DELETECITY

Your club · Tottenham Hotspur

Top four in eight seasons of nine.

Take Manchester City out of 2009/10 to 2017/18 and Tottenham Hotspur finish in the top four eight times, not five, each with a Champions League place. In 2017/18 they are second, one point behind the champions.

At a glance

Premier League seasons
9 of 9 · 2009/10 to 2017/18
Points taken off City
20 in 18 league games
Transfers with City
City paid Spurs £45.0m in reported fees for 1 player; Spurs paid City £5.0m in reported fees for 1 player.

Season by season: real → without City

  1. 2009/10Real: 4th, without City: 4th
  2. 2010/11Real: 5th, without City: 4thUCL
  3. 2011/12Real: 4th, without City: 2ndUCL
  4. 2012/13Real: 5th, without City: 4thUCL
  5. 2013/14Real: 6th, without City: 5th
  6. 2014/15Real: 5th, without City: 4thUCL
  7. 2015/16Real: 3rd, without City: 3rd
  8. 2016/17Real: 2nd, without City: 2nd
  9. 2017/18Real: 3rd, without City: 2nd

The nine seasons

For real, Tottenham Hotspur finished in the top four five times in these nine seasons, and one of those, in 2011/12, came without a Champions League place. Take Manchester City out and Spurs are in the top four eight times, and all eight carry a Champions League place, some through the play-off round. The one season they miss is 2013/14: fifth, three points behind Everton.

Four seasons change on the Ledger: 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2014/15. Three are the free place and nothing more: Spurs step into the place City leave, and that place is fourth. 2011/12 is the exception, a climb one place beyond it.

The points go the other way. Spurs took 20 points off City in 18 league games, six wins, two draws and ten defeats, and all 20 come off. In the two seasons they beat City home and away, six points go and Spurs still finish where they did for real: fourth in 2009/10, 64 to Aston Villa’s 63, and third in 2015/16.

2014/15 needs no maths. Mauricio Pochettino’s first season, Harry Kane’s 21 league goals, two defeats by City: all 64 points stay, and the place City leave is fourth, a year before Spurs got there for real.

2010/11

The own goal that goes

On 10 May 2011 Peter Crouch’s own goal gave City a 1–0 win and their first Champions League qualification. A year and five days earlier, his header for Spurs had beaten City in the same fixture.

Take City out and that defeat takes nothing away. The 0–0 at White Hart Lane on the opening day takes a point. Spurs finish fourth on 61, six clear of Liverpool: a Champions League play-off instead of the Europa League.

2011/12

Second, out of Munich’s reach

Spurs finished fourth in 2011/12, and on the evening of 19 May 2012, without a ball kicked, it stopped being a Champions League place: Chelsea won the final in Munich from outside the top four, and the holders’ place came out of Tottenham’s.

Without City Spurs lose nothing: beaten 5–1 at home and 3–2 away. Their 69 points are second, 20 behind United, and second is out of that night’s reach: straight into the group stage. Kyle Walker started all 37 of his league games that season and was the PFA Young Player of the Year.

2012/13

Fewer points, higher place

72 points, fifth, a point behind Arsenal. At the time no club had taken more in a 38-game Premier League season and missed the top four. Gareth Bale was on his way to 21 league goals.

Without City the number falls and the place rises. The 3–1 home win over City in April comes off, and 69 is fourth, ten clear of Liverpool in fifth. Across 2010/11 to 2012/13, when Bale played 99 league games, fifth, fourth and fifth become fourth, second and fourth: three Champions League places.

2017/18

One point

City’s 100 points left Spurs third, 23 behind. Take City out and Spurs lose nothing, beaten 4–1 away and 3–1 at home, and climb to second on the same 77 points, with the better goal difference: +43 to United’s +40. United have 78. Tottenham’s last league title came in 1961.

The money

City bought one player from Spurs in these nine seasons: Kyle Walker, in summer 2017, for an initial £45m in reported fees (reported at up to £53m). That is 14.3% of the £315.5m City paid Premier League clubs. The money City paid is the one figure here that isn’t a guess: take City out and that money goes too. One fee went the other way: £5.0m for Emmanuel Adebayor in summer 2012, a year after he arrived on loan from City.

Each new Champions League place has the Ledger’s figure beside it. A club in a rebuilt table earns nothing, so each figure is real money from that season’s competitions:

- 2010/11: €29.6m, what the 2011/12 Champions League paid Arsenal, fourth for real, through the play-off round. Every play-off club was also paid €2.1m, win or lose. - 2011/12: €8.6m, the 2012/13 group-stage participation fee, before €1m a win. The Europa League paid €1.3m to take part. - 2012/13: €27.2m or €28.7m, what the 2013/14 Champions League paid Arsenal, fourth for real, through the play-off round, not counting the €2.1m play-off payment. UEFA’s two reports disagree. - 2014/15: €38.1m, what the 2015/16 Champions League paid Man Utd, fourth for real, through the play-off round, the €2m play-off payment included. Spurs’ own 2014/15 Europa League run earned €6.1m.

Every season, club by club

Positions are real of 20 and rebuilt of 19; see How it works.