Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela were all brought in to White Hart Lane for 105 million pounds in total in the summer of 2013 - Spurs actually made a 10 million pound profit on players funnily enough that summer.
2 years on, only Chadli, Eriksen and Lamela have stayed on and really only Eriksen could be considered money well spent - he came at a price tag of 11.5 million pounds.
As for the two most expensive signings?
Paulinho at 17 million pounds started brightly but has now moved to the obscurity of Chinese Super League football - a move worth 9.9 million pounds. A loss of 7.1 million pounds.
Roberto Soldado at 26 million pounds, probably the biggest flop of them all given his value, has now returned to Spain - Villarreal buying him for 10 million pounds. A loss of 26 million pounds.
Etienne Capoue and Vlad Chiriches have all gone to Watford and Napoli respectively - both less than the value Spurs paid for them initially.
Funny to think that back then, Tottenham were hailed as the new all star team and the team to watch.
Fast forward a few months on, Andre Villas-Boas was no longer manager, with former Spurs legend, Tim Sherwood taking the helm for the last few months as Spurs limped to 6th place, a long way from Champions League football.
Sherwood himself is now gone, replaced by former Southampton manager, Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham's story just illustrates the perils of buying into stardom and how easily hype can turn into flop. Fortunately, unlike Leeds who bought big for the dream all those years ago, Tottenham are financially stable - although calling them a well-run club is a bit of a stretch.
No comments:
Post a Comment