Spurs hit back over pay row

Tottenham today hit back in the row over win bonuses.

The club admitted that trying to bring in a new incentive scheme two days before the start of the season had been a mistake but claimed that bonuses paid by Spurs were among the best in the Premiership.

New owners ENIC attempted to force through changes to the bonuses before the season kicked off but the scheme was rejected by the players, who threatened to withdraw their co-operation for promotional work.

Buchler admitted today that it would have avoided aggravation and allowed more time for discussion if the club had indicated their plans earlier.

He said: "During the four and a half months since ownership of the club had changed, we had not cottoned on to the necessity for the changes to the bonus scheme until late in the day. Therefore, when we presented it to the players a week before the start of the season, we were giving neither ourselves nor the players a lot of time to change it.

"However, our proposal that providing the team were not in the bottom five of the Premiership would have meant they earned more money, not less.

"The rewards for doing better would have been greater and the rewards for doing badly would have been less.

"Our changes were only tinkering with the scheme and the changes would have meant the club were still in the top five of the Premiership when it comes to bonus pay-outs. The players do get a good deal from us.

"The players decided they would prefer to stay on last season's scheme and that is still a very good one for them. We have since agreed with the players that we would meet now and decide where we were going to go with the bonuses in time for next season.

"Hopefully, by the end of the year we will have resolved a scheme which that they are happy with and that we are happy with as a club.

"This will probably be far in advance of any other club in the Premiership, purely because we don't want to get into the same situation next season.

"In last Friday's meeting there was some tough talking but the kind you would be happy with in terms of club and players."