When I began calling out Levy and ENIC for what they were, I was pretty much a lone voice, certainly online. That was never something that particularly bothered me as it quite often the case that things that aren’t great attract huge popularity. I’m thinking of ‘restaurants’ that sell a lot of hamburgers and all those people who began finishing sentences with ‘simples‘. Things that are better for us, and tend to last the test of time frequently tend to be a slower burn. Just ask all the people selling vegan food these days for details.
Fans can use all the hashtags they can lay their hands on, but the sorry reality is that they will be demanding a part-owner of a business to step aside and effectively be replaced by either someone else from within the business they almost certainly won’t like either or worse yet, some wannabe bureaucratic nightmare from supporters’ association.
Talk of new owners is equally bizarre. Tottenham already has an investor and their position is robust, to put it mildly. Let’s take a step pack, put down the hashtags and lose the outraged consumer routine, and look at some facts.
Spurs’ debt to the banks currently sits a little over £600million. Forgive my lack of interest in the why’s or the wherefores about interest rates and another half-baked chit-chat about interest rates. If AN Other investor were to arrive this afternoon in London, then their first task would be to take on or take away that amount in full, because it is attached to the club.
Then there is the business of what precisely ENIC has left them that isn’t in already hock to the banks, such as season tickets and corporate revenues. This is important because it means that even if someone waved a wand and one could admit 62,000 to our next home game, how much of that revenue is already spoken for?
And finally, once a forensic accountant has worked out what’s what, in true ENIC style, we need to look at the football team. A reputation for not winning anything and going through managers like poor quality socks dogs us.
An ageing squad, with increasingly few elite or internationals of note, most of whom would genuinely struggle to secure a place in any bona fide top-flight side.
If the £600million could be taken on the chin and if the remaining elements of turnover were agreeable, then and only then would one need to draw up the cost of selling off many undesirable players – and upgrading them – plus the acquisition of a coach that might be able to get a tune of them. This is sounding less and less like a walk in the park, isn’t it?
If AN Other investor was looking to take over a Premier League club, then a case could be made that taking over Arsenal would be a far more palatable proposition. ‘Only’ a £100million worth of debt, a reputation for winning the odd domestic trophy, plus a squad that might arguably be seen as less of a doer-upper than one in N17. Spotify is in talks with Arsenal.
None of this is expressed to rile anyone, rather highlights the true size of the problem facing us.
I’m glad that the THST went full #LevyOut, and if they don’t stick to it, then it’s a climb-down. With the lines of communication now cut off, the fans have been well and truly hoist by their own petard.
As I’ve been saying in recent videos, the fuss over the European Super League fiasco bemused me. After all, didn’t ENIC demolish our spiritual home, after repeatedly selling our best players? This is where we are, the Gooners up the road are close to getting dream investment, while Spurs fans are hoping for one night when we don’t wake up in a cold sweat.
