I was thinking about squad depth and your comment on wages / no. of players on big contracts. Swiss Ramble put out some figures today for West Ham finances which included wages to turnover ratios, wages and revenue figures for all PL clubs. Spurs have the (financially) best wages to turnover ratio in the League at 46%. League average is 73%, other 'Big 6' clubs have 61% average. Tottenham 2023 revenue 4th highest at £550m, Tottenham wages 5th highest at £251m. If our wages to turnover ratio were increased to the Big 6 average at 61% that would add a further £86.7m to the budget, an increase of 35%. Thats the equivalent of 16 more players on £100k pw contracts: a whole lot of squad depth. Alternatively that's 8 more players on £200k pw contracts: a significant step up in quality. This really ought to be the direction of travel for the club and if the purple and gold brigade want to questions the Board's ambition this is where they should focus. Spurs still recorded a £90m loss in the 2023 accounts, so we can't just get there overnight and we have a big stadium related interest bill to pay that other clubs don't (c.£20m pa), but I do think that over the next few years there is plenty of scope for Spurs to start paying a lot more in wages. We can afford better players on bigger wages.
This is so well written. I wish mainstream media talked more about the injury crisis.
They certainly do for Arsenal!
I was thinking about squad depth and your comment on wages / no. of players on big contracts. Swiss Ramble put out some figures today for West Ham finances which included wages to turnover ratios, wages and revenue figures for all PL clubs. Spurs have the (financially) best wages to turnover ratio in the League at 46%. League average is 73%, other 'Big 6' clubs have 61% average. Tottenham 2023 revenue 4th highest at £550m, Tottenham wages 5th highest at £251m. If our wages to turnover ratio were increased to the Big 6 average at 61% that would add a further £86.7m to the budget, an increase of 35%. Thats the equivalent of 16 more players on £100k pw contracts: a whole lot of squad depth. Alternatively that's 8 more players on £200k pw contracts: a significant step up in quality. This really ought to be the direction of travel for the club and if the purple and gold brigade want to questions the Board's ambition this is where they should focus. Spurs still recorded a £90m loss in the 2023 accounts, so we can't just get there overnight and we have a big stadium related interest bill to pay that other clubs don't (c.£20m pa), but I do think that over the next few years there is plenty of scope for Spurs to start paying a lot more in wages. We can afford better players on bigger wages.
This is such an insightful analysis, Prof.
Thank you!