Has the debt ever spiralled as far as this? Within a context of what wil be a recession externally and within football?
I can only talk for myself, but I've never said we are on a sound financial footing. Quite the opposite. We are a business who relies upon shareholder investment to plug gaps. If that didn't exist, I would have a fundmentally different analysis of the situation- Namely we are likely going to ahve to sell 2 prime assets this summer just to tick over.
However we have major backing. I know most summers those ITK guys have said we won't spend any money, so I won't be surprised if we get the same commentary again. The laws of probability would dictate at least that money will be made available. None of know Moshiri/others thinking, but if I was hedging a bet, based on past behaviour it will be that against all rational sense, money will be made available. It is worth noting that both Manchester City and Chelsea ran up huge debts for the first 6-7 years too, and took decisions that made little sense from a business standpoint. Thats the only comparison I can really seemate.
As for the final question about why we won't be affected. I mean the above cavaet that with an owner willing to invest to mitigate losses being far more important, it is worth noting that the club will be less hit than the top teams. I know I've written about it before, so going over some old ground, but you can group certain income streams. TV, commercial, European prize money, gate receipts.
Domestic TV is the one the "14" clubs rely most heavily upon, and at present has remained relativly steady. European money will likely be downgraded. Commercial/merchandising will be down a lot more and finally gate receipts have collapsed for over a years worth of games, and are probably likely to be down even into next yers figures. These factors affect the biggest clubs more harshly.
When Daniel Levy says something akin to "unless we get fans back in the ground (this season), we will be left with irrepearable damage" it gives you some indication of what we are talking about. Yes there's some bluff here, but also Spurs were actually a very well run club, compared to most top teams.
Now there are problems down the road for all clubs, and thats putting it lightly. The TV deal is up in 2022, and the new deal will be reduced, and again while this affects all clubs, it will be the 14 as oppose dto the 6 who are hit hardest from this. I reckon the deal might be 30-40% lower. So the situation remains treacherous grounds, but not until next summer, and really the summer after until tagt reality start to bite (you can see from this summer, clubs are not veyr good at pre-planing for what is to come).
FWIW I don't believe we are going to start buying the best players from your Inter MIlans or Barcelonas. I deliberately avoided whacking Martinez or Skrinar off the list. Some of their older players though, if we got European football, I could see us potentially attracting maybe one of those as a marquee signing. Likewise, caste off from Barcelona, Real Madrid, to a degree Inter Milan and others remain a possibility in my view. I also think, younger players in France might be.
If people have different views thats fine too. Some will think we will get nobody, and i'm happy to hear the rational. Others might say we will go and take lots of their top stars, and again it's not my view, but it's fair enough I suppose. It makes for an interesting discussion if nothing else!
