- Sep 1, 2014
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It's very simple. All Levy has to do is make a couple of solid investments in the team and fans would be on his side.Do you not think that our playing squad has improved since ENIC took over?
Do you not think that our exposure to the US and Asian markets has increased since ENIC took over?
I believe that both of the above are true, and that the Spurs of today is seen as a more competitive team than that of 2000. It's a nice idea to think that if we just spend a huge amount of money on new players that we instantly win loads of stuff but I'm of the opinion that the reality is far more complicated than that.
From what I understood of your post, you believe that ENIC have started to make THFC profitable but then take those profits and invest them into property so that they can make further money to keep for themselves. Apologies if I got that wrong. But I would firmly disagree with that idea and would say again that there are far easier ways to make money than running a football club.
I agree with you - both in terms of the rationale for building the training ground and also the fact that the building alone isn't enough to attract the talent. But again, I would say that the reality of life is not as simple as some may want it to be.
There will be certain young players who are attracted most by money - we are unable to compete with the mega rich clubs for those. There will be others who are attracted most by the prestige of the club, and again we cannot compete with the likes of Barca or United on that front.
But then there will be other young players who aren't mega fussed about those two and would prefer a chance to progress their careers. If our training ground is nothing special then we don't stand out above the likes of Everton, West Ham or Newcastle for example. So having that swanky training ground gives us an advantage when you look at the types of young players we might attract.
It's not a magic bullet that means we are going to churn out a new Messi every year, but it does elevate us above a whole bunch of other clubs in my opinion.
I get just as annoyed as people who criticise Levy and then, when debated about it, say that fans who like Levy are blindly defending him. It shuts down any sort of debate about the pros and cons which is a shame.
I totally agree about the comparisons to Alan Sugar not being enough to qualify ENIC as good owners. I also don't think Levy is any kind of business genius... in fact I think that he's been pretty lucky with timings. He seems to have a very conservative approach to investment which has kept our feet on the ground whilst the transfer market has progressed into mayhem. Had they taken over in the mid-80s I think they would have seen very little progress if any, but instead they kept a fairly steady ship whilst others have been on a rollercoaster. It's a glass-half-full type of deal... some people will hate the boredom, some will appreciate the solidity.
The slow burner approach isn't very sexy of course - in fact it's pretty bloody frustrating. But for me personally, I don't just want to be able to tell my kids about when Spurs won the FA cup back in 2021, I want to be able to take them to watch Spurs win the cup multiple times. Winning a trophy does not guarantee that you win more, but building the club as whole should give you a good platform to win many.
The Sissoko point is an interesting one. You complained about the club not buying anyone this year but also complained about the club panic buying Sissoko. I'm not sure what you want, but this is a feeling had by many fans.
I was pissed off about signing Sissoko at the time, one of Levy's more stupid moves in my opinion. I didn't think he was worth that much money and that the transfer was made simply to try and keep fans happy. If Mane and Zaha were out of reach that is fine - I don't believe that the club should over-extend itself for a single player - but don't sign a second rate player just to appease the fans.
My general opinion is that you have to look at all of these things in combination because that's how life works. You don't spend money only on players because that model isn't sustainable. You don't spend huge on a single player because that will impact other player's contracts which will see them unhappy or see the budget inflate out of control. You don't spend for the sake of spending because that limits potential future spending which might be more critical at the time.