It might not always feel like it for the fans, but Tottenham Hotspur are undeniably a club on the up.
The North Londoners have an exciting and progressive manager at the helm in Ange Postecoglou, an array of exciting young talents like Pape Matar Sarr, Archie Gray and Mikey Moore in the squad, and to top it all off, have one of the best stadiums in the Premier League.
Moreover, only last season were the Lilywhites named the wealthiest club in London, and that, combined with Postecoglou's ambitions, can only lead to great things.
This concoction of favourable tailwinds should hopefully mean that, unlike in the past, Spurs could keep the next superstar player they develop instead of selling them off to the highest bidder. That said, one such player, whose value soared under former manager Mauricio Pochettino and beyond, was finally sold for a massive sum that, at the very least, could be reinvested.
Spurs' most prominent sales
So, while most big transfers involve attacking players moving from club to club, one of Spurs' biggest sales saw a full-back leave the club in Kyle Walker.
The England international joined the Lilywhites from Sheffield United in 2009, and after a few loan spells away from North London, the talented right-back would go on to make 229 appearances for the club before sealing a £50m move to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the summer of 2017, where he has since won everything there is to win in the game.
Moving slightly further up the pitch now to a star who wasn't sold for quite as much but has arguably gone on to have an even better career than Walker: Luka Modrić.
The Croatian icon joined the North Londoners from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer of 2008 for a fee of just £15m, and over the next four years, would make 160 appearances for the club, in which he'd score 17 goals and provide 24 assists and catch the eye of Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants secured the midfielder's services in August 2012 with a £30m offer, and while he famously struggled in his first year with Los Blancos, he has since etched his name into the club's history books and will retire as one of their greatest players of all time thanks to the ludicrous number of trophies he won there.
However, the former Zagreb ace wasn't the only player Spurs sold to Madrid in the early 2010s.
Welsh legend Gareth Bale made his move to the Spanish capital just a year later for a mammoth £85m fee thanks to his incredible displays in N17, where he had just ended the season with 26 goals and ten assists in 44 games.
So, from defence to attack, Tottenham have sold some incredible players over the years, but there is one more megastar the club have cashed in on in recent years.
The sale of Harry Kane
Yes, the final star in question is, of course, Harry Kane, who, after spending his entire career and part of his childhood with Tottenham, was finally sold to German behemoths Bayern Munich last summer for a fee reported to be around £86.4m at the time.
Now, while there have been more significant sales from other Premier League sides in the past, the fact that the England captain is an academy graduate of Spurs meant that his sale was entirely profit, which must have made accepting the Germans' offer that bit easier.
The Walthamstow-born marksman came to define an era for Tottenham fans, and while he was still banging in the goals after he left, the start of his career coincided with the arrival of Pochettino.
For example, according to Transfermarkt, the 31-year-old was valued at just €3m – £2.5m – two months after the Argentine was appointed as manager.
That means that the world-class number nine was sold for a fee 3356% higher than that valuation from August 2014, which, when looked at like that, is quite remarkable, although based on his output and ability, entirely justified.
Appearances
435
Goals
280
Assists
61
Goal Involvements per Match
0.78
In his 435 games for the club, he found the back of the net an extraordinary 280 times – which made him the club's outright top goalscorer – and provided 61 assists to boot, meaning he maintained an average of a goal involvement once every 1.27 games – talk about a one-season wonder.
Ultimately, while losing Kane last summer was far from ideal and a sad moment for Spurs fans everywhere, the club could at least get a hefty fee for him, and who knows, he could still come back for one last season in a few years.
Sold for just £750k, Spurs flop has seen his value rise 1900% after leaving
The talented star was incredible last season.
1 ByJack Salveson HolmesSep 11, 2024