Much has been made about Tottenham’s spending (almost £150m on transfers in the last 16 months), which presumably pushes them above the Big Four in spending and leaves them second only to Manchester City.

On the surface, it’s a lot of money for not a lot of success. However, keep in mind that this Tottenham side has also seen a lot of exits, some of them at fairly good prices too.

Here’s a look at the ins and outs at Tottenham over the last 3 transfer windows:

Summer 2009:

Crouch and Bassong were the major signings – Kranjcar came in on the cheap, and with Zokora, Bent and Boateng leaving, Spurs more or less broke even.

In: Kevin-Prince Boateng (loan return, Borussia Dortmund), Kyle Naughton (undisclosed, Sheffield United), Kyle Walker (undisclosed, Sheffield United), Peter Crouch (undisclosed, Portsmouth), Sebastian Bassong (£8m, Newcastle United), David Button (loan return, Crewe Alexandra), Niko Kranjcar (undisclosed, Portsmouth)

Out: Ricardo Rocha (released), Didier Zokora (£7.75m, Sevilla), David Hutton (undisclosed, Cheltenham Town), Danny Hutchins (undisclosed, Yeovil Town), Chris Gunter (£1.75m, Nottingham Forest), David Button (loan, Crewe Alexandra), Adel Taarabt (loan, QPR), Ben Alnwick (loan, Norwich City), Troy Archibald-Henville (loan, Exeter City), Gilberto (released), Cian Hughton (free, Lincoln City), Callum Reynolds (loan, Luton), Darren Bent (£10m, Sunderland), Kyle Walker (loan, Sheffield United), Jake Livermore (loan, Derby County), Adam Smith (loan, Wycombe Wanderers), Andros Townsend (loan, Leyton Orient), Jonathan Obika (loan, Yeovil Town), Pascal Chimbonda (£2m, Blackburn Rovers), Jamie O’Hara (loan, Portsmouth), Kevin-Prince Boateng (£4m, Portsmouth), David Button (loan, Crewe Alexandra), Sam Cox (loan, Cheltenham)

January 2009:

Defoe and Palacios cost about 27m, and Keane’s return was more than balanced by the money received on his sale earlier.

In: Jermain Defoe (£15m, Portsmouth), Wilson Palacios (£12m, Wigan), Pascal Chimbonda (£2.5m, Sunderland), Carlo Cudicini (free, Chelsea), Robbie Keane (£12m, Liverpool)

Out: Paul Staltieri (free, Borussia Monchengladbach), Kevin-Prince Boateng (loan, Borussia Dortmund), David Button (loan, Bournemouth), Tony Archibald-Herville (loan, Everton), Cesar Sanchez (undisclosed, Valencia), Hossam Ghaly (undisclosed, Nassr Saudi Club), Tomas Pekhart (loan, Sparta Prague)

Summer 2008:

Modric, Pavlyuchenko and Bentley were the major signings, although with Berba covering the costs of the first two and several other players also being sold, you can’t say that Spurs were losing too much money over this period.

In: Luka Modric (£16.5m, waiting for work permit, Dinamo Zagreb), Giovani Dos Santos (initial £4.7m, upto £8.6m, Barcelona), Paul-Jose Mpoku (undisclosed, Standard Liege), Mirko Ranieri (undisclosed, Perugia), John Bostock (initial £700k, rising to £1.25m, Crystal Palace), David Bentley (undisclosed, Blackburn), Cesar Sanchez (free, Real Zaragoza), Roman Pavlyuchenko (£14m, Spartak Moscow), Fraizer Campbell (loan, Manchester United)

Out: Radek Cerny (released, QPR), Leigh Mills (loan, Brentford), Simon Dawkins (loan, Leyton Orient), Joe Martin (undisclosed, Blackpool), Tommy Forecast (undisclosed, Southampton), Paul Robinson (£3.5m, Blackburn), Robbie Keane (£20.3m, Liverpool), Anthony Gardner (loan, Hull), Teemu Tainio (undisclosed, Sunderland), Pascal Chimbonda (undisclosed, Sunderland), Steed Malbranque (undisclosed, Sunderland), Younes Kaboul (£6m, Portsmouth), Charlie Daniels (loan, Gillingham), Tomas Pekhart (loan, Southampton), Lee Young-Pyo (undisclosed, Borussia Dortmund), Vedran Corluka (undisclosed, Manchester City), Dimitar Berbatov (£30.75m + Fraizer Campbell, Manchester United)

Verdict

Nice for the headlines, but at the end of the day Spurs have been going through players like cheap tissues without spending *too* much money on them. Berbatov’s sale is the big number that everyone will talk about but a bunch of smaller sales (and keep in mind that Defoe’s re-purchase would have also been partially accounted for by his sale earlier) means that Spurs have kept their finances in check.