The rising cost of Tottenham's unfinished new stadium has forced the club to make cuts but chairman Daniel Levy has insisted the project had no impact on their lack of summer signings.
Spurs' new home, which was scheduled to open in September, has more than doubled in cost since work began in 2015 and Levy said the overall figure – previously estimated at £850million – had "definitely risen" again following indefinite delays caused by issues with the safety systems.
Mauricio Pochettino, the Spurs manager, has previously put the figure at closer to £1billion and says he is confident the stadium will be open before Christmas.
In a board-to-board meeting with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust (THST), the club confirmed that soaring fees – which include renting Wembley for home games and continuing to pay the 24-hour workforce – had resulted in cost-cutting.
"[Daniel Levy] confirmed the costs had definitely risen and [executive-director Donna-Maria Cullen] added that the Club was cutting internal costs where possible (campaigns, marketing etc.)," read the minutes from last week's meeting.
Levy said the three banks financing the project "were being very supportive" and insisted transfer spend had not been affected.
Spurs became the first Premier League club not to make a single summer signing since the introduction of the transfer windows in 2003 but Levy said their failure to sell players – thought to include Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Fernando Llorente – was the main factor in their unprecedented off-season.
"[Levy] explained that the club had based the summer window on certain assumptions that some players might be leaving and certain targets would be available," the minutes read. "[Pochettino] didn't want to sign someone for the sake of it [because] he felt there were sufficient players in the squad, and that those coming back from injury would be like new signings. [Levy] said...the stadium won't directly impact on the transfer policy. There is a certain amount earmarked for transfers."
In the meeting on Tuesday, October 9, the club said the next update on the project would be announced in two to three weeks, while Levy confirmed his opposition to the Football Association's proposed sale of Wembley to Premier League and NFL rival Shahid Khan.
Meanwhile, Kenya coach Sebastian Migne has said Victor Wanyama's hamstring injury is not serious after the midfielder was replaced in the win over Ethiopia on Sunday. "The injury was not serious," Migne said. "At 3-0 [up], there was no need to take a risk with him after he pulled a muscle in his left leg."
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/rising-cost-of-new-tottenham-stadium-forcing-club-into-cuts-but-transfer-budget-is-protected-a3962871.html
Looks like rising cost of the stadium prevented us from signing players even if he denies it.
Levy finally speaks
posted on 16/10/18
The wait for the facker has dimmed my excitement tbh
Once we are in it we'll be fine.
Surely we have to be looking at at least 5 key signings in the next two windows.
posted on 16/10/18
comment by Dave&Danny (U4428)
posted 44 seconds ago
just feel that Levy missed a great opportunity to push on and finally win something, cant see it happening this season now again !!!
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Yea. It's like he's so neive to think the key members of the current squad will just hang around for years when we win nothing.
posted on 16/10/18
Well at least the chairman has a great excuse to put the price of tickets through the roof.
posted on 16/10/18
comment by Dave&Danny (U4428)
posted 3 hours, 52 minutes ago
just feel that Levy missed a great opportunity to push on and finally win something, cant see it happening this season now again !!!
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The season is barely a couple of months old. How do you know Spurs will not win anything? Every prize is still up for grabs.
posted on 17/10/18
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Spurs' new home, which was scheduled to open in September, has more than doubled in cost since work began in 2015 and Levy said the overall figure – previously estimated at £850million...……
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Would have thought that someone as savvy as Levy would have had a "contract" with the principal contractor with a 10% cost overage built into it. Is this contractor insured? Any "real" business people involved in this project?
posted on 17/10/18
comment by GeniusGreaves (U1302)
posted 17 hours, 1 minute ago
Could it be a good time for an investor to look at buying the club?
Not that I am advocating this, but being a realist and pragmatic, this could possibly be Enic's best opportunity to get a good ROI.
Reports today suggest the Saudis are looking to invest in the Premier League, as they watch the UAE & Qatar invest heavily in football to raise their profiles.
Whilst the link is about Manchest United, it is unlikely the Glazers will want to sell their cash cow just yet.
Thoughts?
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You want your club owned by the Saudis?
Read this ...all of it....
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45883174
They might start chopping some of the posters on this board up into suitcase-sized pieces... given the sorts of things that are written on here!
FGS
posted on 17/10/18
comment by Diamondlights (U20501)
posted 16 hours, 47 minutes ago
Pretty much what I expected to hear from them. I do feel there's strong chance we will not sign anyone in Jan as Levy simply isn't in a position to over pay to get a deal done. I still feel that there's a dislike in the football community towards Spurs and the way Levy does things that's now coming back to bite him with less cash available to operate. As much as we might have wanted to sell Dembele, Toby, Rose, Sissoko, Llorente, Janssen in the Summer I suspect the realistic replacements we'rent there/ in our budget and now we will have to deal with consequences in the summer. The Toby situation is gonna be one he'll never live down if he decides he wants out..... quite frankly I wouldn't blame him
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Yes! Rumors are that Barcelona are now in for Toby, and ManU have come back in.
I really do hope that all this Stadium stuff is a prelude to selling the club to new owners who are willing to spend money to win things.
posted on 17/10/18
comment by MKspur - On the Troy Parrott hype train 🔥 (U9129)
posted 23 hours, 51 minutes ago
While I want to push on and win things the new stadium was a must and quite frankly we are lucky Enic has evolved our club of the pitch as they have.
Now once the stadium has been built and we are still spending fack all in transfer windows and on wages then the complaints are warranted.
Buzzing to get in this stadium
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Good post and some much welcome balance as oppose to the repetitive dross which don and spurtle are spouting yet again here....
Don seems to think that we have an endless pot of money and wants us to spend regardless of circumstances, and spurtle seems to want the same. So unbelievably short sighted and naive, it’s frightening.
posted on 17/10/18
comment by Chronic (U3423)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by MKspur - On the Troy Parrott hype train 🔥 (U9129)
posted 23 hours, 51 minutes ago
While I want to push on and win things the new stadium was a must and quite frankly we are lucky Enic has evolved our club of the pitch as they have.
Now once the stadium has been built and we are still spending fack all in transfer windows and on wages then the complaints are warranted.
Buzzing to get in this stadium
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Good post and some much welcome balance as oppose to the repetitive dross which don and spurtle are spouting yet again here....
Don seems to think that we have an endless pot of money and wants us to spend regardless of circumstances, and spurtle seems to want the same. So unbelievably short sighted and naive, it’s frightening.
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Tbf it’s caught me on a good day as otherwise it’d be a lot more critical
Just want to get into the stadium now and from the summer coming start building a team to challenge again as we are hitting the rebuilding phase now.
posted on 17/10/18
You want your club owned by the Saudis?
Read this ...all of it....
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45883174
They might start chopping some of the posters on this board up into suitcase-sized pieces... given the sorts of things that are written on here!
FGS
_____________________________
Not particularly Ted, however it will not be up to us, will it?
Money talks, and if someone came in with a good enough offer then Enic might just sell.
I like Levy & think he has done a great job over the last decade.
By doing such a great job he has made us a very attractive proposition going forward.