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ENIC are not the problem

3 min read
by Editor
Running a football club is difficult. ENIC got it right once and will get it right again. Tim Sowula explains why we should keep the faith in the regime

Although it’s very clear that Spurs are currently crap at football, it’s amazing how no-one seems to be able to identify and agree on why. Fingers seem to be pointing at Chairman Levy and the owners ENIC as the ones who must be responsible – but all the arguments about who’s to blame seem to ignore one giant Chirpy in the room.

Football is a competitive business. Sport, and certainly football, is characterised by failure. Our desire for Spurs to be successful, stylish, glamorous and to be able to stick the ball in the net whenever we like can only be fulfilled if our opponents are therefore less successful; we can’t win unless someone else fails.

Spurs are competing in a ridiculously competitive market, so even if we had the perfect governance structure, a great manager and squad of players, remember that there are 19 other clubs in our league who all have a vested interest in us losing. In the transfer market, we’re competing against a similar number. It’s easy to blame Levy for not signing the right players, but maybe we should also blame Monaco for stopping us getting Moutinho? Who’s to blame for us missing Willian? Levy, ENIC, or Abramovich and Chelsea?

If Tottenham’s governance structure is holding us back, then why does it work for other clubs, and has worked for us in the past? So is it the personnel in the boardroom? But how do we rank them, measure if they genuinely are ‘top four’ directors, or just a bunch of spivs for whom an episode of The Apprentice is like a lecture on a Harvard MBA course?

What is the core mission of the directors of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club – to produce the right environment for the football team to win as many games as possible, [ideally through attractive football], at the lowest possible cost. If they choose to, they can then cash in on their investment, or just hope it keeps on going right and their business remains successful.

[linequote]If Tottenham’s governance structure is holding us back, then why does it work for other clubs, and has worked for us in the past?[/linequote]

The second half of that mission – spend as little as possible – is working out fine. Economically, the club seem to be one of the best run in the country – we’ve got a relatively small, manageable debt, and we outperform in points compared to the investment in the team through player transfers and wages. We even are able to play a great role in the local community – our players might live on a different planet to the people of Tottenham, but the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation has a bigger impact in north London, and even overseas, than the club ever did in the ‘golden’ era of the 60s and 70s.

Why can’t ENIC/Levy get the first bit right, create a team that wins matches? Because they refuse to sacrifice the second bit, whereas our competitors don’t seem to care. It’s not a level playing field, and therefore we keep on sinking whilst our bastard rivals look down upon us from a big pile of fossil fuel money and debts. Ok, there have been some ‘sliding doors’ style decisions that might have changed things a little bit – choosing Armstrong over Bergkamp, selling the conductor– Modric – and thinking that the orchestra can still play on. But for every disastrous decision, we still got it right on a few occasions – Bale to Nottingham Forest anyone?

The key question for anyone demanding the removal of ENIC has got to be – could anyone, at Board level, have done better, in reaction to the rise of Man City, Chelsea, the money of PSG, Monaco, and other European clubs coming in for our players? Or in other words, would you want Spurs to throw money we don’t have at the challenge? Where would that amount of money come from? It doesn’t come clean. Do we want to lower ourselves to that level? Or do we want to try and retain some semblance of morality in the deep dark pit of professional football? Personally I’d rather our failure has an echo of glory than our success being built on the stench of dirty money.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

Editor

11 Comments

  1. totnam
    21/11/2014 @ 12:02 pm

    Well written article, but I honestly believe we are being sold down the river by Levy, ENIC, and the players, especially the players.
    Regardless of the situation above them, they still get paid a s–tpot load of money each week, and to watch them you’d believe they were having their wages witheld.
    I believe they owe the paying supporters at least the ambition of trying to show that winning or competing a match is their aim, not to just turn up and collect their inflated wages.
    ENIC just don’t say anything or relate to the fans in as far as letting us know what their ambition is.
    Finally, Daniel Levy, thanks for the safe financial standing of our team but for goodness sake, we need to have the right plan relating to purchases of players. We are all backseat drivers as far as choosing our players, but for God’s sake just about everyone one of us has known for several seasons we have needed a bustling centre-forward, a midfield player who can see a through ball, a talking defensive player and get rid of inverted wingers, it doesn’t work.
    Apart from that, we’re happy.
    A message to the players, PLEASE TRY HARDER!!!!

  2. Becks
    21/11/2014 @ 12:52 pm

    Great article. I’m by no means a Levy/Enic supporter but your reasoning in this piece is exactly why I’ve never been behind the levy out movement. He’s done some great things for our club, and made some bad decisions. Hopefully we’ll push on

  3. Bob
    21/11/2014 @ 1:04 pm

    I despair!We know that we cannot compete with the rich clubs with the buying power ,nobody is asking for ENIC to go into debt in order to bring in the Costas or Falcaos and their salary demands.What is demanded that when a manager is selected to take the team forward he is given the job to bring in his choice of players within a fixed budget.AVB is a prime example,he wanted three players out of the Bale money..Mourtinho,Coentrao and Hulk (excuse spelling) he got 7 players chosen by Levy.Now we have Fazio,Strombouli,Davies and Dier when Mr Po wanted 2 players ….Schneirderlin and Moutachio.Why have a manager?employ a coach to try to train players that he did not chose is one thing but do not pass the buck when it fails.The reason why Spurs fail is very simple lack of faith in the manager that they employ and that is incompetence.

    • Dog's Mess
      22/11/2014 @ 11:08 am

      AVB was employed as Head Coach, not manager. I don’t know if that applies to Poch as well. I’m also not sure that Levy picked the signings either. That’s probably more down to Baldini and his team making recommendations to the chairman in much the same way as Arnesen and Comolli did before him.

  4. Tim
    21/11/2014 @ 2:09 pm

    Thanks for the comments guys. I agree that ENIC have made some big management mistakes around their choice of gaffer, and how they support our manager. But my point is that although Levy/ENIC failed to bring in the players that the manager might want, how much of that is the fault of Levy/ENIC, and how much of that is the fault of the clubs we’re competing with for the player’s signature? Or maybe it’s also the fault of the manager to not identify more realistic targets, and then not be able to work with the players we do get.
    The ‘Spursification’ of some of our players once they arrive can’t be the fault of Levy? You don’t see him taking training.

    • Peter
      21/11/2014 @ 7:38 pm

      A well written piece! Some common sense at last Hallelujah (Glory Glory)

    • Dog's Mess
      22/11/2014 @ 11:12 am

      Well, we didn’t sign Moutinho in the summer of 2012 apparently because Levy was literally haggling over a few grand on deadline day. Ultimately the player didn’t go anywhere. I don’t see how that can be blamed on other competitor clubs.

      Sure, there are some deals that will be impacted by the market. But I genuinely think that if Levy had been willing to take a greater risk in the transfer market he might have been able to bring in a special, established player every so often instead of the shit we now have.

  5. Zajber
    21/11/2014 @ 3:35 pm

    Agreeing with basically every point you’re drawing here – can it really be ENIC’s fault when Monaco splashed, what, £8mil over our highest bid for Moutinho? It hurts, as I like him dearly and has done so for several years but money talks, and ENIC put that extra money into continuing to develop a community instead of inflating the transfer-prizes of today even more. I will always support the club, and the ones running it, and I will also always voice my disbelief when there’re actually grounds for it. Don’t blame someone for what they basically can’t change.

    Also, need strikers? Pfft, we’ve got the HarryKane!

    • Dog's Mess
      22/11/2014 @ 11:14 am

      Monaco bought Moutinho a full summer after we bungled the original deal for the sake of a few grand. Had we signed him then there would have been no player on the market for Monaco to buy.

  6. Paul
    22/11/2014 @ 1:48 am

    ive said it before and I will say it again…who was responsible for banning the drum.
    It might help the team if the atmosphere was better at the lane.
    The board just seem to want the prawn sandwich brigade and day (stub hub) trippers.
    The REAL supporters are being squeezed out, kept in the dark and basically treated with contempt…..
    If we used the Bale Modric money to buy the 7 dwarfs then what about all the other money from TV, sponsors, season tickets, etc.
    Who sanctioned the players bought…..HE should be sacked tomorrow.
    One thing is for sure Teflon Danny boy wont take any blame !!!!

  7. Dog's Mess
    22/11/2014 @ 11:15 am

    I was of the understanding that there were discussion to maybe bring the drum back. Maybe I am wrong.

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