You have to despair at the state of the game and how quickly it is spinning out of control as it goes down the gurgler.
The football authorities know no overarching body that stops them from competing with each other to offer more, for which they are richly rewarded by the scourge of modern times, the media, and TV empires.
These rapacious parasites will feed and feed on this sport until it dies and as it weakens, they will morph (mutate) it into something that can stay alive to continue to generate revenue, whilst they devour the carcass of what it once was.
The public will be told how good everything is, and dissent lost by the fact that the major platforms for the game are owned by those who are the beneficiaries of its exploitation. As players struggle to remain upright, “two legs good, four legs better” will be the new mantra.
More Champions League, “Yeah!”, World Cups every two years, “Yeah!”, additional domestic and international Euro competitions, “Yeah!”… where will it end?
As things stand with these proposals, the top flight of European football clubs (and I’ve no doubt if/as other continents/genders can be exploited they will be) will play two or three times a week with the top players going on to play numerous International eliminations and finals tournaments every year against opponents whose whole populations would not fill the stadiums their teams play in.
The Media Barons and the football authorities they bribe, will just count the snouts and the subscriptions, but how much football can reasonably be played?
The player’s union will do nothing. Much like our own Supporters Trust, they embody all the embarrassment of seeing a wet spot on your hush puppies as you leave the bathroom. But surely someone will lead the charge to change the dynamic to appearance-based contracts with a maximum number of games or game-time played. The alternative will be an inevitable rise in injuries and a drop in performance… …who are the paying beneficiaries of that performance?
Levy will be licking his lips alright, more opportunity to sell merchandise, beer, and cold stale pies. Justification to put up the season ticket prices and of course clip the media ticket with a much bigger hole punch.
As an aside, I hear that Alan Brazil has posted that Levy was “summoned” by the great Oz in Barbados… the sheep-dip hacks report this as if Uncle Joe was going to admonish Levy for recent failings. In 20 years that has never been an issue, I can’t see it suddenly becoming one now. I wonder if the summons was discussing the business as a whole and the options going forward.
As it stands, across the entertainment and property portfolios, ENIC is ripe for picking. With the positioning of the club coming out of COVID, the opportunity for growth is staggering… jam tomorrow anyone?
Offloading the management/ownership (or controlling ownership) building in a performance-based profit share over say the next 5 -10 years might be seen as a sharp way to keep making the money, reducing personal risk and well, doing less work providing working capital and allowing focus into other money-making escapades.
Might just be Levy was summoned to work through an end-game scenario. OK, so I have days when I’m an optimist!
Thanks for your kind words below Easty. I think that as suggested by MS, the likelihood is probably American and it’ll be interesting to see what comes forth with sponsorship. As I say we live in hope – that’s the sad lot of a Spurs fan!
As for the Metaphor, not sure it comes full circle. There is a disturbing amount of hyperbole across all western news sources; Ukrainians = cuddly, fluffy, Easter bunny types who wear dinosaur pyjamas whilst the Russians eat their children.
Whilst not condoning the Russian assault, the main architects that pushed this are all politicians who are politically on the nose; Biden, Boris, Scomo (Australia) and a good war is a good distraction (see Wag the Dog).
It’s a pigs ear for sure and outside the burning brand carrying media, its not as clear cut in terms of responsibility and/or accountability: I wonder what’s actually happening beyond the wall of propaganda? That is probably where the THFC metaphor does touches cloth…….
Shrewd Hard nosed..tough negotiator..Fuc#wit..
It really isn’t about the football.it’s about fooling enough of the people enough of the time.
I think Pochettino advised us of Enic’s plan.
He plainly said he was told to improve the team and when we get into the new stadium to quickly get us into the CL. But he was ahead of the game.
So to sum up (and one of you Levy lovers I would be more than happy to be proved wrong after all we all love Spurs) the MO is to achieve regular CL qualification with minimum spend.
ENIC/Levy employ similar tactics to running the club as to how Putin and his cronies run Russia.
To hold on to absolute power one needs to create fear of the world outside and a false sense of security over the future within it whilst you remain in charge.
For Putin it’s the exaggerated threat of U.S & NATO, for Levy it’s the exaggerated threat of ‘doing a Leeds’ & the prospect of FFP sanctions.
However, like Putin’s fear of real democracy being demanded by the Russian people, Levy fears the demand of real backing of the team and raised expectations by the supporters. Also the fear of realization by the fans that he might not have the success of the football club at the forefront of his mind, despite all the spin and propaganda.
Unlike Putin though, the penny has now dropped with the supporters that all is not what it seems, despite the all the spin around ‘infrastructure’ etc. Unlike Putin, Levy can’t start a war to make out the world has it in for us, in an effort to con the fans.
Leicester have won the league and the FA Cup In a third of the time under their new owners than the 23 years we have endured under ENIC. There’s no state controlled news channels for Levy to use, the game’s up…
ENIC and Levy have for 20 years plus spun a narrative of faux ambition. They used the lack of capacity in the stadium as the long-standing argument as to why they couldn’t invest in the squad like the “bigger clubs”. Then when they started on the construction of the stadium they stated that they couldn’t invest as they were investing in the stadium and that once it was completed we could use the stadium revenues to strengthen the squad. During this 20 year period, they continually took the cheap option of changing the manager and selling our best players rather than keeping our best players and adding experienced quality as owners who have a genuine ambition to be successful as a football club do. Now they are running out of options and all roads point towards a massive investment in the squad being necessary. They do not have the stomach for that. So any stadium naming rights deal will go towards the debt repayment and they will look to offload the club if they can find a buyer. However, you can only imagine how painful and drawn-out Levy will make this process as he tries to micro-manage every nuance of the deal and crowbar himself into the new enterprise. In the meantime, Chelsea will get purchased and carry on winning titles and trophies.
“Lads, it’s Spurs…”
And heres another thing to think about:
Look at Newcastle. Howe came in, they backed him in the market over the winter transfer window without going crazy but bringin in bodies they needed across the field and since then they have been flying.
Thats what backing a manager and bringin in fresh players does. But Levy got those fcuking $$ glasses on, he cant see shit
I see Chelsea went up to Burnley and dispatched then 4-0. Says it all.
He credits the fans with absolutely no intelligence whatsoever. He can’t be a fan himself because if he was, he’d understand quite how unpalatable the endless cr*p the supporters are fed, actually is.
Parasitic, yet pretending he cares about the club and it’s future. All this “making a difference” and references to the future of the club and the borough really makes you want to vomit. He knows he has to justify putting property development and adding value to his assets by cultivating some idea of a moral stance in all of it.
Hes no different to any other corporate entity or government. Virtue signaling to gloss over the reality of the utter greed that motivates them. Electric vehicles are being pushed by the car manufacturers because they care about the planet are they? Levy is just spinning the same kind of bullsh*t…
Everything about this club is wrong and needs to change, starting with a blank piece of paper and a pencil.
Levy quotes 3 billion for the club because he doesn’t want it sold ..where else would he draw such a wage , the quasi religious aspect of football has allowed him to milk the fans , be completely incompetent, win nothing but the league cup in 22 years, hire and fire who he likes whenever he likes and spend loads and loads of the clubs money with no accountability whatsoever…Levy is a parasite.
As for Poch and Bale🤮🤮🤮…oh yes he will..
That would be Spursy wouldnt it… however Chelsea’s ground doesnt as yet have NFL potential but it’s in a much wealthier part of London so could all fit the strategy
As you state, I doubt that he was called by Lewis for an admonishment but more likely for a strategy meeting as to the way forward. They might have been discussing a partial or full sale but I suspect that the problem is that whether an investor takes a minority stake or is remotely interested in a full purchase, unlikely given the unrealistic valuation of the club, they probably do not want Levy to continue as CEO. I suspect that he would want to stay on in his executive role and that might not only be a source of friction between him and Lewis but want investor in his right mind would want to continue with the CEO of a football club who is a serial failure in all footballing matters. There cannot be a long list of putative buyers but I think it will principally appeal to US investors as we are really an NFL club with Spurs as anchor tenants. Coincidentally, today that there was a report that Levy was much closer to finding a sponsor for the naming rights for £500 million over twenty years. This, if true, would help the club look much more attractive for a sale.
Bleed us dry while do nuthing to win stuff boycott the lot n let them make the choice as if everyone boycotts they have 3 choices
1 keep doing what they r doing
2 invest heavily n do what’s needed
3 this is my best option n that’s sell the hell up n go
Forbes values us at 1.7billion roughly. Liverpool, Man utd and city all around 4billion. We use to be closer in the recent past. Levy somehow still thinks we are worth more than what the facts state.
If I could, I woulf offer Levy 1,5billion and tell tim to take it and fuck off because:
a) theres still around 1billion debt in the club
b) the squad probably needs god knows how many million to ressemble anything like a winning team and most impontantly
c) can guarantee him that he will be lucky to that amount of money the way things are nosediving in terms of fans, attendance, league position.
Also I would be really annoyed if reports have the American guy who was interested in buying us ends up buying Chelsea. I mean where have we seen that before?
Great blog. Sadly there aren’t many entities that would be interested in a club supposedly ‘valued’ by it’s owners at 3bn with 850m of debt around it’s neck.
You can take the the Russian mega rich out of the picture now for certain. Saudis? The Chinese?
I do hope you’re right, because it looks to me as if Levy has realised that the new stadium and our previous regular Champions League involvement and final appearance has raised expectations of the fans that doesn’t fit the business model.
The same fans that feel with all of this ‘infrastructure’ that after 23 years and one solitary League Cup (13 years ago) that things should at the very least be at where they were a few years ago. Beating Real Madrid now and again, winning one of the now devalued domestic pots for a change etc.
Did Levy or ENIC really expect anything other than exasperation from the fans if things went off the rails to the extent it has, just before and after moving into the ‘multi sports arena’? If they expected to hang around and continue to even provide the fans with the most basic set of criteria to keep them happy-clappy and on board, then surely they will have needed a plan, a direction of travel?
The fact that there clearly isn’t one either suggests that they might be looking to get out, or most likely, they’re making this up as they go along. Just like the previous 22 years, i’m going with the latter…
Failure FC.