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Luka Modric (above), who is among several of Spurs' big buys this year, in action at the recent Euro 2008 tournament. But striker Dimitar Berbatov is the subject of a Manchester United bid and may leave the club. -- PHOTOS: AP, AFP
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'The gulf is too big,' said Kevin Keegan. 'We can't get in there. It is the most boring great league in the world.'
That was two months ago and 'there' was the top four of the Premier League, a private members' club that he thought brought a permanent status.
The rationale was that the same four clubs - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, also labelled as the Big Four - possess a huge financial advantage over the rest.
But a quick glance at the spending league this summer suggests otherwise.
Chelsea have already forked out £25 million (S$67.5 million) for the Portuguese pair of Deco and Jose Bosingwa, and will surely pay out more.
But the biggest dent to a bank balance in London has been at White Hart Lane. Some £29 million has been spent on Luka Modric, Giovani dos Santos, John Bostock and Heurelho Gomes.
Nor can it be dismissed as a one-off spending spree.
Spurs' expenditure in the previous 12 months exceeded £80 million. No club paid out more money in transfer fees during the 12 months before May 2008.
So Tottenham get the Team Award for Shopping.
The individual honours go to Manchester City. The most lavish buy of this transfer window is the £18 million Brazilian striker Jo.
The most generous offer is the £200,000 salary available to Ronaldinho, a £10 million annual commitment besides the fee that would be required to satisfy Barcelona.
It will be the second season of such largesse from owner Thaksin Shinawatra. City, like Tottenham, are not making a one-off investment.
Nor are the habitual big spenders from Newcastle. The Argentinian winger Jonas Gutierrez is the only arrival to date but, in bidding for the £16 million midfielder Modric, Keegan has hardly suggested he has embraced thrift.
Portsmouth are also buying with abandon. Peter Crouch's fee could rise to £11 million. Shaun Wright-Phillips is another target, and he could prove equally expensive. The misfit David Nugent apart, there is no suggestion of selling to finance the new recruits.
And then there is the opposite scenario.
'The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players,' said Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal need to produce an annual surplus of £24 million to repay the loan taken out to build the Emirates Stadium.
They made a transfer market profit last summer and, despite committing £17 million for Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey, could do so again if Emmanuel Adebayor and Alexander Hleb depart.
Meanwhile, should Cristiano Ronaldo leave, Manchester United would probably produce the biggest profit in the Premier League.
Then there is Liverpool. With £10 million already reserved for Andrea Dossena and Diego Cavalieri, the bid for Gareth Barry likely to rise to £18 million and talk of costly strikers, there is the illusion of wealth at Anfield.
Except that Liverpool need to recoup the vast majority of their expenditure through player sales.
They may spend £50 million, but if Crouch, Xabi Alonso, Scott Carson, Steve Finnan, Charles Idantje and John Arne Riise all exit, their net spending is unlikely to exceed £10 million.
The same is true, too, of Everton and Blackburn, both of whom finished above Tottenham, Manchester City and Newcastle last season.
Unlike the Big Four, they do not have the advantages of the glamour the quest for silverware provides.
But if the Big Four is, as Keegan, complained, a closed shop, it is no longer true to blame it all on the bank.
Tottenham have signed Darren Bent, Younes Kaboul, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Gilberto in the last two transfer windows.
Perhaps the shopaholics just have not been buying well enough.
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