Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy insists they pay their players a competitive rate.

The wage structure means the players are not paid the salaries of some of their peers at other clubs, with Rafael van der Vaart's weekly wage of about £70,000 the highest in the squad.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has stressed that Levy must make his best players more wealthy to ensure they remain at the club. If Levy were to offer Luka Modric £100,000 a week to stay, he could expect serious pressure from the agents of other players to boost their clients' contracts accordingly.

Levy was keen to draw attention to the sums committed to enhancing the squad, while hinting it would not always be practical to show such generosity.

Levy wrote: "Whilst we have continued to invest heavily in the squad, it should also be noted that we have continued to invest sensibly in other parts of the club's future whilst still managing to reduce net debt and continue to maintain a strong balance sheet.

"We continue to work, however, on driving revenues to ensure that the wage-to-revenue percentages remain within our key performance targets."