So first thing this morning my thoughts could be summed up as “Fuck Danny Rose”.
Let’s start by being honest, nothing that was said in that interview was news to anybody. Tottenham are a club that have bucked the trend of exorbitant wages for professional footballers. We’ve long avoided extravagant spending in the transfer market and instead make an effort to sell players to cover the cost of new signings.
It’s important that I start this by describing that I consider myself a very rational football fan. I’m not one of those who will slag off every player who leaves for another club. Football is a short career and I don’t begrudge a player leaving for more money or for a better chance at trophies. I didn’t begrudge Berbatov, Modric, or Bale leaving (though all three could have handled their moves in far better fashion).
Some fans would love for our club to go wild and start making marquee signings and paying wages comparable to those of the Manchester clubs. That’s fine but that’s not what I want my club to be. I like that, for the most part, we have not become another part of the broken football financial machine. The entirety of top-level football is based on the false economy of clubs either running at continual losses or having their spending underwritten by billionaire owners (let’s not waste our time pretending that Financial Fair Play is in any way relevant).
More than anything, having had time to take it all in and gather my thoughts, the thing that annoys me the most is the timing of the interview being published. This coming out mere days before the first game of the season has been done for no other reason than to generate bullshit football media headlines and, in a more cynical thought, lay the groundwork for Danny Rose to leave the club (something that I don’t think will happen this season, for the record).
The fact that Danny Rose shares an agent with Kyle Walker should be a strong hint as to where some of the influence in all this is coming from. “Here, Danny, look how much Kyle is earning now!”
Is Danny Rose capable of earning more money based on his performances the last three seasons? Certainly, but let’s keep in mind that he was happy signing his current deal less than a year ago so you’ll have to excuse me for not having a lot of sympathy if the man feels he is worth more. I know that if my employer offered me a new contract which I felt was significantly worse than what I deserve I would turn it down.
At Spurs, we are in a very difficult position where any signing we make would have to be real world-class quality and therefore probably involve breaking our current wage structure, or it needs to be a player who is happy to play second choice to a Kane, an Alli, or an Alderweireld. Fans have complained on twitter all summer about the lack of signings but who do we really want to bring in? I know that I’d rather us sit back and sign nobody than for us to splash money on another Moussa Sissoko.
This brings me on to Rose’s comment about not wanting the club to sign players that he as to google. I suspect this was more of a throw away humorous comment but it’s worth remembering that anybody wondering who Danny Rose was 10 years ago would have been googling him. Dele Alli when he signed for the club had made a good number of appearances for MK Dons but let’s not pretend we all knew about him and what he would become. We have a manager in Mauricio Pochettino who has a proven track record of significantly improving the performances and form of players in his squad, and for the most part has made good signings that have benefitted the team. If our next signing requires me to google his name I’ll keep my faith in Poch to help assure me it was a good move.
Oh yeah, Danny Rose wants us to sign Ross Barkley. I’ve never been against this move but it’s not something I’d like to see us put too much money into. He’s been a very inconsistent performer for Everton but maybe consistency is exactly what Poch could give to him.
The long and short of this is that sometimes professional football just fucking sucks. The system is broken and flawed and there are no signs of it being addressed anytime soon. So we as fans have to make the most of what we can. Perhaps as a Tottenham fan that means accepting that this current squad now has its days numbered and that in three seasons time Danny Rose, Toby, Kane, Dele, Eriksen, and Lloris will all be playing for other clubs and all we will have to show for this period will be a second place finish and some great football to remember. You know what? I’d prefer that than for us to become the next Leeds and piss money away into the wind at the potential detriment of the club’s future.
Without some foreign oligarch taking over, not something I want by the way, we’re unlikely to ever be able to seriously compete with the silly-spending clubs of the world. This summer, if nothing else, has taught us all that transfer fees are now meaningless in terms of valuing a player and instead just show how much money there is in the game following recent television deals.
A friend of mine pointed out to me on twitter last night that “Palace, West Ham, and Watford are now paying more in wages and transfer fees than us”. You know what? Let them. We’re building a new stadium, we have a squad that most teams in the world would be envious of, we played (in my opinion) the best football in the country last season. Maybe this year we will go and win something, more likely is that we’ll flirt with some form of success and miss out as that is the Spurs way but I’m not sure I really care. I find myself loving the club and the players more than ever each game regardless of whether there are medals and trophies at the end of it. I’m enjoying football and that’s what, in the long run, I really care about.
To steal some words from the legendary Bill Nicholson “There’s no use being satisfied when things are done wrongly. I want perfection.” Similarly, I would find no satisfaction in us risking our financial stability for large transfer fees and massive wage bills. I want perfection. I want a club that lives within its means, and who knows maybe with a few seasons at a larger stadium under our belt we might just have the money to do that and still balance the books.
Oh yeah, and fuck The Sun.
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