Tottenham Hotspur have £22.5m Premier League incentive as they chase Europa League glory

The 2-1 defeat for Tottenham Hotspur at home to Nottingham Forest on Monday was loss number 18 for the club this season. The pressure on head coach Ange Postecoglou has never been greater.

But despite the club languishing in 16th this season, the next few weeks for could turn out to be hugely lucrative for them, with a two-legged Europa League semi-final with Norwegian side FK Bodø/Glimt to come. To be crowned overall winners of European football’s second-tier competition would deliver football next season, despite what has been a miserable campaign thus far.

It has been widely reported about just how much Champions League participation is worth to and Manchester United, another member of the ‘big six’ who have suffered domestically this season. United remain in the hunt for Europa League glory themselves, facing Spanish side Athletic Bilbao in their semi-final. The stakes are high. Success in the beyond the group stage can now be worth some £100m and upwards thanks to the revamped competition and the extra fixtures and larger prize pot.

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There is, however, still money at play in the Premier League for Spurs, money that isn’t insignificant.

While Postecoglou will likely be minded to throw his all into the given the perilous position he is in with regards to his job, the remaining five games for Spurs could still unlock millions from the Premier League’s central payments for next season.

Two points separate Everton in 13th and West Ham United in 17th. It could, on the face of it, with none of the club’s in danger of the drop, be a series of dead rubbers for the clubs involved until the end of the season, but there should be motivation through the additional sums on offer for the final positions.

Spurs could finish as high as eighth, mathematically. They almost certainly won’t, however, and it is the battle between 13th and 17th where energy will be focused, with six points ahead of 13th-placed Everton.

Were Spurs to finish in 16th then they would receive a merit payment, which is derived from domestic and international broadcast sums that come into the Premier League, of £14m, a split of £8.4m from domestic and £5.6m from international rights.

To finish in 13th would bring in £22.5m, a sum £8.5m larger than what Spurs would receive for finishing 16th. Were to drop to 17th by the end of the season then that gap in terms of lost revenue would stretch out to £11.2m. To put that into some context, that is the same amount of money that is around double the prize money that Spurs have accrued from their run to the semi-finals of the Europa League.

Postecoglou will almost certainly roll the dice when it comes to ensuring he can put his best team on the pitch for the , and understandably so, but there is still a big sum to play for when it comes to how much Spurs can bank this season, which means there is plenty of reason to fight on both fronts for as long as possible.