Tottenham's Slow Start

Spurs Woes Reading Harry Hotspur got me thinking about Tottenham again. Despite another summer of spending good money to bring in new players, Tottenham lie a point about the relegation zone in the English Premeiship. They have earned only 4 points from 6 games. This shows that they have plenty of time, 32 games, to work their way back up the table. But still such a start doesn't bode well. More worrysome is that Martin Jol has come out and said it will take another 2 years before they can consitantly compete with the big 3. Previous to this summer, if I remember correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong), Tottenham had spent £68m on new players in 2 years. Granted they got a bit of that back through selling players. Nevertheless, the vast majority of that was money out the door. Mad Money, Big Summer Transfers This summer they did sell Michael Carrick to Manchester United £14m. But most of these deals are set up so most of that money doesn't come in up front. It serves to offset some of their expenditures from this summer. But it doesn't help cover all the bills coming due from all the shopping they did the last 2 summers. This last summer they bought the following players :

• Didier Zokora - £8.2m
• Mido - Guardian claims the deal was for £3.4m
• Steed Malbranque - Guardian claims £2.5m; the other key point these days are wages and those were rumored to be £35,000 a week.
• Pascal Chimbonda - The rumor for Chimboda, Mido, and Malbranque was that total they were £11m. It's likely that Spurs spent £5m to bring him in which isn't far off from what Wigan was reported to be holding out for.
• Dimitar Berbatov £10.9m

Tottenham Hotspur spent another £30m this summer to bring in 5 quality players. Some of that was offset by Carrick's sale and money needed to be spent to replace Carrick. Nevertheless, it doesn't explain how £68m could be spent in 2 years and still have the need to spend that much to bring 4 players. Afterall, only 11 start and they more or less brought in 1/2 a new starting lineup. And it, at least in my eyes, leaves one confused as to why Jol needs to more years to compete with the big boys. Does he seriously mean that spending £100m in 3 years isn't enough? What are your thoughts? Does Jol mean the squad simply needs some time to jel? Is he just trying to ease some pressure on the squad and really doesn't believe they need 2 more years?