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The five reasons why Rafael van der Vaart is just the consolation prize after Tottenham's transfer window failure
Spurs tried and failed to land dozens of targets...
| Bet: | Returns: | Tottenham £14.50 | Draw £42.00 | Newcastle United £68.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Tottenham £14.00 | Draw £40.00 | Newcastle United £65.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Tottenham £14.44 | Draw £43.33 | Newcastle United £75.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Tottenham £14.40 | Draw £43.30 | Newcastle United £75.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Tottenham £14.50 | Draw £37.50 | Newcastle United £68.00 |
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2 Sep 2010 09:15:00
ANALYSIS
By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent
No club plays the transfer window game like Tottenham.
1. Wage structure
Tottenham are big spenders but not – in Premier League terms – massive payers. Only Manchester City and Chelsea have splashed out more money in the transfer market than Tottenham since 2003 but Spurs do not keep up with the big boys when it comes to salaries.
A common refrain among agents is that chairman Daniel Levy will not sanction monster wages. Manchester United have been relatively frugal in their spending in recent years but they were still able to give Nemanja Vidic a £90,000-a-week new contract. Spurs’ top earner is Luka Modric on £70,000-a-week, a figure comfortably exceeded by the majority of Man City’s first-team squad.
Spurs have missed out on many of their summer transfer targets because they were unwilling to finance the type of packages that have become commonplace among the established Champions League clubs.
Yet it would be incorrect to paint Spurs as misers. Levy had put together a £90,000-a-week, three-year contract to entice Luis Fabiano to White Hart Lane and was also willing to shatter the club’s wage structure to sign Edin Dzeko and Diego Forlan, among others.
Free transfer | Joe Cole held talks with Tottenham but opted for Liverpool instead
2. Young Boys defeat
Tottenham were fortunate to draw Young Boys in their Champions League qualifier but the 3-2 first leg defeat was a crucial blow to their transfer scheming.
Levy had told supporters in an email exchange on the day of the match that he was hoping for a “massive” win, the logic being that a comfortable away leg victory would have given him the confidence to finalise one of the many irons he had in the fire safe in the knowledge that the club had safely landed among the elite in the lucrative group stages. It would be another eight days – August 25 – before Spurs’ 4-0 second-leg success guaranteed their entry.
3. Levy's love of brinkmanship
It is far too simplistic to call Harry Redknapp a wheeler-dealer, as one television reporter found out to his cost when the Spurs manager swore at him in disgust and stomped out of a filmed interview. That might have been true in the days when managers used to personally negotiate contracts and transfer deals but very few top-level bosses do that now.
The real wheeler-dealer at White Hart Lane is Levy, whose title is chairman but he is effectively chief executive, too. The Spurs head honcho is renowned in the business as a tough negotiator, as Manchester United might attest after shelling out the best part of £50m for Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Carrick.
But it works both ways and Spurs have lost out on many of their transfer targets this summer because Levy was unwilling to go the extra mile and sign off on big money deals. He flew out to Germany to push through a move for Dzeko but baulked at the £35m asking price and was unwilling to up the club’s bid for Ashley Young beyond £20m or offer the winger more than £70,000-a-week.
Yet Spurs’ impotence in the window was not all Levy’s fault. He had agreed a move with AC Milan for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar but Redknapp pulled out at the last minute because he did not believe the Dutchman was an improvement on the four strikers he already has at his disposal.
It is hard to avoid the impression that there was an air of desperation to Tottenham’s transfer policy, certainly over the last 48 hours of the window when they were fumbling around for any player who could add some feel-good factor, even if he was not an original target.
Few are doubting that £8m represents good value for a player of Rafael Van der Vaart’s calibre but Spurs are already overloaded with technically adroit midfield ball players. What they badly needed was a world class striker who could guarantee 25 goals a season and lead the attack in the manner of a Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres.
Levy set aside £25m to get Dzeko, Forlan or Luis Suarez but Spurs ended up trying to seal moves for less reliable forwards like Emmanuel Adebayor, Giuseppe Rossi and Ryan Babel as the transfer clock ticked down. William Gallas was brought in to bolster the defence because Manchester City were unwilling to sell Micah Richards to a Champions League rival. It was a similar case with Craig Bellamy, another big summer target for Spurs.
It could be said that Tottenham were unfortunate but the most successful clubs do not tend to leave their biggest summer move until the final seconds of the window. It is hardly comparing like for like but Man City did most of their buying in May and June.
5. Shirt sponsor
Tottenham announced a £30m unique double sponsorship deal this summer after splitting with Mansion but did not complete the first part of the deal with Autonomy until July 8 and the second part with Investec until August 17.
How big an effect this had on their ability to sanction transfers in the first half of the summer only Spurs know, but it cannot be a coincidence that Brazilian midfielder Sandro - a deal that was completed in April - was the only confirmed signing before Gallas joined on 22 August.
By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent
No club plays the transfer window game like Tottenham.
Their frantic last-minute buying and selling has become as much a feature of deadline day as Sky Sports News reporters marooned outside training grounds waiting for players, managers or club officials to drop them a crumb of information.
MORE...- Debate: With Van der Vaart on board, how will Redknapp arrange Spurs' midfield?
- Revealed: How the Van der Vaart deal almost fell through
- Worldview: Van der Vaart's path to the Premier League, via Germany and Spain
For a club whose finances stand up to the tightest of scrutiny – they announced record pre-tax profits of £33.4 million in their last set of financial results – Tottenham seem oddly addicted to risk in the transfer market.
Some pay off, some don’t but, like the hardened gambler who can’t shake his fix, Spurs are always at the roulette table, hedging their bets as the clock ticks down.
Rafael van der Vaart turned out to be their last throw of the dice in the summer window after they had failed to land dozens of other targets, from the absurdly expensive Edin Dzeko to the freebie Joe Cole.
Yet even a former Real Madrid star and World Cup finalist is regarded as a consolation prize in the light of a summer that had promised so much, but delivered so little. Here, Goal.com UK analyses the five reasons why Tottenham failed to live up to expectations.
1. Wage structure
Tottenham are big spenders but not – in Premier League terms – massive payers. Only Manchester City and Chelsea have splashed out more money in the transfer market than Tottenham since 2003 but Spurs do not keep up with the big boys when it comes to salaries.
A common refrain among agents is that chairman Daniel Levy will not sanction monster wages. Manchester United have been relatively frugal in their spending in recent years but they were still able to give Nemanja Vidic a £90,000-a-week new contract. Spurs’ top earner is Luka Modric on £70,000-a-week, a figure comfortably exceeded by the majority of Man City’s first-team squad.
Spurs have missed out on many of their summer transfer targets because they were unwilling to finance the type of packages that have become commonplace among the established Champions League clubs.
Yet it would be incorrect to paint Spurs as misers. Levy had put together a £90,000-a-week, three-year contract to entice Luis Fabiano to White Hart Lane and was also willing to shatter the club’s wage structure to sign Edin Dzeko and Diego Forlan, among others.
Free transfer | Joe Cole held talks with Tottenham but opted for Liverpool instead
2. Young Boys defeat
Tottenham were fortunate to draw Young Boys in their Champions League qualifier but the 3-2 first leg defeat was a crucial blow to their transfer scheming.
Levy had told supporters in an email exchange on the day of the match that he was hoping for a “massive” win, the logic being that a comfortable away leg victory would have given him the confidence to finalise one of the many irons he had in the fire safe in the knowledge that the club had safely landed among the elite in the lucrative group stages. It would be another eight days – August 25 – before Spurs’ 4-0 second-leg success guaranteed their entry.
3. Levy's love of brinkmanshipIt is far too simplistic to call Harry Redknapp a wheeler-dealer, as one television reporter found out to his cost when the Spurs manager swore at him in disgust and stomped out of a filmed interview. That might have been true in the days when managers used to personally negotiate contracts and transfer deals but very few top-level bosses do that now.
The real wheeler-dealer at White Hart Lane is Levy, whose title is chairman but he is effectively chief executive, too. The Spurs head honcho is renowned in the business as a tough negotiator, as Manchester United might attest after shelling out the best part of £50m for Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Carrick.
But it works both ways and Spurs have lost out on many of their transfer targets this summer because Levy was unwilling to go the extra mile and sign off on big money deals. He flew out to Germany to push through a move for Dzeko but baulked at the £35m asking price and was unwilling to up the club’s bid for Ashley Young beyond £20m or offer the winger more than £70,000-a-week.
Yet Spurs’ impotence in the window was not all Levy’s fault. He had agreed a move with AC Milan for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar but Redknapp pulled out at the last minute because he did not believe the Dutchman was an improvement on the four strikers he already has at his disposal.
It is hard to avoid the impression that there was an air of desperation to Tottenham’s transfer policy, certainly over the last 48 hours of the window when they were fumbling around for any player who could add some feel-good factor, even if he was not an original target.
Few are doubting that £8m represents good value for a player of Rafael Van der Vaart’s calibre but Spurs are already overloaded with technically adroit midfield ball players. What they badly needed was a world class striker who could guarantee 25 goals a season and lead the attack in the manner of a Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres.
Levy set aside £25m to get Dzeko, Forlan or Luis Suarez but Spurs ended up trying to seal moves for less reliable forwards like Emmanuel Adebayor, Giuseppe Rossi and Ryan Babel as the transfer clock ticked down. William Gallas was brought in to bolster the defence because Manchester City were unwilling to sell Micah Richards to a Champions League rival. It was a similar case with Craig Bellamy, another big summer target for Spurs.
It could be said that Tottenham were unfortunate but the most successful clubs do not tend to leave their biggest summer move until the final seconds of the window. It is hardly comparing like for like but Man City did most of their buying in May and June.
World class striker | Spurs targeted Diego Forlan but he wanted to stay in Spain
5. Shirt sponsor
Tottenham announced a £30m unique double sponsorship deal this summer after splitting with Mansion but did not complete the first part of the deal with Autonomy until July 8 and the second part with Investec until August 17.
How big an effect this had on their ability to sanction transfers in the first half of the summer only Spurs know, but it cannot be a coincidence that Brazilian midfielder Sandro - a deal that was completed in April - was the only confirmed signing before Gallas joined on 22 August.
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