We’re we ever seriously linked with Diaz? Would our club leak these stories to the press in order to make it look like they are doing things to appease the fans?
Maybe the rumours forced Liverpool to get their arse in gear from last summer’s talks with the player. Perhaps it was the players? Maybe it’s a classic Levy tactic?
Oh, look! More questions than answers. An all too familiar line of thought, regardless of the senseless and the sensible! (A uniting factor between the spilt factions of the World’s steepest single-tiered terrace?)
I was irked by Bryan Gil being signed during the summer.
A completely unnecessary signing over a Lamela sale. A young, unproven player in his own country, let alone the stark Stoke-like reality of Premier League promise. Lamela may have worn gloves with a short sleeve shirt on those cold, wet nights, but it was the sign of a proven madman. Despite injuries, the team missed and still misses the bite and drive of this hip less professional and my personal favourite.
Yet six months later, Gil is currently on his way back to Spain for a potential loan. I don’t buy into the ‘One for the future labeled on his transfer. Not a priority then, not a priority now. Jam tomorrow, as mooted by a bearded blogger.
Levy’s utterly contradictory transfer practice continues. Dejan Kulushevski is another baffling deal. Another winger. Aged 21. Struggling to prove himself at Juventus. His figures show that his exclusion there is warranted. He does wear long sleeves and gloves on cold nights. The black country will ravish him like a hot pie in a snow storm.
We’ve got Bergwjin, Son, Moura all capable of the role. Jack Clarke anyone?
Conte is still short creatively. A Kane backup is essential. A fully functioning CB of a decent standard, a must.
Emerson is more Royal with Cheese, than Royal with Royce. Why are these key areas not prioritized? The areas that we have so desperately needed since Dembélé, Vertonghen, Eriksen, Llorente, Walker all departed for other pastures. It seems so obvious. (Maybe am I mad and devoid of any basic footballing comprehension?)
In a reform, those in line for the bullet are easier to pick than those in line for the future of the team. That’s a starting point.
We can dream of a team without Levy, Hitchen, and Paratici. We can dream of new scouts that are capable to pool talent from other clubs/lower divisions. Granted, Chelsea/City use their money to monopolize the market in this aspect, and all the better to them. That is how a proper football club is run. No oil money hatred is required.
They have loanees fit for first-team places across any top-flight team as proven. They have youth players who instantly fill a void after long-serving members retire.
They slot into the first team squad as if they have played there all their careers. Think Reese James, Chalobha, Sarr, Foden, Zinchenko. Liverpool with Trent, Jones, Philips, Kelleher. If the club is too proud to copy their rivals in this aspect, perhaps Ajax can inspire a logical model of a future team?
Our recruiters are consistently inept. The players that are a hit are the exception. The utter tripe is the norm. The money paid for tripe is a sin. That’s your money. It was my money. Levy has no understanding of football. He isn’t a football man.
Look at Liverpool. Granted, they are a far more attractive proposition to join over us. They always have been. That’s the reality they have cultivated for themselves. They save, identify a target and make it happen. No fucking about. It is simple, really. The energy at Spurs with these matters is scattered and virtually non-existent. It reminds me of my fat cousin holding up the queue at Gregg’s, as he cannot decide over a Danish pastry or a sausage roll, only to resort to his old favourite; yesterday’s plain doughnut.
Levy/Hitchen have a horrible track record. It’s Northern Rock reborn.
Speculating while the fan pays and suffers, as the debts are deferred over a long-term loan.
The figures add up to 130million (approx) owed to clubs in outstanding transfer fees. It doesn’t make for a good retirement fund.
Ndombele, Vinicius, Fernandes, Reguilon, Doherty, Romero, Lo Celso, Moura, Hojbjerg, Bergwjin, Clarke, Devine, Gil, Sarr, Gollini, Royal, Sessegnon et al. are just a few examples. This is the team we have. This is the reality ENIC has cultivated.
We’ve ‘reportedly’ missed out on Dybala, Grealish, Ruben Diaz, Bruno Fernandes, Vlahovic, Wijnaldum (Whom Poch wanted, but Levy vetoed for Sissoko). Dream team players and nothing more. Our records away to Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal in the past 30/35 years are embarrassing. Have a think about our points tally when sat in your bathroom next, and tell me what stinks more.
Poch slightly changed the identity of Spurs, and made us temporarily attractive to join, while the big boys transitioned. We all know that the reinforcement left him a dead man walking.
So, what’s our identity? What team have I fanatically followed since I was shot straight from the womb into the hands of a midwife with better hands than Gollini?!
The current ownership is an extension of a club with no identity. Taking an effective 9 point deduction at the start of any season to English football’s elite is not an ideal pattern. But it’s the norm that Levy has accepted on arrival and continues to instill.
He is rich for a reason. You can’t tell him what to spend his money on, even though I do it all the time. He won’t spend my money anymore however.
One thing’s for sure, Liverpool’s new player will set the league alight, while we currently watch manager #4 in a year. Conte is a man who could ‘out Levy’ Levy next summer.
It begs the question of how healthy the club/team project would be if Levy/Lewis implemented the same energy and knowledge on the field as they do with off-field ventures.
As fans, we must ask ourselves the question of what the teams on-field identify/future is? I struggle to nail it down.
Though ask me about spreadsheets, capital assets, and the Hotspur brand future, I can show you multiple nailed on sources for an ever-expanding ENIC property portfolio.
Despite them, Keep it Tottenham.
From where Klopp started this is the investment needed and more. He had to overhaul a team that was on it’s last legs. Look at Guardiola, he’s spent over a billion euros on a team that was pretty good before he got there. It is all relative. If Spurs want to compete, huge investment is needed. Liverpool fans are far happier than us, but that doesn’t mean they have to live with a lack of investment when compared to Utd and City.
Good article. Depressing, but good.
The past 5 years the Chavs have only spent about 250 million, about the same as us and Everton. Roman has always invested in top players though, his outgoings are only down because of big player sales like Hazard and Lukaku…. Arsenal have spent around 350mil and the Mancs were both up around 450 mil… Considering they are European Champs the Chavs have done well, but this is all from Romans decades of heavy investment.
He’s spent £580 million so far. I expect the board think with that spend they should be winning and competing more. I would be.
Great summation.
Whatever physical identity we had was crushed under bulldozers, so what are we left with?
Great article and agree totally with the Diaz sentence. Just another in a long list of top players we couldn’t get. Levy is a joke and Paratici a patsy for the bald puppet master. He really thinks we are all mugs. Sadly for the fans, he’s likely to find out that Conte is nobody’s fool.
Liverpool fans are far from happy. They ripped Europe and the Prem apart for 2 seasons and Klopp was repaid with Jota. A very good player but only one player. Injuries ravaged one season and Man City waltzed to last season’s title. This season Liverpool have a world class starting XI but a dodgy bench (We were there under Poch). Underinvestment is stopping Liverpool supporters enjoying that League title success that they crave and despite having a great season are still behind the pump to catch City. Man City bought a £100m player they didn’t really need and that shows the gulf between City and the rest.
For a few seasons players chose us over Liverpool (Gylfi) but not anymore. Levy must have thought he masterminded a success story when all we did was usurp a floundering Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. Our league position was kind of fake and the fact we never won a trophy showed that. We were great at beating the rubbish, but always struggled beating the bigger named teams (Battle of the Bridge anyone?). Utd and Arsenal are now on their way back and we have floundered. Strike while the iron is hot is an adage that Levy failed to grasp, particularly from a footballing standpoint. A complete charlatan.
Great article – very much enjoyed.
Ecxellent piece Mr.C
I would say the window was somewhat underwhelming.Four out,two in means a smaller squad and lots of priority areas remain unaddressed.
However there is a big slice of wages off the club although three of the outs are loans,so if they are unsuccessful we could be back to trying to move them on again.
On the surfice Alli’s move is very good and long overdue,but we have no money for him yet.Is the 10M they would owe dependent of him making 20 appearances this season?What’s to stop Everton not picking him towards the end of the season if it means not paying.And whay are the future performance payments based on>
It strikes me that Everton could have us over a barrel here which is amazing considering the deal was struck by our master negotiator.At least Martin Samuel is helping put that lie to rest.
Paratici is lazy. The scouting network seems to only focus on his last club. The players signed were benchwarmers in a not very competitive league. How anyone thinks these two have improved the squad is baffling. Time will tell of course. But looking at the dross we have signed under Paratici’s tenure so far I’m not holding my breath.
The lack of transparency around the club make it hard to see if the changes you’re looking for are happening, BUT whilst Levy is top of the tree i find it hard to believe any changes are going to survive the micro management megalomaniac.
Paratici’s remit wasn’t just transfers or so we were informed.
It maybe the time the club are a bit more transparent with its ambitions (with out the bullhit bingo buzzwords), it may create good will as the club is still divided with large portions of the fanbase.
We are a big club in fanbase and financial terms though the footballing side playing and operation is well off the big clubs.
How you get Levy and Lewis to change so we do become a big side? Thats the big question as attendances and merchandising would be hard to really impact and about as useful as waving a bedsheet sign by the Pied bull. That level of cash impact is meaningless esp if you compare it to say lack of naming rights which still have not been sorted (great product that stadium). Then you look at other forums, sites and channels and you see parts of our fan base would never have the discipline. Which leads back to what can we actually do as fans to influence???
Sounds all to familiar this story
I think slowly but surely the myths surrounding Levy are being debunked. Not for Spurs fans, we have been only too aware for years. The mass-media are now starting to see Levy what he really is. A very capable accountant with little or no knowledge of football.
I also think our situation is fairly straight forward. If Levy is going to persist with his strategy of listening to the “experts” he has hired and then stepping in to do the negotiations. Then i would suggest he finds some new experts.
Had we not had Paratici involved i don’t think we would of got the 2 signings over the line. I’m not even sure there are many clubs out there willing to do business with DL anymore.
Conte will walk if his conditions are not met. My money is on him walking in the summer. I hope i’m wrong..
Nah, it’s not unfortunately, i wish i had the aptitude to have written this article !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great article Mr C. I could almost accuse you of plagiarism but yours is better written. On the subject of Kulusevski, he is Swedish of Macedonian descent so he should be able to take off the gloves!
Quality from Mr C 🍻
That’s what I always thought until I saw a debate on this and the guy defending Chelsea came up with evidence that over the last 3-4 seasons that incomings aside from Abramovich have more than covered their outgoings. The evidence was there, as I said academy sales which have been in stark contrast to ours, CL money on a regular basis, trophy winning bonuses every season, relatively low upkeep costs on the stadium and facilities, TV and advertising/sponsorship deals, massively increased merch sales due to an ever increasing global fanbase based on being mega successful, all of these things made them self sufficient the last few seasons when compared to their player purchases.
I wasn’t including debts of course, but then a net spend survey of Spurs wouldn’t include debts would it? This bursts the bubble that Roman has bought them success the last few seasons. It’s unpalatable but true I’m afraid.
I agree with all that ..but I’m so glad Alli has gone and NDembele is on some sort of double secret detention back at Lyon…LoSellOn ..bedded the Duracells taken out to recognise his own players so tata..Let’s see how our squad get on without layabouts and thieves in it.
We weren’t in for anyone huge ..a. Levy wouldn’t sanction it and b. They wouldn’t come..hey ho..we all know what he is what he does ..but no Dele no NDembele happy days ..only at Spurs ..you put yer out out out shake it all about, bin the wasters off , that’s, yes that’s what it’s all about..
Thats all folks..
I dont think the majority of the fan base are content with it, i think they’ve just been dragged down with it all. I agree with the ‘We were terrible in the 90’s’ thing what you say, but my retort to those who say that is that ‘we were amazing in the 60’s, won some stuff in the 70’s, and were great in the 80’s’, so why should one particular decade define what our ambitions should be..
Chelsea are far from self sufficient, Roman Abramovich makes loans to Chelsea FC most/every(?) season, (about £20m in 2021) & the club debts to him currently stand at about £1.5billion.
Chelsea made a £150m+ loss last season (compared to about £80m for THFC)
But guess it’s all ‘written off’ till or if he sells the club?
It’s Mr C.. Though he did sound like the boy with his ending.
But they have still become self sufficient in the last 3-4 years which shows they have got it right. I still hate their guts.
Each passing day i lose more and more hope that we’d one day get our act together. I’m so jealous of the likes of Utd, Chelsea, Juve, Barca etc… Not for their past successes, but for their ambition to win, their desire to be the best every year. It all stems from the top, and i still don’t understand why the majority of spurs fans are content with what these owners keep producing year on year. I have an idea why, same old excuse “we were terrible in the 90s”, but that alone, is a paradox in it’s own right. We’re fearful to demand more because we may end up back in 14th? We were basically thereabouts and of conte leaves will soon be again. The landscape of football is changing, there’s no time left to build sustainably, or use that as an excuse to defer building a cohesive team at all. For most fans it’ll take time for this realisation, unfortunately.
Roman is the Godfather of the sugar daddies.. They invented Financial Fair Play because of him. Remember when he arrived he was buying everyone… 2009 the ‘rule’ came in. Right after the Chavs started winning everything.
I have to agree with everything you say here H. It’s laughable that we yet again go into another half a season without a second striker. kane will be kna&^%$ed if he is still around after the world cup at the end of this year. There’s young hungry strikers in the Championship, Villa took a punt on Ollie Watkins and i bet our fan base wouldn’t mind having him as a second striker right now. Bryan Gil obviously wasn’t ready for the Premier League, and i bet Conte would have given Lamela game time, he was Conte’s type of player. I can totally see what has gone on with getting rid of Delle, Ndombele and Lo Celso, they were just taking up a wage bill space and not contributing, but it also looks like Levy has used the transfer window to make a profit. he will get up to 40Million for Delle, got the Swede on loan, and paid just over 20M for Rodrigo. Plus, all that money off the wage bill, wild guess says almost 1/2 million a week. And, after all this, with Conte complaining about the size of the squad, we are now left with an even smaller squad. We are going to go through all this again in the summer window..
Diaz was a tough one to take. Of course we were trying to buy him. Problem was he was the Bindippers first choice last summer,(they failed to agree a fee) and they intended to go for him this summer. We forced their hand in to doing business sooner…. It’s shocking that Paratici had to get the Juve rejects in at the last minute, however it wasn’t a bad window at all, especially when compared to our rivals like United and Woolwich… Getting rid of Ndombele, Dele and Gio was good work… Now both Juve boys are solid additions… It’s no shame to be pushed down the pecking order there when they sign the likes of Ronaldo, Dybala, Vlahovic….. CoolioJeffSki had a good season 2020 for the Old Lady. He started all league games for them bar 3. He scored the winner for them in the Coppa Italia cup final that year. He turned up first time of asking for them, something Kane has failed to do on four occasions. I like a winner. A big match player. At 21 he has plenty of room to develop. Benty I have seen less of, but he looks like even more what we need… The churn has begun, it was always going to be messy in January… In the summer I expect us to get our business done quickly to appease Conte… We aim for top four now, far easier to attract players like Kessie and Diaz when you’re in the CL…. Up the Yids .
Actually Chelsea have become self supporting over the past 3-4 years so we’re going to have to start leaving them out of the sugar daddy headings.
A fantastic academy (4 youth prospects selling for around £100m for example in recent times), regular top 4 finishes and a trophy every season to increase the global fanbase on a regular basis have meant their owner has not needed to financially support the club like he used to. Levy seems unable to grasp the fact that regular trophies will increase the fanbase far more than buying a token Korean or American player every now and again.
Granted his money got them up there in the first place though.
But it’s interesting that their ambition has been rewarded and we could learn a lot from them over recent seasons as much as it pains me to say so.