I know we don’t want to talk (more) about the possibility of Tottenham Hotspur being relegated from the Premier League. If you ask me honestly, I still don’t think Spurs’ eventual collapse is particularly likely, even after everything that’s happened. Remember the “Beat the Bears” anecdote – Spurs don’t have to outperform the Bears, they just have to outperform West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United. Maybe put the Crystal Palace there too?
If Tottenham collapses, their financial losses will be catastrophic, especially if Spurs cannot resume the Premier League immediately next season. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or vastly overestimating how easy it will be to get promoted again. But if you’re curious, there’s some good news – according to David Ornstein, all Tottenham players have relegation clauses in their contracts that will see their wages reduced by up to 50% if Spurs are relegated.
“The Athletic” revealed that most members of the first team have signed agreements that include mandatory salary cuts, and the vast majority of them will see their income reduced by about 50%.
It was a clause in all existing deals agreed before Daniel Levy resigned as executive chairman in September, giving Spurs some protection in the doomsday scenario of relegation.
—David Ornstein, The Athletic
This isn’t particularly enlightening. Relegation clauses in player contracts are effectively boilerplate add-ons that are found in the vast majority of contracts in the Premier League. Clubs without these contracts are usually completely screwed if/when they do go down, and one thing we know about Daniel Levy, who negotiated most of Spurs’ player contracts, is that he’s not stupid. So this doesn’t make Spurs special at all, it just proves Levy did his due diligence on the unthinkable happening at Tottenham. Now this might actually be “conceivable”, but I hate it.
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It’s worth noting that Ornstein said “most” members have relegated contracts, but not all. If we were being generous with John Langer and the now-departed Fabio Paratici, you would think that recent signings would also have these clauses; I could see a case where young players on professional contracts or fringe first-team players might not have them, possibly because they are well paid and there wouldn’t be much net financial benefit in reducing them. I imagine there will also be clauses to the Langer/Tissi signing, but, well, you know I’m not particularly enamored with the way Langer has operated since arriving, so I won’t assume anything.
None of this is good, but at least we know Levi has a little foresight about what might happen (however unlikely).
