Champions League now key, says Pleat

14 April 2012

David Pleat today claimed that regular Champions League football is now an essential requirement for any club nursing hopes of joining the big three at the top of the Premiership.

Pleat's realistic assessment of Tottenham's chances of emerging from the shadow of Arsenal comes just 48 hours before the two North London rivals meet at White Hart Lane.

An Arsenal victory will give them the Premier League title for the third time in seven years and a seventh consecutive season in the Champions League. Tottenham, on the other hand, have never played in the Champions League and last won the title 43 years ago.

Can Tottenham ever regain the gloating rights in north London?

"Tottenham have a great past and can have a great future," said Pleat today. "But it is becoming really difficult for clubs like us."

Explaining the mounting problems facing clubs lacking the financial muscle of Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, Tottenham's director of football and acting manager said: "At the start of the season practically every coach knew which clubs would occupy the first three places.

"We weren't sure about the order but we all knew that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United would be the top three. Not only has it come to pass, but they are so far ahead of the rest on points that no one else had much of a chance. You could have won money each week backing them to win."

Pleat believes that Tottenham's reemergence as a serious power depends on some or all of the following:

Regular Champions League football.
An Abramovich-style cash injection.
AWenger-style manager of vision.

"I think the foundations at the club are quite strong and the fact that we have a promising group of young players is encouraging. But there has to be something or someone that sparks a change. A Dave Mackay-type on the field or a Wenger-type off it. We need a new manager with a perception of what's required and the ability to change things.

"It would also help to have a massive financial injection. We need to get into this new financial melting pot. Every mid-table club now feels the same. The Champions League is where the real money is. The media money alone will no longer sustain clubs. Some are already having to withdraw in terms of salaries and fees.

"I'm not talking about simply getting into the Champions League, but staying there and playing regularly at that level. You get a minimum £10million, a lot more if you're successful. If you want to win trophies and compete at the highest level you've got to be in the Champions League. That way you're on the same financial footing as Manchester United and Arsenal.

"The only alternative to that is the Roman Abramovich figure. You need someone with massive financial resources and a dream of top European football, like Abramovich at Chelsea. If someone pumped £ 50million into Spurs you'd probably need £35million of that to buy the three top quality players who could change things for you. But I think for some of us the best we can hope for is to accumulate the nucleus of a good team from four or five years work with the youth academy.

"The question we're all asking is: what do you do once you've established yourself in the middle group in the Premiership. Some like Alan Curbishley and Charlton have done really well, but what's the next stage?

"I think for us to be in Arsenal's position a combination of these things has to happen. We also need a bit of luck. You can trace Arsenal's recent success to the brilliant selection of Arsene Wenger and his wonderful management since then.

"It's not a level playing field any more. But we have to batter away at it because there are no quick or easy solutions."

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Champions League now key, says Pleat

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