Thomas Frank has said Tottenham are not close to emulating Arsenal by spending £100m on one player.
Spurs have experienced a period of change after September’s removal of Daniel Levy as chair and the decision by the Lewis family, who own the club, to put a new leadership team in place. Plans to expand the business are intended to lead to more sporting success, but it remains to be seen whether they can take the next step and challenge Arsenal for the Premier League title.
Arsenal, top going into Sunday’s north London derby, showed their intent when they bought Declan Rice from West Ham for £105m in 2023. Spurs’ record buy is the £60m Richarlison in 2022.
Frank is unsure whether his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou, was right to predict last year that Spurs will never spend £100m on one player. “In the next 50 years?” he said. “Then yes.
“To build, you need a combination of time and doing the processes. Depending on where the team come from, of course. But to stay up there is still very difficult. So time and process, and, then of course, investment.
“If you want success in football, you need to invest in players. Hopefully do it cleverly and we want to do it smart so we don’t invest too much on the wrong players. But you need to invest, £100m, I don’t know. Let’s see. I don’t think we are close to spending £100m, put it that way.”
Frank considered whether Spurs, who are fifth, would need to spend heavily to catch Arsenal. “I’m a big believer that we need to develop the players we have,” he said. “If you can develop players, not all of them should cost £60m, £70m, £80m, £90m, whatever the amount. I don’t think anybody has done that. Liverpool didn’t do that to get to the top. Even [Manchester] City hasn’t done that.
“You need to be good at developing the players, which I believe we are. You also need to invest in the right potential of a player. Declan Rice is a good example. How old was he when he joined Arsenal? Twenty-four or 25? That’s important. Nobody achieves the top without investing.”
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Spurs received £100m from the Lewis family last month, with further funding poised to follow that will provide Frank with more spending power. He is optimistic he will be backed by the board.
“They definitely said they are all in for the club, that they want to be here for the long term and they want to have success,” he said. “I’m confident they will back us to do everything we can to build a successful club.”
