One of the easiest things in Football as a fan is to criticise the board, very few escape the wrath of the supporters and in most cases, it is justified.
But in my humble opinion, that should not apply to Daniel Levy and ENIC, not now anyway.
It is so easy to demand the billionaire owner to splash the cash like Man City and Chelsea owners but the thing is this, there are levels to being a billionaire.
Almost every Premier League club owner is a billionaire, however, some are far richer than others and have a lot more cash to splash.
Joe Lewis, according to the real-time Forbes rich is list is worth $5.2 billion, whereas Roman Abramovich of Chelsea is worth $14.3 billion and City’s owners are worth no less than $1 trillion as a family.
Owners like Lewis and even the Kroenke’s at Arsenal and Glaziers at Man Utd cannot compete with the Oil Sheiks and Russian Oligarchs, that is a financial fact.
The reason why United can compete in the transfer market and pay the wages they do is that they have the income and infrastructure through the club to do so and that is what Levy is trying to achieve at Tottenham.
If you cannot battle it out with the Sheiks and Oligarchs with cold hard cash then you must compete with them in turnover, United do that, Arsenal are starting to do that and Tottenham will be able to do so eventually and the reason is because of the new Stadium.
The only way to increase income is through a Stadium and that is where Spurs will have the advantage in the long term over all their rivals. Arsenal’s Emirates cannot attract other events in the way the Tottenham Stadium can, neither can Old Trafford, the Etihad, Stamford Bridge and so on.
It may not feel like it right now but in 5-10 years Spurs will be generating far more income than they do today and probably more than any other club in England.
A lot of that extra income will be invested in the squad and wages and that is the long term goal of Levy and ENIC.
It is easy to look back in time and attack the board for lack of investment but what did one expect when White Hart Lane just was not generating enough money and let’s be honest, was not fit for purpose, it was dilapidated and needed pulling down.
Levy is investing for the future and that is what Spurs need because this is not football manager, we simply could not compete on a level playing field with these ridiculously rich clubs whose owners could afford to drop hundreds of millions annually risk-free.
The majority of Lewis’s money is tied up in real estate and his other businesses, he does not have the ability to just drop a billion on a football club like Chelsea and City’s owners can and that reality should be recognised.
Levy is doing the groundwork right now and as fans, we have to make the sacrifices in terms of on-field success because if we do not do it now, when? Because if we did not invest in a new Stadium then the chances of us ever being able to lift major silverware on a regular basis would have been zero.
Only the very super rich can throw hundreds of millions around because if your “average billionaire” could do so then the billionaire owners of Wolves, Villa, Fulham etc would be doing it.
No, the only clubs that can do that are the ones that are worth tens and hundreds of billions, not those single figure billionaires.
I know this is an unpopular opinion because of the unpopularity of Levy and of course, the long history of appalling transfer recruitment but that was always going to be tricky to navigate when you are buying players and paying wages below the superstar level.
I do accept that Tottenham is one of the most indebted clubs in football but it should also be acknowledged that they are also the most valuable club in England, well, according to some sources..
Daniel Levy is finally doing it right and that should be recognised. The Stadium is a good thing and the club is going in the right direction and we should all be applauding that.