottenham could spend up to £134m this summer as a Daniel Levy’s long-held plan comes to fruition.
There is every chance that Spurs will look a very different side when they return to the pitch in 2024-25.
The North Londoners started the campaign brightly in 2023-24 but ultimately missed out on Champions League football for a fifth successive season.
Ange Postecoglou is therefore believed to be plotting sweeping changes to his playing squad to go again next term.
And developments at governance level mean that Spurs will very soon be operating in a different financial environment too.
PSR changes mean Spurs can spend big this summer
The Premier League will hold its AGM on Thursday 6th June, less than 48 hours away. Levy will be in attendance.
The talks, which will take place in person in Harrogate, will largely centre around a proposed new set of Profit and Sustainability Rules (formerly financial fair play, or FFP).
If clubs vote to introduce the new rules as is expected, Spurs will have to comply with a new financial anchoring and squad cost control ratio from 2024-25 onwards.
The specifics of the anchoring system are largely irrelevant to Spurs, whose spending is nowhere near the upper limit set to be established.
Analysis from TBR meanwhile shows that Spurs have £134m worth of headroom in terms of the new squad cost control measure.
This system limits clubs to spending 85 per cent of revenue on wages, transfers and agent fees, shrinking to 70 per cent for clubs like Spurs who are competing in European competition.
That’s an extra £134m for Postecoglou’s playing budget.
The figure is calculated by taking their turnover (a club-record £550m in their last set of accounts) and finding their 70 per cent upper limit.
That’s £385m upper limit, minus their £251m annual wage bill (again, a club record), giving a total of £134m headroom.
And that figure could be even higher in reality as the new squad cost ratio is likely to be phased in, just as UEFA are gradually introducing their own similar model.
The final figure will also likely vary slightly as Spurs’ wage bill will have fluctuated ahead of the coming PSR assessment window.
But the departure of a number of big earners this summer means the final figure will likely go up, not down.
Analysis: Will Levy bankroll huge Tottenham transfer budget?
While supporters have at times been frustrated by Levy’s sustainability-first approach to running Spurs, his philosophy is now paying off.
Their turnover and EBITDA (earnings before interested, tax, depreciation and amortisation) are among the strongest in the league. And that gives them significant room to manoeuvre in the transfer market.
That doesn’t mean Levy and ENIC are obliged to bankroll a huge spree this summer, however.
Ultimately, they can only spend big if the owners are willing to finance it.
But as the departures of 12 first-team players could shave as much as £47.5m from the wage bill, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the owners wouldn’t choose to reinvest.
And with Levy and his peers in the boardroom extremely conscious of the value that a strong playing squad has for potential investors, they will be ready to back the manager in the transfer market.
