ENIC International (a company registered in the Bahamas) owns 84.75% of Spurs. It then gets a bit more difficult as to who owns ENIC and who owns the other 15%. Naturally it's very cloak and dagger because of the Country registered in but the owners include Joe Lewis & Daniel Levy. Even if Levy/Lewis are the sole shareholders of ENIC there is still the other 15% (which will be at least 6 owners, but probably far more) and there is also Lewis who has a far higher share than Levy. To assume that Levy is accountable to no-one and that his decisions come under no scrutiny (as you imply) is naive in the extreme.
Levy would naturally have a conundrum, as any business director in any company would. You have an aggressively de-valuing asset and you have to decide whether as a company it's best to take for example £100m this year, £50m next year or nothing the year after. Arsenal had to make this decision with Nasri and RVP. United had to make it with Ronaldo. Tottenham aren't immune to the conundrums of business.
How do you think your stadium is being paid for? The
information we have been provided by Spurs at the moment suggests banks are willing to lend them £350m and that they've already spent c. £100m raised from club operations. It suggests this loan could be a high interest bridge loan for 5 years, which will then be refinanced after other developments are sold. There is then the uncertainty of the naming rights, whereby Spurs have based projections on £30m per season, but this is significantly more than other similar projects. Lewis has shown absolutely no appetite for selling the club which would eradicate this debt, primarily because it will clearly be worth much more in a decade with a new stadium and diminishing debt, compared to what it is at the moment.
In this climate of financing Spurs are almost certainly not going to be able to afford a £200k a week salary inside the next 5-7 years, just as Arsenal haven't for several years.
In terms of United over the next few years their turnover in the last 4 years has risen from £363m to £515m (10% growth per annum) with further growth guaranteed from the Premier League revenue increase. Likewise the Chevrolet deal is tied to the $ so a deal that was worth £47m per annum last year is currently at over £60m. Will we stagnate for the next few years if we miss out on the CL consistently? Possibly. However our current wage capex at 50% of £515m is £257.5m which allows us to pay £200k+ per week to several player's.
Of course there are ifs or buts. However mine seem to be based on the realies of business, whereas yours seem to be based on "what if Spurs won the Euromillions".
Spurs won't entertain offers that aren't representative of the player's talent. If Alli/Kane aren't going to command a top fee £70-100+m fee they also are unlikely to be kicking up too much of a fuss about their wages (as Spurs could afford say £125-135k a week) and therefore are unlikely to leave. The truth is the likes of United, City & Chelsea would already be looking at a fee of around £50-75m for Kane/Alli, so the chances of them going for this in 2 years would require a complete stagnation or even regression of their current form.
The question will always be: what transfer fee hit would Spurs take in order to sell a player abroad, rather than to an English club. If Alli has 2 years left on his deal and Barcelona offer £40m and United offer £85m I'd suggest Levy lets him go to United, whereas if Barcelona offer £65m and United offer £85m then he'd probably let him go to Barcelona.
So the question isn't about "policy" as I'm sure even you'd agree if it were a choice of letting him go to Barcelona on a free in 2022 or going to United for £100m in 2020, Levy would choose the latter (who wouldn't). That's before even talking about the current increase in PL revenue meaning I wouldn't be surprised to see £300k a week salaries being offered to key players by 2020. If that does happens I'd say only Madrid & maybe PSG are there to compete with the English clubs (possibly Barcelona although they've never shown such interest in English player's).
In terms of Pochettino I'm guessing he leaves 2018 or 2019 (2017 if Barcelona come in hard). I know you're a huge fan of trends and Spurs' trend to replace their manager every 2-4 seasons is consistent a trend as you're likely to see.
Spurs "policy" reminds me of the Winston Churchil quote:
Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?"
Socialite: "My goodness, Mr. Churchill... Well, I suppose... we would have to discuss terms, of course... "
Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for five pounds?"
Socialite: "Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!"
Churchill: "Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”
The present moment is Spurs having two players on the cusp of being one of the best in their positions in the world. History suggests that the best player's in the world play for the clubs that pay them the highest salaries which their talent deserves.