Swimming against the vitriol tide which is currently lapping against at José Mourinho’s feet, we have these supporters who are able to see beyond the end of their noses and realize that the problems are perhaps not down to a coach that has succeeded everywhere else, but to a club that has systematically neglected the squad over a sustained period of time.
Now, some will look upon these comments and scowl, but I would suggest that at least these views are based upon tangible things, that can actually be substantiated. There are players in the Spurs squad that have been with us for an extraordinarily long period of time – and neither developed themselves (those that did were sold) – or have assisted the club to move forward sufficiently for it to win silverware.
I would add that Levy and his close advisors know all of this, and have known it well for many years, to such a point that they may have joked internally that they weren’t hiring coaches, they were hiring tightrope walkers.
Fenway Sports got their recruitment strategy right. Are we an investment company whose primary business is increasing the value of it’s property empire or are we a football club? What has Levy achieved in 22 years? Twelve managers and one cup. Not a very good track record if you are a Spurs fan. Has he enriched himself and Joe Lewis at the expense of our on field success or our off field activities? Was attempting to furlough 550 staff at the club and then offering some of the ground staff the chance to mow his lawn a clever exercise or was it a PR disaster? You crow about the stadium and the training facilities which have loaded up the club with approximately £1 billion of debt and let’s not forget that a major part of the future financial projections are based on revenue from NFL games for which there is little and declining appetite.Let us also remember that we are anchor tenants which provokes squeals of denial from Levy supporters like yourself but which are a matter of public record. Finally, if you want indubitable proof that we are owned by shysters and villains, please Google Joe Lewis in Patagonia and read a well researched article by Mint Press on his activities in Argentina. I hope you then sleep better.
We are anchor tenants.
Levy nd co could just about run a bath better than they run a football club.There’s debate as to whether that’s indeed true.
But of course, we’re not a football club anymore are we. We’re an entertainment venue with a football team that affords schmucks like us occasional entertainment along with American football, concerts and boxing should you wish to attend.
We’re now part of a micro brewery, pie and sausage roll cash cow.
Business man of the year yes, Football chairman and football supporter of any year…. Never
Ryan air stylee ,50p to use a seat in the bar etc etc.
hahahaha
And is an avid Shoot Reader.
jack is possibly aged between 20 – 23
Why should I stand behind the chairman.
Stop Making Sense !!!!!!!!!!!!!
That will change now that we’ve got a few quid coming in (C19 aside) I’m sure. The player recruitment was poor while we were building the new stadium. All that’s behind us now.
When fans are allowed back in to stadiums I dread to think what Levy will charge fans as he attempts to make up for loss of earnings. He will probably introduce a charge to use the toilet.
Jack with respect you are talking cobblers. Arsenal had won 3 league titles under Wenger before embarking on their stadium project. The stadium was built on the back of tangible success and did not leave Arsenal in the hole for £1.3bn. Wenger continued to achieve CL football while winning FA Cups along the way. The stadium is not befitting of a club who have won one Caribao Cup in 20 years
“Their biggest fault IMHO is the player recruitment strategy.” just in case you missed it from my original post.
We live in an era where taking part and competing is seen as achievement, like when my 3 year old niece ‘graduated’ from playschool, mortar board and all; or where everybody gets a prize for entering the colouring competition. The whole celebration of winning has been dumbed down to the point where just turning up is rewarded. This is why so many of our fan base are genuinely impressed with Spurs competing with lowest net spend or holding the record for largest attendance at a premier league game and longest bar in Europe cobblers. God be with the days where you would have a lynch mob outside the stadium baying for blood.
Well said mate.
COVID-19 is undoubtedly a disaster, but refusing to buy players is fundamental that cannot be forgiven.
You’re onto something. My belief is the people subconsciously know the parasites can’t be removed, so they kid themselves that a manager change is all that’s needed.
Jesus wept. No thanks.
Have you seen the stadium lately? Have you been to the training facilities? We are light years ahead of where we have been in all the time I have been a supporter. Why would world-class players not prefer to come to our club and its facilities rather than go to White Hart Lane? Improving the asset structure is critical to attracting the right players. And it is not a job which can be done overnight. I just disagree with your perspective but, I have to say, you have every right to hold that opinion and think mine is wrong. Just name me a chairman that has got their recruitment strategy right. Perhaps two, maybe three exist. Running a football club is not a simple business. Running a big football club is extraordinarily difficult. Building a stadium, training facilities and keeping the books viable is one hell of a game to play.
Methinks that the natives are becoming restless. I feel that the supporters are finally waking up to the fact that the only thing that matters to Enic and Levy is inflating their property asset to the exclusion of what we really are which is a football club. I have not latched on to the vampire squid that is Enic quite as quickly as some on this site, particularly it’s writer, but better late than never. Whilst Enic is the owner and Levy is the CEO of the club, we will never be successful. It is that simple and those supporters who parrot the mantra that when the stadium starts throwing of cash flow that we will rise like a phoenix from the ashes are frankly deluded. Even if Levy had the resources to spend huge amounts of wonga in the transfer market, he would fu** it up. It’s what he does best. In fact it is the only thing he knows how to do. The only ray of hope is if the President of Patagonia, Joe Lewis, sacks him and appoints a CEO who knows something about running a football club, but I suspect that is a pipe dream of mine which will never be fulfilled.
It is beyond me how dull-witted some fans are, so much so that they allow characters on TalkBalls to wind them up about Mourinho. Everything is about context and here is a solid helping of that valuable material. Until Wenger and Arsenal completed their library extension just off the Holloway Road, every club that had built a ‘modern’ stadium had suffered relegation shortly afterwards.
There is a good argument that Arsenal still have to recover from the move and build process though they have had the advantage during the Covid season: the stadium is the only one in the league where the absence of fans hasn’t effected the noise levels!
Building a state of the art stadium is a massive project and takes huge amounts of energy and resources. People who can’t even tile a bathroom talk nonsense when they start rabbiting on about Levy not being good for our club.
I have been a supporter since 1963 and in that time I can’t actually remember us being a genuine powerhouse of English football. We have had moments in the sun and we have had some very good squads but we have not threatened to dominate.
During the years I have been a Spurs fan we have won 4 F.A. Cups, 4 League Cups, 3 Charity Shields and 2 EUFA Cups. Just since 2003, Mourinho has won 8 League titles in four countries. 2 Champions League titles and 2 EUFA Cups. He has also won 12 domestic cups or shields. Without any shadow of a doubt, without any argument whatsoever not only is Mourinho the best manager we have ever had but he is also the most decorated manager we have ever had.
The situation at Spurs since 2003 has been that we have underperformed, been lightweight and gained a reputation as bottlers. I hate that, you hate that, it sticks in all of our throats. We all know the feeling, just when we seem to get there we find ourselves peeking through the cracks in our fingers because we all know what happens next. There is not a Spurs fan in the world who does not know this about our team.
What this means is that we have somehow developed a rather poor culture of coming second at our club. That is an ingrained culture and one that it just is not easy to shift. This is a project as big as a new stadium build and for this project we need Mourinho.
Now people with wet lettuce for brains will believe anything Durham tells them and believe that Jordan and White are something more than hucksters for gambling adverts. They are all telling you that Jose creates bad football. Well, when we were at the top of the league we got there playing good football. Jose’s teams at Chelsea were pretty damn good and danced around us slotting home goal after goal. His Inter Milan team was superb. They won a treble for Christ’s sake! Spurs looked great at Goodison only two weeks ago except for pathetic errors at the back. Who the hell is going to beat City this season anyway?
Give Mourinho a chance, give him your backing, understand where he is trying to take us and realise that the dire football is about the quality of players, the culture of the club and really just represents the challenge the manager is taking on. Yes, we can chuck him out because people who have not won as much as a thimble let alone a trophy can tell you where he is going wrong.
Yes, we can ignore the stadium and training ground builds, we can ignore the stability of our accounts and burn Levy at the stake for making sure that every club in Europe tries their best not to buy Spurs players because they know they are going to lose the fillings in their teeth in negotiation.
Step back and stop thinking we can become a powerhouse of football just because we are Tottenham. Take a really good look at what is happening, the direction we are heading and realise how much time, sweat, effort, skill and planning has gone into this. have some damn faith and start to understand what our motto actually means. We are doing it but to turn around a structure which can be easily dismissed as “It’s only Tottenham lads”, a structure that has been in place for the last 57 years I have been a supporter, does not happen at the snap of disgruntled supporters’ fingers.
Now we need to tell TalkBalls and their mates where to go and stand behind the team, the manager and the chairman. Supporting our club means doing just that.
ENIC / Levy chose to build the infrastructure that they hoped would place the club in a sustainable financial position to compete. COVID has seriously dented the progress of that strategy.
Ploughing borrowed money into transfers comes with no guarantee of success and players values can plummet in a short space of time (see Eriksen and Dele). The training ground and stadium are assets that can be written off over a far longer period.
So I can see why they followed that strategy, however it is not the one, as a fan, I would have preferred them to take.
Their biggest fault IMHO is the player recruitment strategy.