Football Finance expert Kieran Maguire has pointed out that Daniel Levy and co deserve credit for deciding to increase their wage bill, pointing out that Tottenham’s wage-to-turnover ratio remains at a healthy place.
Last week, Spurs released their financial results for the 2022/23 year and the report made for quite interesting reading.
The club had posted revenues of £549.6m which is the highest in their history and the first time the number had crossed over half a billion.
However, they also made a significant loss of £86.8m over the financial year, bringing the total losses over the past three years to £232m.
That was down to the increase in operational costs, with Tottenham spending more on wages than Arsenal for the first time in their history.
Tottenham’s wage structure is bigger and better
Maguire believes that the increasing wage bill is not a matter of immediate concern for Spurs, explaining that it would come down for the current financial year, particularly since Harry Kane has departed.
When asked about Tottenham’s increasing wage bill, he told Football Insider: “You’ve got to give the club a lot of credit. The wage bill is at a record level, although that will drop this season because the club’s not in Europe and is no longer paying Harry Kane’s wages.
“But for the first time since the 1995-96 season, Spurs have spent more on wages than Arsenal. On top of that, the proportion of revenue they spend on wages is still ridiculously low.
“They always spend less than 50 per cent of their revenue on wages which is amazing in terms of their relative success as a top-six club.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It is quite telling that many Spurs fans continue to complain about the club’s lack of spending even though they have spent significant amounts on transfer fees and wages over the last three years.
If you hold the position that the club needs to continue increasing its wage bill and transfer spend, that is slightly incongruous with the complaints about a six per cent increase in season ticket prices, particularly since the club is posting significant losses.