Sweet and Sour Venables

[HyNdZee]

I'm reading Alan Sugar's autobiography at the moment (stuck on a plane, mostly skipping to Spurs stuff) and it has dawned on me how little I know about THFC. The amount of corruption that went on by El Tel and the lack of knowledge that Sugar had on the game is astounding. Also it is a small miracle how we didn't end up getting relegated to the fourth tier in 1994 (one tier by relegation from the Premier League for being shit on the pitch, and then two tiers for standard corruption charges based on financial discrepancies that came to light about when we were in the Football League in the 80s). How we only got fined, docked 6 points and chucked out of the FA Cup is staggering.

Perhaps you all know this and it is just because of my youth and years of growing up with relative financial stability under Levy that I've never fully comprehended this time of Tottenham, but it seems like fans at the time didn't have a clue back then either. I know Sugar is tooting his own horn through-out this book and I see contradictions all over it but I certainly have a new respect for him with regards to saving Tottenham, and trying to save top tier football even if it had the opposite effect eventually. The sad thing is he was one of the better guys in football and at THFC at the time with regards to doing things in the long-term interest of the club as opposed to enhancing his own short-term glory amongst peers. But media personality and a footballing brain outweigh financial and legal integrity - I think THFC and football taught him that and certainly made him more of a bitter cunt than he already was.

I see some of Sugar in Levy and a lot of El Tel in Harry. I just wonder what Levy's memoires will be...

 

[Blanchflower]

Venables let Jamie Redknapp be transferred to Bournemouth (guess who was their manager) for fuck all......within about 12 months Liverpool had paid £350k to sign him

draw your own conclusions

 

[HyNdZee]

Venables let Jamie Redknapp be transferred to Bournemouth (guess who was their manager) for fuck all......within about 12 months Liverpool had paid £350k to sign him

draw your own conclusions

All I've concluded is that he went to see a man about a dog instead... the dog being Rosie47 :wink:

 

[Audere]

Sugar made a fucking fortune off Spurs. This Mea Culpa with Venables doesn't wash when you compare what he did.

Being owner/chairman of a top league club at the time when Sky were putting together their bid for the premiership meant he had inside knowledge of the bid amounts. ITV bid 300m Sky bid £302m in a supposedly closed auction.

Sky won as you know and who had the contract for making dishes and receiver boxes? It wasn't Richard de Courcey.

He was a bad chairman imo but I like him now. He is what he is. Just loves making money.

 

[HyNdZee]

Sugar made a fucking fortune off Spurs. This Mea Culpa with Venables doesn't wash when you compare what he did.

Being owner/chairman of a top league club at the time when Sky were putting together their bid for the premiership meant he had inside knowledge of the bid amounts. ITV bid 300m Sky bid £302m in a supposedly closed auction.

Sky won as you know and who had the contract for making dishes and receiver boxes? It wasn't Richard de Courcey.

He was a bad chairman imo but I like him now. He is what he is. Just loves making money.

I'm not denying any of that but he does explain things a bit differently in the book. He did declare his conflict of interests many times and offered to abstain from votes... besides, Dein was just as much in bed with ITV. If anything Sugar tried using his Sky influence to benefit Spurs and Venables had paranoia over it being the other way around so always twisted the media that direction. In terms of making money Amstrad and Sky were his successes, Tottenham was his failure. He did challenge Sky on a few issues speaking as a Premier League chairman. He also wanted some of the Sky money to be reserved for future Premier League ground changes and youth developments in the contract but chairmen like Bates and Kenright argued the clubs should be able to waste it all outbidding for unsustainable player contracts if they want.

 

[Schoolboy'sOwnStuff]

Irving Scholar ruined the club with a very dodgy kit deal with Hummel that basically bankrupted us. Sugar rescued us. Granted, he wasn't a great chairman for the club, but he did rescue us from oblivion in the first place. Because of that, he deserves credit.

 

[Randomitable]

For all that he did for the good of the club - and I don't discount that his motives were not always pure, but you don't become a billionaire playing by the rules - Alan Sugar is a Spurs Legend in my book.

In terms of Spursistocracy though, I'm genuinely in two minds as to whether he's fit to sit at Bill Nick's Round Table.

If nothing else, he successfully restored financial balance to a bankrupt organisation. Without that we could easily be a long-forgotten club, a cautionary tale spoken about in the same breath as Leeds, Portsmouth or Rangers.

 

[Smolik]

Read Teddy Sheringham's autobiography recently (well I read the Spurs related bits anyway, wasn't bothered abouth the rest), there's definitely no love lost between him and Sugar. Sugar comes across really badly in his book but I suppose that's only Teddy's side of the story.

 

[Smoked Salmon]

There's npo question that Sugar was a bitof a boob, but it's worth remembering the state the club was in when he invested. If it wasn't for Sugar we may not have a club to go to now.

 

[1882]

Sky won as you know and who had the contract for making dishes and receiver boxes? It wasn't Richard de Courcey.

Nice try at ludicrous-comparison humour... but I think we all know it's ROGER!!

Those of us of a certain generation know he was a Crystal palace fan ANYWAY!

...unless you actually DID mean Richard de Courcy??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Courcy

 

[Audere]

Obviously I meant Richard, I've never heard of Rodger de courcey...