Opinion – Spurs’ financial results

Now, in light of the ghastly letter sent to the club and its board of directors from the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust last month and the concomitant ENIC out chants that have been plaguing Spurs matches home and away over the past few weeks (or even years, for that matter), the club’s statement following the release of our financial results for 2022 will hardly put out the raging fires among several segments of our opinionated fanbase.

If anything, it confirms what we all know already, irrespective of our outlook towards ENIC – that the club and Daniel Levy will not be tempted into throwing caution to the wind and adopting the Johnny Splattercash mentality of Messrs. Mansour of Manchester City and Boehly of Chelsea, and one expects, the PIF chaps with Newcastle in coming seasons.

Daniel Levy has been running a tight ship since he took over, and will continue to do so, which I’m all for. Irrespective of the outcome of the FFP charges levelled against Manchester City earlier this week, we do not want to run the risk of falling foul of the EPL and UEFA guidelines on sustainability, which will become more stringent in coming seasons – something that the ignorant minority of the Levy out mob cannot seem to wrap their heads around!

The underlying tone in the “ENIC Out!” chants and the noise from the THST is that the board have failed to back their managers with sufficient weaponry in search of glory. What do these “supporters” call spending nearly £100 million on Tanguy N’dombele and Giovani lo Celso for Poch? Or signing Matt Doherty, Gareth Bale, Carlos Vinicius, Joe Rodon, Sergio Reguilon and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for Mourinho in a COVID-stricken market when we had no money from gate receipts? Or furnishing Antonio Conte with practically £200 million worth of new players?

Yes, a lot of these signings have not lived up to our expectations, but Daniel Levy has come out and owned up to his mistakes – the very least he could do – and affirmed his commitment to improving our recruitment strategies, something that is already starting to bear fruit, as indexed by the irrefutable impact Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur have had on the team.

We have spent money, and the fact that we were in a very good financial position – thanks to, erm, Daniel Levy! – means that we have come closest to being able to have our cake and eating it, which is still not good enough for the dissenters. The phrase “empty vessels make the loidest noise” comes to mind here!

My message here to those fans is to back off, support the club ALL the time, and not just for 90 minutes, and have faith in a board that knows what it is doing. Yes, it has made mistakes, but they are mistakes that they have admitted to making and assured us that they will address, so hang tight, and have patience.

Have your say on Spurs’ financial statement by visiting the Vital Spurs fan forum here.