Pressed on whether transfer business is to blame for the mess at Spurs, Friedel - speaking exclusively in association with Gambling.com, the experts in UK Online Casinos - told GOAL: “This is a really tough one. I've been in many debates with people on it. So one of the issues that Tottenham has, they're one foot in the door of being a massive club. They're a big club. It's a great club, by the way. It is a magnificent club. But when you're talking about signing foreign players and you're competing with Man City and you're competing with Liverpool, you're competing with Arsenal and Man United and Chelsea. All those other clubs are seen as Premier League winners and Champions League winners. That's how the foreign agents deal with it. And that's how the foreign players deal with it. And they're right, if you look in the history of who's won the Premier League and who's won the Champions League.
“So to come to Tottenham, you usually get quoted more money: ‘Well, I've come to Tottenham, it's more money’. Tottenham has a lot of money, but they have a little bit less money as well. They're servicing a debt on a stadium. They just built a training ground, and the Lewis family hasn't notably just given 100 million of their own money to go and buy players. So Daniel Levy had to create revenue streams, which he did brilliantly for the club.
“But then you get into this conundrum of, we could sign that player and his value is a hundred grand a week, but he says he'll come to Tottenham on 150 a week. He's not worth 150 a week. Plus, do we want a player that is only coming here for the money? So I think they miss out on a lot of players for sensible reasons.
“So it's not as simple as just going and splashing the cash. Because if you have, let's say the Premier League now this season and Tottenham stay up and Tottenham are going for the same players as Arsenal, which happens often, that these Premier League clubs are going after the similar players. That player will accept a certain amount of money to play for Arsenal and play in the Champions League and with the Premier League winners. It's not going to be the same amount for Tottenham. You go to Tottenham, but only if it's more money because he wouldn't see that winning all the trophies in Tottenham is the thing to do.”