Ange Postecoglou has insisted Tottenham’s latest £86.8 million ($109.27m) loss will not impact the club’s summer transfer plans and believes they are still better placed to spend than many of their Premier League rivals.
Spurs earlier this week posted their latest financial results for the year ending June 30, 2023, which featured a large deficit despite turnover surpassing £500m for the first time.
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Sources have told ESPN that Tottenham still have significant headroom in compliance with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, unlike several other sides including Saturday’s opponents Nottingham Forest and Everton, who have already been deducted points this season for financial breaches.
“My discussions around those kinds of issues are not the minutiae of a balance sheet,” Postecoglou said. “It is about us planning to build a side that can potentially be successful. So, that’s what we’re doing and nothing that is going to come out in the balance sheet is going to disrupt those plans because those plans are done in alliance with the people who make the balance sheets.
“It is not like ‘oh we are going to wait for the financial results before we start thinking about who we’re going to sign.’ All this stuff is already in planning. We kind of know what position we’re in and what we need to do in the summer.
“That doesn’t mean it’s all going to come to fruition of course because there are all sorts of other factors that come into it. But our planning is well underway in what we need to do.
“There’s no doubt that from our perspective, we are not one of the clubs who are going to be as restricted as others.”
Postecoglou has repeatedly claimed the evolution of his team is more important than merely qualifying for the Champions League and singled out Newcastle United as an example of a team who played in this season’s competition but have regressed overall as they were knocked out in the group stage and are eighth in the Premier League table.
“It doesn’t guarantee everything,” he began. “I keep saying it, I don’t know why people don’t understand. So if I ask you, Newcastle made the Champions League last year, did it help them this year?”
When it was put to him that Newcastle benefitted financially, Postecoglou replied: “But we’re not banks, we’re football clubs. We’re not financial institutions. I don’t get measured by the balance sheet at the end of the year.
“You can see how difficult it is to juggle Champions League if you aren’t building a squad and to be fair to Eddie [Howe], he’s had horrendous injuries this year. Makes it hard. What I’m saying is, Champions League, great. Money, great. Does that mean we’re going to finish third next year? No. In fact it is probably going to be more challenging.
“So my role in that is not to worry about the financial pressure of making Champions League, it is to create a squad that hopefully can compete in the Champions League and keep improving in the Premier League and have success in the cup competitions.
“That’s where I differentiate. Of course, everyone if you’re not going to win the league, [wants to] get into the Champions League because of the financial rewards but that’s not the measure.
“How much money you make is not why you get into the Champions League, it is what you do with that money. Do you build on it? Do you build a squad or do you say because we’re in the Champions League next year, we’ll be great.”
Asked if the money from Champions League football would enable a club to be aggressive and ambitious in building a squad, he replied: “You can do it with, you can do it without. It comes down to good decision-making, good coaching, good players, good administration.
“It is when you fall into the trap of thinking money is the answer that you don’t get the outcome. So, I could have sat here this year and said ‘we don’t have Champions League money so how can we progress?’ I never said that. I said we’ve got to make progress.
“We’ve got to better than we were last year. If we’re not in the Champions League next year, I’m not going to turn around and say ‘we can’t progress.’ I think we’re both saying the same thing but I’m just saying I don’t think it is as big a part of it as people make out. The money is a significant part of it but it’s definitely not all of it.”