Thanks for the info, interesting.

Spurs have always been prudent financially and that deserves some respect.

Cash and cash equivalents ……….. £15,702,000
Bank Loans……………………….£21,312,000
Securitisation funds ……………..£23,259,000
Bank Loans (property) …………….£41,227,000

Giving a total of £70,096 millions.

Note 17 refers to Financial Instruments. Which will be “gobbledegook” to over 95% of the population!

To compare Tottenham to The Arsenal as financially similar, is a crab apple the same as a Morgansweet apple?

The Arsenal run a Reserve Team, a Ladies Team, a shop in Brents Cross, a flat for Stan the main man, employ more full-time bodies, more match-day temporaries, so on and so forth!

Secondly, I think next season is going to be the most open PL season in a while. With Ferguson (finally) out and City/Chelsea both currently manager-less who knows what could happen with the two clubs next season. Spurs and Arsenal are bound to both improve- Any striker for THFC should improve them, also with Sandro & Kaboul coming back, and Arsenal know that they will have to improve to stay where they are. And personally, I think its time that Liverpool do again challenge for the top spots, the second half of the season they had was great with the acquisitions of Coutinho & Sturridge, and theyre a club that aren’t scared to spend so surely are going to spend big in the summer. It could literally end up Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Swansea in the Champions league spots.

In fairness, this stuff appears on our official media watch page. I go there for transfer news, but end up seeing an Arsenal fan site talking about us. Not there’s anything wrong with talking about other clubs, but it’s obviously not that we go in search of these sites.

Returning to Arsenal, we need to concentrate not just on the Spuds, but on our richer rivals: Chelski, Manures and Man Oilers. Our commercial revenue is badly down against these clubs and this is one area where there is considerable room for improvement.

To judge the progress of a team which lost their best player and their manager and yet still managed their highest ever points total since the Premier League began is rather strange. You have to look at how Tottenham’s played and whether their style improved, not just the final league position.

The past few seasons Tottenham have had higher league positions than deseved by their style because Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea have been through a few bad campains, and also Manc were not up there before. This season the level of the top teams was better in general but Tottenham were right there until the end of the season.

The form of Arsenal at the end of the season was exceptional. If they had played like that throughout they would have challenging for the title, and that should be their aim for next season.

Most squads will be undergoing structural changes this season, with new managers at City, Untied, and Chelsea, and with at least Chelsea needing to retire the spine of their team.

If Tottenham and Arsenal can take their core team forward and make a few astute signings and remain relatively injury free next season they should be challengers.

That alone tells you everything you need to know about their financial doping.

I don’t mind them spending money from their sugar daddy, but pretending they have such commercial revenues and thus artificially increasing profit to comply with FFP is a complete joke and is basically cheating.

Looks like Arsenal have just clung on really. As you say, they are now in a position whereby they can start spending again, and I think that Wenger has done a good job keeping you in the CL in the meantime to keep the revenue levels high. With a big chunk of your stadium debt now gone, Arsenal could probably live with a season out of the CL and still have the clout to attract good players, whereas over the last three years or so, if you’d dropped out of the CL and were not in a position to spend a bit to recover your position, the results cod have been grim. A bit of a calculated risk by Arsenal, but one that looks to have paid off, so fair play.

I’d much rather Spurs do it your way and grow organically than just chuck obscene amounts of cash at the club. I think Spurs are on that path, but are probably a god few years behind in that respect.

Levy isn’t going to break the bank this summer to get in the Champions League – he has a very pragmatic, moneyball approach. Even guys like Dempsey are bought in full knowledge that the transfer fee will be recouped at resale. I expect the usual squad improvements but nothing silly this summer but with a very talented coach now settled and a squad more in line with the tactics used, I’d expect a significant improvement next season. Arry had to go because he didn’t fit with the moneyball approach and generally wound everyone up by absolving himself of any blame whilst milking full credit for pretty much anything he could. He did well but he was only ever an interim appointment between Ramos & AVB.

Arsenal’s biggest threat comes from the fact that their youth advantage has been completely eroded over the past decade. Once famed for getting the best young players, the investment in academies from Utd, City, Chelsea & Spurs have seen all these clubs (IMO) become better developers of youth. Spurs U21 team narrowly lost out to Man Utd in the final having dominated the previous 2 league phases – 30 points to Arsenal’s 17 in the ‘Elite’ phase. Chelsea & City are both being very proactive in this area… this combined with the risk that Spurs and/or West Ham are prime takeover material is where I’d be looking if I were an Arsenal fan. Spurs won’t compete anytime soon financially but, as the league and revenue tables show, they are certainly getting more bang for their buck. I think if anyone needs to spend big this summer, it’s Arsenal, as, with 3 new-manager teams now above them in the table, now is the time to make up some lost ground.