In the Money: Harry Kane fee doesn’t scratch surface of £252m transfer debt at Tottenham
Tottenham owe clubs a staggering £252million in transfer payments as per their latest financial accounts.
That figure has tripled since 2019 when Tottenham’s accounts showed that they owed just £88million in transfer fees.
The North London club trail only Manchester United in terms of owed transfer fees in the Premier League, with the Red Devils topping the table with £307million left to pay.
Tottenham spent £82million on new signings over the 2021/22 season, with Bryan Gil, Emerson Royal, Rodrigo Bentacur, Pape Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski all arriving for significant fees.
The club’s spending in 2021/22 only added to the transfer debt, which has likely grown even larger since the arrivals of Richarlison, Cristian Romero, Brennan Johnson and James Maddison among others.
The £100million sale of Harry Kane to Bayern Munich this summer will help Tottenham handle costs, but the fee collected for the 30-year-old striker hardly scratches the transfer debt at Spurs.
It is standard practice for Premier League clubs to amortise the cost of transfers over multiple years – a strategy exploited by Todd Boehly at Chelsea since his takeover of the Blues.
The use of amortisation means Tottenham are likely still paying off instalments for players signed as far back as 2018.
The exploitation of amortisation by Chelsea recently forced Uefa into implementing new regulations that state all transfer fees must be paid within five years of the contract being signed.
Spurs will update their transfer debt figures in their upcoming 2022/23 accounts, which are set to be published in February or March next year.
In other Tottenham news, Table-topping Tottenham stat examined as £209m wage bill revealed