Premier League spending ‘unsustainable’, says Levy

Joe Williams

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has mocked some of the big spending going on in the Premier League this summer and has said it is “impossible for it to be sustainable”.

So far Spurs are yet to bring in any new signings this summer with their only major bit of transfer business to sell Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £50million.

More than £850million has been spent by Premier League clubs in this transfer window and Levy doesn’t think the current rate of spend can continue in the future.

“We have a duty to manage the club appropriately,” said Levy.

“Some of the activity that is going on at the moment is just impossible for it to be sustainable.

“Somebody spending £200m more than they’re earning, eventually it catches up with you. And you can’t keep doing it.”

Tottenham played their final game at White Hart Lane last season and will play their home matches at Wembley this campaign while they wait for their new 61,000-seat stadium to be built.

“Obviously when you’re building a stadium of this magnitude and it all has to be privately financed – there’s no state help whatsoever – it is a challenge,” Levy, who was speaking at a Nasdaq Q&A in New York, continued.

“We have to find the right balance but I can honestly say it is not impacting us on transfer activity because we are not yet in a place where we have found a player that we want to buy who we cannot afford to buy.

“Our position on transfers is that we have a coach who very much believes in the academy, so unless we can find a player that makes a difference we would rather give one of our young academy players a chance.

“The academy is important because if we produce our own players we don’t have to spend £20m or £30m on a player.

“An academy player has that affinity with the club and that’s what the fans want to see.”