Spurs dream of the Big Four, but they may need to wake up

Spurs may have been a massive 29 points behind Man U - the champions but they were 8 behind the 4th place Gooners and 1 win away from 4th place a year before that. So why can't we dream of being in the Big 4? Your argument is very badly constructed. You don't even read your own headline.

You can hardly compare Spurs to Leeds and Forest where a wage structure outstripped their ambitions and left them in negative equity. Money doesnt always buy success as the writer himself points out in his Newcastle article . What have the toon ever won? Nothing. Lets also look at the statement regarding the 'elite' top four! Man U and Chelsea may be just too far in the distance for now but Arsenal in huge debt, a board room in turmoil and High profile players about to leave with not much money available to replace them. Liverpool, despite their champions league exploits remain less than consistent in the league are certainly crackable.

Without a billionaire backer. Rubbish journalism. Joe Lewis who owns 70 % of ENIC was the FIRST billionaire backer of football.

So what's new? In fact you overlooked that many of Spur's games against the top 4 were quite close and away against Chelski was less than 48 hours after away against Seville.You also overlook that a win against Liverpool or Arsenal would have all but wiped out their points advantage over us.Perhaps more worrying is Spurs tendency to not finish off games against weaker sides.Given that a number of these are in the process of rebuilding under new & dynamic managers this could be more of a problem next season as it could be for the top 4.Whether or not Spurs progress to the top 4 depends on a number of factors - i.e. if we can buy a couple of top class players notably left midfield & a back up centre back how well the youngsters progress.As for Darren Bent - he may be a useful addition but it's not sure he's our most urgent prioroity.He's in the news because understandably playing in the champagne league is not as attractive as the premiership & also he appears to be bent on joining us.

have to say that i read a lot of these sites , some for fun and some for fact and some based on pure fiction. This article does make me chuckle as to be honest what is the point in being in the game if not to dream of seeing our team do better year on year. Of the teams mention Both Liverpool and Arsenal are catchable. the fact that you base this article on money is somewhat of a misconstruction as Spurs have spent more than both the afore mentioned teams over the past few seasons, it is also a fact that Spurs have balanced their books in the transfer market and up until the Bale signing we were only a few hundred thousand down in the money spent to money taken. I could go on but i think I would just be wasting my time as articles like this are only put out here to get responses like mine and the others who have wasted their time like me to reply!!

I have saved your prediction RE Spurs finishing below the top four, and I shall email it back to you as an attachment next May.

The whole run of your report runs on facts and they can't be denied it's well thought out and well put but your interpretaion of those facts is wrong. The big hitters are not so big and we are strengtening with quality players, Bale for example and it looks like Bent, and there will be others. We are having no trouble holding on to our players, Michael Carrick was a one off he just wanted to play for Man Utd and good luck to him, Berbatov doesn't and is staying. No our record against top teams isn't great but it's getting better and that is how you judge your improvement, don't forget the top four teams record against the other top four teams is only ever average. You must also realise that one season in the CL means that one other will drop out and if that club is arsenal for example then they are in real trouble and will be unlikely to get back the next year as they may have to sell to survive their debt(they have no billionaire to use your criterion). Also you obviously don't realise that Spurs have a

Your MSc Degree was obviously in coaching rubbish Mr Doran.

The authors a tosser, its patently obvious Sportingo knows nothing of the history of top-flight football in England. Further the finances of the so called top four are not exactly in the black.100's of millions in debt at Chavski. Manure's new owners financed their takeover with loading the debt onto the club. The Arseholes have hocked part of their gate receipts to pay for their stadia and have little money for transfers. Liverpool well ! it doesn't look like they are going to be flashing the cheque book either this summer. Any of the above fall out of the chamions league ane they are in trouble big time. Patience and good-houskeeping will see TH break into the CL within the next two seasons.That my friend Sportingo is an odds-on certainty.

At long last a decent article that shows the spurs fans, that dominate this site, in their true colours. Look at the facts and at least try to counter with some reasoned argument. Top four "your having a laugh"

spurs silent partner is a billionare, JOE LEWIS. he lives in the bahamas.

We're not dreaming, we're just supporting our team.. If we continue to improve, there's only one way we can go in the league. We have invested a lot of money, and we've spent it wisely - would you rather we spend £30m on Shevchenko, or £11m on Berbatov? And, although Carrick was a big loss to the team, we still made a £14m profit to console ourselves with.

C'MON U SPURS LETS BREAK INTO THAT TOP 4 SPOT THIS OUR YEAR

Your article is full of holes, who are these billionaires that are in charge of Man Utd, Ars*nal and Liverpool?, one thing they do have in common is they are hocked to the eyeballs. Spurs on the other hand have a majority share holder called ENIC,who in turn is owned by one Joe Lewis,who happens to be a Billionaire. I rest my case.

Spurs were the first club to have a billioniare investor in Joe Lewis, owner of ENIC. So we do have a lot of money but are sensible with it unlike other clubs who are trying to a rebuild job in 1 close season. Take it from Spurs fan it takes years and next we will be in a position to challenge for the top 4. Get your facts right before you right an article.

It is true that Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have foreign investment from overseas billionaires. The best Spurs can do, by comparison, is investment from a British billionaire living overseas, who has just substantially had his share of the club increased with the purchase of Sugar's holding. Do Tottenham have cash to spend? Yes. Could they potentially secure, say, one additional win and one additional draw more than last season? Yes. Will that be enough to overhaul the one member of the Big Four that rejected overseas investment, lost one of its most successful behind the scenes personalities and is considering selling its established star striker, and indeed is required to be relatively frugal due to stadium investments? That, I leave to you and your readership to ponder, and for next season to decide.

the whole article is based on the premise that there is a gang of four...there is NOT...its a gang of two..manu and cfc are way ahead and will not be caught by spurs or anyone else soon...however spurs are not that far behind looserpool and the arse..both have not made any progess last year, quite the opposite and the gap there has narrowed...once spurs can get to the cl for a couple of years they can narrow the gap further....unless of course manu and cfc go backwards...jol is a good manager and knows that progress has to be gradual..lets not forget that chelsea was already in the CL when roman arrived, where as spurs are not at that level yet..

what a load of rubbish! we were only 8 points behind both 'Pool and the scum, and a defensive improvement of about 10% would have seen that disappear. Even after only 1 year back in Europe we are among Europe's richest clubs - thanks to sound, realistic financial management. Would much rather take 5 years to get there, not throw money at Zahavi, and feel like we've earned it, than be given a blank cheque to sign any old ridiculous idioe - which in turn gives other clubs free rein to name their price, however ridiculous. We are without doubt on the right path, and next season, provided we keep our best players, tighten our defense, and procure the mythical left midfielder (Drenthe may have played himself into a different club last night!) we have every chance of pushing on into the promised land. And not only will we deserve it, we will have earned it.....

You guys saying the Big Four dont have billionaires are missing the point, Dave Doran is saying that Spurs need one in order to COMPETE with them. Because they won't earn the finances or reputation in the sport by winning things.

er we do have one knobby...

Then I guess you just don't know your own club? Lewis has invested virtually no money into the club in terms of player transfers. So how exactly is he relevant?

Thanks for this superbly unbiased and impartial article. However, I don't really understand where you're coming from in terms of Tottenham's lack of finances. I assume you must have missed the widely publisised research on Enic's riches???? It may have also been beneficial to this uninspiring article had you bothered to actually look at homw much money has been invested by Tottenham in the last 3 years. You're likely to find that it exceeds that of the average spend of 'The Big Four'

Look at the current trend in terms of the spending of the big four. Manchester United when taken over by the Glazer's havebeen brought under massive burrowings (DEBTS) and are highly dependent on Champion league success to fuel them. Liverpool although being bought by American businessmen (Billionaire) their budget was estimated at £40 million for this season and in their attempted aqcuisition of Marcus Bent are needed to raise extra funds from the sale of Craig Bellamy as a way of fuelling. Chelsea have been told there's now an end to the Russion's crazy spending and so are also having to sell players to raise the money to help purchase of more players. Arsenal...what can I say....hit heavily by the building of a stadium and haven't seen any realsitic financial investment into their squad which has made them within realsitic reach. These are just some of the facts, but believe there's a lot more why we can genuinely see us as breaking into the top four. Even Jose Mourihnio has admitted this fact in expressi

Yes, Spurs are getting stronger and the players being bought in are improving the overall squad stength, in most cases. This off season Man Utd are the only big spenders of the "top four" clubs and Spurs will probably spend more before the new season starts, so I think we will be more competitive especialy with M Jols coaching skills. Having been a suffering Spurs fan for many of the past few years it is pleasant to see a more competitive hard working team with younger skilled players showing improvement each years which makes it look good for the upcoming seasons push for a "