Is Tottenham splashing cash they will get from selling Kane?

Tottenham Hotspur is getting active in the transfer market while rumors around Harry Kane are heating up, which begs the question: Are Spurs spending Kane funds?

After a slow start, Tottenham Hotspur finally has a new transfer in, with the loan move for Pierluigi Gollini from Atalanta. While a loan for a keeper is not going to break the bank, the rumors have been swirling that Tottenham is about to drop some serious cash – more than £40 million – on Argentinian defender Cristian Romero. Further, Spurs have still been linked with Seville center-back Jules Kounde – who would cost even more – as well as Bryan Gil and Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Taken together these deals would total over £100 million, which begs the question is this money Spurs will get from selling Harry Kane?

Tottenham can spend without selling Kane

Is Tottenham spending money from the future proceeds of selling Harry Kane? The short answer to the question is no. Many may not believe it, but Tottenham has spent more than they have sold during the transfer window over the last several years. In the last five windows – Tottenham had a negative net spend in all but one window – the infamous summer of 2018 where no players were purchased.

Last season Tottenham was some $106.92 million (£77.77 million) in the red, meaning they spent that much more than they brought in on transfers. In the 2019/20 transfer market, the Spurs finished with a net spend of $92.4 million (£67.21 million). So over the last two seasons, where Covid clearly had a major impact the club still spent $199.32 million (£144.98 million) more than they brought in on transfers.

If we stretch our math out over the last five years, Tottenham has a net spend of $249.42 million (£181.42 million). In other words, the club has very much been spending each year on players, making the projected expenditures from this summer quite similar to summer’s past, meaning Kane does not have to go. This is especially true after not bringing back Gareth Bale.

Bale bucks are now available again

Sure, Real Madrid helped subsidize his weekly wages, however, Gareth Bale was costing Spurs a king’s ransom. With a loan that was rumored to cost nearly £20 million and then wages at or near the highest on the club on top of that, Bale was costing the club a lot of money.

Now that the Welshman is not back with Tottenham, that is a huge sum of money now available to spend both in the market and just as importantly on wages. It is possible that Spurs could get 3 top-quality players for the same weekly wage they were paying just Bale.

Add in loans for Gedson Hernandez and Carlos Vinicius that are no longer costing Spurs either and the availability of cash just makes sense. And all this is before we get into player sales.

Tottenham still looking to bring in some money

While Harry Kane is not the player the club wants to sell there is little doubt that Spurs need to move some more players. Juan Foyth is already gone and Toby Alderweireld is seemingly on his way to Qatar.  The real question now is who else can Tottenham get off the books to help open up more room to sign players and improve the squad.

It does not have to be Kane that is sold but clearly some outgoing sales are necessary to move the team forward. How that is handled as much as anything will be a major factor in how many more signings are coming to the club.