By David Owen
March 31 – Tottenham Hotspur look to have posted a pre-tax profit more than twice as big as any Premier League rival for the 2018-19 season which saw the North London club reach the Champions League final.
Currently in the midst of a squad rebuilding phase under manager José Mourinho following completion of its new stadium, Spurs reported pre-tax profits of £87.4 million for last season, compared with £42 million for its nearest rival Liverpool, with just three clubs still to disclose figures.
The accounts, just published by Companies House, leave no room for doubt that wage control is the key ingredient of the club’s financial success. Whereas the big Lancashire clubs are faced with staff costs of more than £300 million, the aggregate payroll bill at Tottenham for the year to end-June 2019 was a remarkably thrifty £178.6 million, up from £147.6 million.
Even if football, like everything else, has been put firmly in its place by the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic, the likelihood is that critics of the way in which executive chairman Daniel Levy runs the club will continue to point to this pay gap to explain a more than decade-long dearth of major trophies.
The accounts for the entity Tottenham Hotspur Limited also reveal that the highest-paid director received total remuneration of a hefty £7 million in 2018-19. This consisted of £4 million for the year itself, together with a £3 million bonus deferred from the previous year since it was contingent upon completion of the stadium.
The cash flow statement indicated that the club did actually spend slightly more on players in 2018-19 than it recouped from player sales – £49.2 million versus £46.4 million. This, once again, is in stark contrast to most of its rivals who tend, year after year, to incur net spending of tens of millions of pounds in pursuit of glory.
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