Tottenham Hotspur Football Club
Nicknames – Spurs, The Lilywhites
Best PL Finish – 2nd (2016/17)
Spurs are only one of six clubs to have never been relegated from the Premier League. Despite being a mainstay in England’s top league for all this time they are still without a Premier League trophy.
The closest they came to getting their hands on the prize was in 2015/16 when Leicester famously won the title. They were within touching distance until a feisty draw at Stamford Bridge ended their title hopes.
As of today they find themselves 3rd in the league, nine points off leaders Liverpool.
Spurs have had a rocky ride in the Premier League but they are now a well-established top six side with serious title aspirations.
White Hart Lane has been home to some of the Premier League’s most mercurial players over the years, such as Gareth Bale and Luka Modric.
Daniel Levy, Spurs’ chairman, is a wily operator in the transfer market and will no doubt be on the lookout for bargains and promising young players as Spurs look to get their hands on that elusive Premier League trophy.
Top 5 Record Transfer Fees (as of 04/02/2019):
1. Davinson Sanchez – £42 million* (from Ajax – August 2017)
2. Moussa Sissoko – £30 million (from Newcastle – September 2016)
3. Roberto Soldado – £26 million (from Valencia – August 2013)
4. Erik Lamela – £25.7 million (from AS Roma – August 2013)**
5. Heung-Min Son – £22 million (from Bayern Leverkusen – August 2015)***
* Fee officially undisclosed but reported to be £42 million by the Telegraph originally.
** Erik Lamela’s £25.7 million fee had the possibility to rise by £4.2 million in bonus payments, as reported by the BBC. The initial transfer fee was announced by Roma themselves prior to the transfer.
*** This figure was first quoted by the Daily Mirror.
(Figures include the initial fee in GBP at the time of the transfer, as reported by the BBC unless otherwise stated.)
Biggest Flop – Roberto Soldado
When it comes to the biggest transfer flop for Spurs there is one name which rises above the rest. A name which still causes shivers to ripple through various parts of North London. Roberto Soldado.
Soldado was bought with a sizeable chunk of the Gareth Bale fee in the summer of 2013. He came from Valencia where he had just scored 30 goals in all competitions as he helped his club to a 5th place finish in La Liga.
On paper this should have been a safe and successful signing. Sadly football does not always work like this.
Soldado was at Spurs for two seasons and in this time managed just seven league goals.
He started quite brightly, scoring on his debut and then netting a brace in the Champions League four days later.
This was not to last however, he ended the campaign with six league goals for the season. The following term he netted only once, in a 2-1 win at home to Everton on the 30th November.
Honourable mentions for biggest flop include:
• Vincent Janssen
• Kevin-Prince Boateng
• John Scales
Biggest Bargain – Gareth Bale
Spurs know a thing or two when it comes to signing bargains. The chairman, Daniel Levy, is notorious for getting his club the best possible deals in the transfer market and squeezing profit out of all possible crevices.
Some notable bargains include, Aaron Lennon from £1 million from Leeds United, Benoit Assou-Ekotto for £3.5 million from RC Lens and Dele Alli for £5 million from MK Dons.
This all are fantastic bits of business from Levy but there is one that stands above the rest. In 2007 Spurs signed Gareth Bale from Southampton for an initial fee of £5 million.
Back then £5 million was worth a lot more than it is now in football but this is still a remarkable bargain. The 18 year old was signed as a left-back with incredible creative quality but still with room for improvement in defence.
He had a slow start to life at Spurs and struggled with injury. It was in the latter half of the 2009/10 season that he flourished and became the electric winger we know today.
Over the coming seasons he became instrumental in everything Spurs’ did and won the Spurs Young Player of the Year Award in 2009/10 and 2010/11 as well as the Spurs Player of the Year award in 2012/13. He also picked up the PFA Player’s Players of the Year Award in 2010/11 and 2012/13.
He was eventually signed by Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 for £85.1 million. The most expensive transfer in history at the time.
Not a bad profit from £5 million really.
Records & Trivia
• Spurs were the only Premier League club not to make a signing in the summer of 2018.
• 4 out of 5 of Spurs record transfers OUT all won either the Premier League or Champions League in their first season away from the club. (Kyle Walker, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick – Premier League. Gareth Bale – Champions League)
• Spurs signed the first foreign player in English football; German, Max Seeburg in 1908.
• Spurs spent £109 million in the summer after Gareth Bale was sold. As things stand they are currently at a loss of £55 million from those seven signings, with only Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen remaining at the club today.
