Tottenham makes record pretax profit of $56M

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LONDON (AP) -- Tottenham announced a record pretax profit Tuesday of $55.8 million following an overhaul of its playing squad.

The sales of strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane helped push the Premier League side's pretax profit up for the year ending June 30 from just $3.8 million for the same period a year earlier.

Although the north London club later re-signed Keane and former striker Jermain Defoe, its net profit still rose to $38.7 million -- up by $37 million.

"We have made significant progress in delivering on our long-term vision for the club," chairman Daniel Levy said. "We have always had three key priorities and you will have heard them oft repeated: investment in the first team, a new training center and an increased capacity state-of-the-art new stadium."

The club sold Berbatov to Manchester United for $55.1 million and Keane to Liverpool for $40.5 million. Keane cost $16.9 million when he returned just six months later.

It has started construction on its training center in Enfield, 6 miles north of its White Hart Lane stadium, and has applied for planning permission to replace its home of 110 years with a new 56,250-seat ground.

Tottenham again reached the League Cup final in 2009 but lost to Manchester United in a shootout. With fewer matches than the previous year because of earlier exits from other cup competitions, revenue dropped 1.6 percent to $188 million.

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