Online fan opinion about Spurs right now is a sprawling, conflicted mess, and the purpose here is to provide some clarity to a situation which requires a nuanced evaluation.
My view on Levy and ENIC has not softened on iota. They have consistently proved that they are not a force for good as far as the football side of the business is concerned. Apologists make a counter argument that we haven’t gone bust, and, that we have amazing facilities.
At this juncture, I ask my readers to provide an example outside the Spurs bubble where not going bust was a reason for celebration. It’s also worth adding that any gratitude for building a state of the art training camp and stadium is frankly bizarre, as neither were gifts. The loans which have now eclipsed even Manchester United’s debts, are entirely thanks to the leverage that the football club has in terms of turnover. THFC owes for the shopping centre.
The cold reality is that fans purring over this infrastructural investment, are no different to anyone who takes out a mortgage. The bank owns ‘your’ house, and if you fail to maintain repayments, the bank will unceremoniously evict you from ‘your’ house.
Apologists make a counter argument that ENIC are building for the future and when these sunny uplands are revealed, the benefits of the infrastructure investment will be a catalyst for organic investment that most could only dream of.
Sounds great in principle, but will this generational debt is being serviced, what are Tottenham fans supposed to do, act like nothing’s wrong, because this is all for the greater good?
What we have here is the business equivalent of Original Sin. Which makes the threat of “jam tomorrow” look like a racing certainty.
Apologists make a counter argument that this is all about entitlement, and if you want make it into heaven, then “Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”
Which is pretty tough to swallow when all you wanted to do was support a professional sports team, for whom winning is the metric.
ENIC are currently on their 13th coach and have delivered just one trophy in nigh on 20 years at the helm. The model appears fundamentally set up to make money for some future utopia.
Which brings us onto the soundness of the ENIC business model itself. Fans like to win. Fans paying premium prices want to see their side win not just the odd game, but to win cups and championships. It is ambitious to believe that any sports stadium will consistently sell out if results begin to wain. Surely the long term rewards will be cancelled if the project doesn’t keep on financial track?
Pochettino could have done well, but he wasn’t backed. Mourinho could do well, but we won’t get a sense of that until he is allowed to build his own squad. Klopp was afforded that ‘luxury’ and it served him pretty well.
In conclusion, I’m with Mr Jones on this (above). This is executive malpractice. It’s not José’s fault and it’s not Davinson Sanchez’ or Tanguy Ndombele’s. Indeed, blaming Mourinho is like blaming the dentist for pulling all your unbrushed teeth out.
The football team ought to be the heartbeat of any football club, opposed to just “the core tenant”, which is clearly what Spurs have become.
And that’s the solution. Make the football team the heartbeat.
I’m often optimistic man.. But a realist when it comes to football.. I gain no pleasure moaning, the facts are the facts though.. Enjoying the ride? More like being taken for one. It’s not too easy mate. It’s painful and heartbreaking. Especially with kane in our ranks.
I would rather we brought world record players… World record pancakes, shops, facilities, profits,…. Priorities.
Spursy…. A mix of levy and spurs together…. Keep losing and the joke will continue.. I’m not laughing but all the fans at top winning clubs are..
Try “crushing me.
Our food and drink money from all the match days doesn’t even cover that.
Do any of these clubs have to pay nearly a million a week to their councils?
“We’re a laughing stock, joke? Who’s laughing at us? I’m not.
Pancakes fed many people. Great work by my club for my community.
I just get on with it and hope for the best man (that’s all I can do) I don’t look for negativity in any of my pass times/hobbies. My glass is always half full. Half empty moaning gives me no pleasure at all. Too easy. Morning.
Not bitter… Upset with the owners running of the club. Twenty years is more than enough for most.. You may love being a serial loser, and being spursy….. But i hate that admittedly… I hate the fact we are a laughing stock now . A joke…. If levy ever sorts out the incompetent transfer policies, and actually invests and shows ambition. If he ever backed a manager then my tune would change………. Any spurs fan who defends enic at this point are like happy clapping walruses all barking about how great we are. Why? Because we make world record pancakes? Or because an investment company has used and is using the club soley to make world record profits…….. The football is 💩 lets get real here and we all know why.
Plus enics coffers….which levy owns…. As if his wage is whats important… Its the world record profits 🤦♀️
Your english is terrible………. Coming from such as you?………… Jog on you 🔔🔚 … Try ‘dear mr levy’ blog… You won’t believe your luck.
Complete load of nonsense. All wind with no substance.. You are whining and moaning about true fans who care about winning. Who care about the football and the state of their club. Before levy and enic we won on average one major trophy every three years.. After they take over we win one mickey mouse cup in twenty long years. We held the fa cup record in enics time soon surpassed by united and now arsenal have won it more times too… Levy has left our managers short at crucial times the neglect with poch after what he achieved was criminal. The fact he also left redknapp short after saving us from relegation when he turned us into a force was a telling sign before poch… Its not just the fact levy has made himself highest paid chairman, its the 17th budget wage bill, the shocking transfer policy where profit presides over everything. Even players we need in or need gone, squad balance, happy staff.. The refusal to back great managers and his incompetence in the transfer market is why we are what we are….. The only thing levy is ‘doing fine’ is making money for himself and uncle joe… Considering we have had bale, modric, kane in our ranks its shameful we have won nothing… You can bang on about forests and trees but I’m all about the football man.. And your ‘go support another club’ explanation doesn’t make sense.. You have got verbal diarrea… If you are really a spurs fan and you are happy then why the hell are you on social media whining?
my point is..in a nutshell,as you asked, that levy isnt anywhere near as bad ,or useless, or corrupt ,as the hate mob are painting him. he is no more greedy or money grabbing than any of todays pro footballers….now note i didnt say he was perfect,or god like…but .hes doing fine…. as for my “go support another club” comment ,you forgot to include my reason for writing that..some fans go to games with the sole intent to jeer and whine ..about anything and everything,,and anyone…to those i say “dont like it-dont watch” now i guess you will retort “its in the DNA man ,being spurs fan” or some other ridicolous rubbish…well its not -bugger all to do with DNA…now its possible that whining and whinging and scapegoating about everything IS in your DNA….ive no way of knowing…the real issue is that the whiners cant see the forest for the trees ..may not even be able to see the trees . most likely..
are you suggesting the players dont get paid? or are on minimum wage or something? gee i didnt know that……
I see you neglected the chance to answer the question posed yesterday about who’s the highest paid chairman…. Football is immoral and we all know that but when the chairman pays himself and his manager and sod the rest it ain’t hard to see why players who know that people at Leicester get paid more than them think why bother. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp
coming from such as you…thick as two short planks is indeed a compliment
Your wasting your time mate. They just love hating. Bitter men.
Don’t come here then. Simple
Wow. Wayne Burnett wins a game. That’s 6 in 18. Played troy son.
Only one for 30 years. The league cup is the only trophy associated with spurs for anybody aged under 35.
De gea 😂 That was Fabian Barthez style…. He’s more of a liability than lloris these days.. People rip lloris distribution and mistakes but hes sorted it out recently. De geas stats are pretty bad in comparison he has gone backwards.
He has to be a troll… Surely… South park style troll sat there with his arsenal kit on.
A snake/fish rots from the head down.. You been living in the woods for too long bear. This comment sums you up, it doesnt make sense. Hypocritical. Illogical.. Youre either a troll, related to your precious levy, or completely lost your marbles…. I suspect you are a troll. If not then try the website ‘dear mr levy’ if you’re not already from there then you will fit in nicely.. All happy clappers together 👌
😆 For sure…. As thick as two short planks.
Read H’s article above again this may help you understand.. One cannot get help for common sense, you either have it, or you don’t.. I’m not even sure what your argument is? Any sports team/football team is judged by their success. What they win. Not how much money the owners can make out of it. To do it neglecting the team is shameful. We break records for all the wrong reasons. True football fans love their clubs and want the best. It’s painful to watch years of failure due to greed and incompetence. 20 years and every manager is sacked rather than backed.. Before poch was sacked loads of our recent players realised what was happening and either wanted out or stopped playing completely disillusioned.. To turn up on the best spurs blog with many lifelong spurs fans and diehard supporters and telling people to ‘go support another club’ begs belief. Are you for real man? What rock have you been living under since 2001?
Yep.
Isn’t that our only cup in 20 years? Very telling.
“Notts Forest” eh Mr Plastic. It’s clear you’re either an actual Levy or one of his bean-counting disciples. You certainly know nothing about football. Real Nottingham Forest (and real actual) fans get very upset when that team name is shortened the way you did. With such a good memory (not googled or looked up in an almanac), do you remember which team carried out the bully off?
You not been taking your medicine again Mrs Levy?
a mug and his money are soon parted….
thats a ludicrous statement….the first sentence….id suggest that EVERYBODY is an authority on what THEY think about any subject. how could it be otherwise? the second sentence is more problematical …could you please direct me towards these experts? or did you mean armchair experts? theres a difference you know ,though i fear the difference would be lost on you.
and you called ME a thicko ….the irony
to make it easier for you to understand my friend…my reply was in response to the “fake levy account” so it was in perfect context….perhaps you could find a sun reader to explain it to you….
maybe you could,if you got some help , provide some of this “common sense and “crushing” logic you mention. so far youve failed to provide it..or even a semblance of it….your judgement i fear is clouded by your “anti levy/anti enic fetish”….
Very good.
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
😂
“The born winner, wins naff all…”
😂 what a joke…
Wow… no wonder you think everyone watches on illegal streams.
Let’s not worry about all the season ticket holders, channel subscribers and folks who travel half way around the world to follow the team eh? What they think is irrelevant I take it? Dear oh dear…
The people on here are an authority on the way they feel about their football team. If you want to follow the FT Twitter account, please do and leave the football to the experts son…
What on earth are you going on about now? Could you please at least try and make your point clearly and concisely? Perhaps you don’t even have one.
It’s already happened, he just doesn’t want to admit it…
Anyone who uses the word ‘product’ and ‘service’ when describing following a football team is obviously so completely out of touch with the whole experience.
Therefore it would be better all round if they refrained from commenting on something they don’t even understand…
Great fan/supporter you are then 😂
Many of us stopped buying the ‘product’ years ago.. The supporters and fans are why football clubs exist. Supporting spurs and supporting enic are two very different matters.. Obviously the ‘premium prices’ are in reference to the ludicrously high stadium ticket prices, (not tv streams) most expensive in the world rivalling the likes of madrid and barca, but with a first team struggling to rival with wolves and sheffield! Where would levy and enic be without the fans? Get real, open your eyes, and rupert bear was a 🔔🔚 man wasting your time trying to troll here you will be crushed quickly with common sense and logic.
The fa cup still means alot to me and many others too I’m sure.. The league cup however is a mickey mouse pot for the mediocre teams like birmingham to win. Since the 90s all the top teams have played either their kids or their B teams.. While the lower clubs have gone for it because its their chance to win something… Also last ten years or so its a route into europa league.
id just like to say that in my opinion levy and lewis were/are not responsible in any way shape or form for spurs recent fall from grace ,or rising ticket prices,or under investment.
however i do think levy and lewis ARE responsible for the recent storms and my flat tyre this morning.
pure coincidence id wager….about as coincidental as every time spurs get beat the buzzards turn up to gloat.yes pure coincidence.
p.s was levy at fault for the 3 goals wolves scored? rumour has it that he was playing in disguise wearing a japhet tanganga mask
Some quarters calling for a Levy statue outside the shopping centre. Makes you Tom and Dick.
last time i watched spurs live /in stadium was when spurs beat notts forest 1-0 courtesy of a glen hoddle goal..and some criticised the chairman then too…forget his name…… the point is england mike,i,unlike some would no more tell a club chairman how to juggle the financial accounts,than tell a surgeon how to perform a heart transplant.
Only just realised the League cup was on yesterday….City won btw just in case anyone wanted to know..😳
maybe the rest of you are fake abramovich accounts,the abramovich who wants rid of levy and lewis so HE can take over lol?
I can’t set foot in there. He’s killed it for me as well.i understand that this move was needed to take us to another level. We’ll I think back to that day against utd. The rainbow. An unbeaten home season. It all looked good. That’s the hope you carry as a fan. Then you think what happened to that mob down the road. Or the pikeys. Geographically we are nearly identical. What on earth made anyone think we would be any different. We’ve all been sold down the river. They ain’t our problem, but I just don’t see our problem moving until he smells the TV money drying up.
Good point, forgot to add we got charged full (new) Season Ticket rates for being at Wembley when we had no choice or could put them on hold…”PAY THIS YEAR OR LOSE YOUR SEASON TICKET”, the client reference numbers where told..
while what you say may be true ..its what the world is today,nothing is worth doing unless it makes money…and ultimately it will kill football,the signs are allready there .everyones guilty..chairmen,investors ,players ,its not unique to spurs ,even the fans want something for nothing,…at white hart lane people complained they couldnt get on season ticket list,well now they can -they are still moaning. personally i preferred white hart lane but thats pure nostalgia for the days when football was exciting ,when there was competition,when every team had its special player …instead of the richest clubs grabbing all the cream of talent…but it is a fantastic stadium,no doubt of that…worth 1 billion ? time will tell..but if it houses events ,it gives londoners the chance to view these events …bit like londons own caesars palace…
What an arrogant attitude , dont choke on your 3 course lunch before the game.
Oh Rupert. It really isn’t as simple as go and watch someone else. It may be for the hooray Henry’s, but some of us have been at it a long time. The nonsense about players salaries is easily dismissed. No ody makes the money we do, yet they nearly all pay more. Throw in he sees fit to pay himself twice what any other chairman gets and your on a sticky wicket. Now throw in the extra revenue we were promised would take us to the nxt level and er yeah. You get the point. The man’s a fraud end of. If you do indeed work for him tell him to get to Germany nxt week and buy all the lads a beer before we toddle off to watch Haringey Borough or whoever then. Gesture of goodwill type thing seeing as he ain’t bothered in 20 years
Gazza. You notice historical patterns. Ain’t it funny that when we slump to the nxt rubbish defeat a levyite turns up on here. Coincidence?
Just remind me who the highest paid chief exec is again
See he’s got the boxing there as well now. That should fund a move for someone like Foster or smalling eh
My view is “successful” enough to make money, hence a previous point about Europa and top 6 being enough…..Lewis invested somewhere along the lines of 36m to buy Spurs, what a great investment….20 years – worse chairman for success (trophies) since the 40’s..wanted to move us to Stratford, forced landlords and small businesses to give up their livelihood, never backs supporters, wants to get rid of “Yid”, StubHub, 70% increase in ticket prices which has pushed a lot of faithful fans away (does that mean they are no longer fans and should support someone else?), I could go on…..but, our loyalty (which isn’t a CHOICE (to which you think it is)) has been abused, we are no more better off than when you could p1ss in the sink as the toilets were broke in the old girl…400m could’ve got us a fantastic stadium, not 1.2b and 700m in debt…
id guess a worldwide epidemic/pandemic which has the potential to kill millions is slightly more important than a football club-any club…..maybe levy and lewis combined to create the virus in some fiendishly clever plot to somehow increase their takings …..?
This is clearly a fake Daniel Levy account, a DANBOT.
its true what you say..but these complaints rarely become a campaign of hate .its in levys interests for spurs to be successfull ,if for no other reason than success generates more income…so id say levy is doing his best ,both for spurs (long term) and of course for himself….but to have the view that levy is just a money grabber and nothing else while the players are earning £100,000-£200,000 a week seems a tad one sided ..perhaps if the players didnt demandsuch exhorbitant salaries there might be more in the kitty to buy more players?
Who knows what Spurs would be without Enic but I for one would like to find out.
F off Enic, give us our club back.
ill tell you im 18, when you confirm that you are an authority on high finance ,running a football club (or other businesses) and so on and so forth.
Why the inverted commas around premium prices?
Most fans will at some point complain about something relating to their club, regardless of what it is, it’s in our nature…heard a Liverpool fan complaining about Klopp? Listen to talksport and you will.
It’s expectation and perspective – add Loyalty & Family to that….
I really don’t need to explain this do I Mr B?
Plead tell me you’re 18?
as i said,”you dont like the product ? dont buy it”…theres lots DO buy it ,so i guess they think its value for money…”go and support another club” seems a perfectly logical alternative if things really are that bad for you…i cant see whats so outrageous about that statement.
Ohh, and this thing about splitting the rights up to make watching sport “more competitive (cheaper)” hasn’t worked out well for us punters has it…what we got now, BT, BBC, Sky, Amazon, if you want to watch pre season you can add Sport Premium to that list…
It’s the “go and support another club” that told me a lot about you…
How’s 7k a year just to watch Spurs kick a ball around, enough for ya?
They have the Capital Summertime ball booked already…yah
of course it is…who did you think it was-gregory peck?
if i may,can i interrupt this orgy of head nodding and mutual back slapping just to suggest that if you arent satisfied with the service ,then dont buy the product. as for the prices id suspect that the majority here watch spurs from free live streams on their computers ,so they arent paying these “premium prices ” anyway that they complain about.remember as a supporter its not “your club” anyhow ,for better or worse its ENICS..or Levys….go support millwall or somebody-then you may well have something to complain about.
The Great Cock ‘n Ball Swindle
One Flew Over The Cockerel’s Nest
Once Levy and Lewis saw the financial potential of the Arsenal business model, THFC was doomed. It took them a while to get all their ducks lined up but they were patient. Now ENIC have a massive concrete licence to print money, precious little of which is siphoned off to improve the football team. There is a massive debt hanging over the club and ENIC will be in no hurry to get rid of it. They are quite content to service it so that the repayments are covered and no more.The financial bleed out of the club will continue unabated with ENIC at the helm. Jam Tomorrow is still on the menu.
We aren’t a football club anymore. We’re an entertainment venue of which football is just one of the attractions. Boxing’s up next, plus. NFL… Then of course as summer approaches expect a comeback tour of the Beatles or some other British icon ….
RIP Tottenham Hotspur FC
Nailed it all.
I won’t lie, I didn’t want Jose as manager and from what I’ve seen so far I don’t want him now either.
However I fully accept that he can’t properly try his best without real backing, regardless of the football style. (which incidentally isn’t something that I identify as a ‘Spurs style’ at all).
Even from ENIC’s perspective of balance sheets and loans and gearing, or whatever fancy term is for using other people’s money to pour concrete, backing Poch on the pitch was the only logical thing to do.
Why on earth do you bring in a manager, in the ENIC scenario, that has only ever worked with comparatively huge budgets? Despite his past trophy haul, how is he supposed to repeat theses feats with a bottom half net spend?
The only conclusion to draw is that Levy was so obsessed with getting the stadium built that he just kicked Poch, the team, contracts down the road while he waved the diggers in.
He had no plan, Jose was ‘on a free’ and therefore his 15m pa with no compensation to get him looks a relatively frugal decision in reality.
I believe that Levy had nowhere else to go after neglecting the squad than Jose, in terms of a proven manager. Arry was too busy making reality tv “wiv Saarndra” at the time….
Brilliant piece
Its what the business world latched onto , and clubs now are owned and run with that one specific premise. Unfortunately for this club , those in charge realised quite early in their stewardship ,that the influx in fan base was of a worldwide interest and have brilliantly succeeded in capitalising on that . The level of investment in the project is frightening, and their assessment in repaying the debt is based on having full stadiums and tv revenue which continues to rise at present . However, like all things there is a saturation point and its a question of when, not if it happens, which I believe Levy and his like will be long gone by then, having sold the club for huge profit whilst still retaining a percentage of shares in the stadium, anyway c’mon you spurs lol.
Unfortunately I think that is factored into Levynomics.
Beautifully put, H. You were onto this from the beginning. Love the”core tenant”.
ENIC only need Europa football to feed the debt…the gate receipts will take care of the rest, assuming enough people turn up. They have just agreed a boxing deal. ENIC (or Levy) will continue to invest just enough in the team to keep them in the top 6 so their investment doesn’t fail.
Wolves most expensive ST’s are £550.00 (the most expensive!)…ours are around £1,200 for the South Stand and £2,200 for 1882 and East (this excludes specials, boxes, clubs etc).
A lot of people say they don’t need a cup but just want to see us compete and play Spurs style football. Well, if you analyse it, we do have that but only in small spells (Martin J, Redshnapps, Poch), then the teams get sold/broken up. Really Poch was only 2.5years of being very good. So my argument is, whats the difference between this and what Spurs have always been since time began (excluding the 90’s barren spell)..60’s, 70’s, 80’s 20’s have all had great built teams for short spells…so why the Events arena, why the lodge/training centre, why the worst chairman in honours since WW2?
TO MAKE MONEY………
The current malaise is completely down to ENIC and the way the club has been ‘run’.
The foundations to a club are on the pitch not in bricks and mortar. Success breeds success and attracts better players/managers and sponsorships, branding,etc. Yes, by all means build/extend the stadium and improve training facilities – but not at the expense of the team. Without this, you have an expensive motor with no engine… and currently Spurs aint going anywhere.
I liked Poch – yes his tactics suffered at times and he did some weird things (Son at FB in a cup game anyone?). However, he got the team playing as a team, working hard, closing the opposition down and retaining the ball. All this whilst playing decent footie.
To achieve so many top four finishes and get to a CL final is something that no-one else coming in will ever achieve unless the ethos changes.
I understand why Poch was ousted, but let’s face it, he seemed to want out as he didn’t appear to be recieving any backing. He did ask for the club to act lke a contender remember.
We haven’t improved one bit under Mourinho and the team looks as fragmented as ever. Yes, the guy has won everything, but he was always at the biggest clubs with vast budgets. Is he really going to be any better than a Shaun Dyche or Eddie Howe at a smaller club like Spurs?
The momentum from the CL has gone, as has our best AM – I would hazard to guess others will leave soon also, Without CL footie, the best players will not join (as if they want to anyway) and we will revert to out scattergun approach to signings hoping that one or two make us money in the future.
It’s a shame as purely from a business perspective, this is a truly fu88ed up situation – where’s the stadium naming deal for example.
Yes, this post is about as negative as it gets, but there’s no joy with this club anymore. I signed out a while ago.
Well if there is ever a way of reaching a definitive conclusion to the ENIC saga then this piece does just that , there is nothing more to add to this argument, its done. Like the old song says, Where do we go from here ?
Still , all I can do is to continue to support the team when it goes on the pitch .
He ain’t bothered about any of the worries listed below. He’s bothered about getting an nfl franchise as some of us have been saying for a long time. This is a very serious situation we are in now. People need to see this quickly. Massive debt. Not a hope of top 4, and the way they arw playing id say top 6 ain’t guaranteed by any stretch. We have had 3 or 4 opportunities in the last decade to push on, and every single time the manager, e it whichever unlucky sod was there at the time, was let down badly. There really is only 1 port of call when it comes to apportioning blame. The only common thread. Just go enic and accept that you have made a huge return on your investment and let a historic old club and area get back to attempting to win things again
Our new home is a tourist attraction football team no longer priority
Levy used the first 3 weeks after the CL final to try and grind down leeds over the price of jack clarke. That one-off period of maximum opportunity has passed. But the mentality that ballsed it up remains essentially unchanged — witness the same old laissez faire attitude this January towards HK’s season-ending injury.
Good article H. The dentist analogy in particular is spot on – and the “MourinhoOut” brigade need to realise that
Brilliant 👏👏👏👏