Image: Britain Football Soccer – Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa – FA Cup Third Round – White Hart Lane – 8/1/17 Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy in the stands Action Images via Reuters / Paul Childs Livepic
(Reuters) – The spending by Premier League clubs in the current transfer window is unsustainable, Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy said on Tuesday.
English top-flight teams have splashed out more than $1 billion since the end of last season but Spurs, runners-up to Chelsea in May, have not yet added to their squad.
“Some of the activity that is going on at the moment is just impossible for it to be sustainable,” Levy said in New York.
“We have a duty to manage the club appropriately. Somebody spending 200 million pounds more than they’re earning, eventually it catches up with you.”
Spurs, who sold England right back Kyle Walker to Manchester City for 45 million pounds ($58.63 million) this month, are building a new 61,000-seater stadium, which is scheduled to open next year.
“We have to find the right balance but I can honestly say it (the stadium) 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,” Levy said.
“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.”
Tottenham are putting faith in their youth set-up.
“An academy player has that affinity with the club and that’s what the fans want to see,” Levy said.
($1 = 0.7679 pounds)
(Reporting by Ed Osmond, editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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