Ok, you take a poll on a website and I'll take the fact an actual protest outside the stadium on match day which mustered no support and lasted half an hour.
I think I know which most likely reflects the larger fanbase.
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I think I know which most likely reflects the larger fanbase.
All this proves is that modern football fans are simple consumers. Loads more than the 20 who turned up want ENIC out, but they just aren't going to go and protest about it. Simple as that. You can't equate numbers who turn up to protest with how many actively don't like ENIC and would prefer new owners.
The poll reflects how the fanbase feel about the ownership. If you added another option detailing "I want them out and will be prepared to go and march for it" then I imagine the numbers would change.
But my point is while many would rather see ENIC replaced, the strength of feeling isn't strong enough that they'd spend their free time protesting, or spend their pre-match drinking time protesting. That was my original point all along, but there are some on here so obsessed with ENIC in or ENIC out that they assume that everyone else must have super strong opinions on the ownership too.
I'd love to see someone buy out ENIC, but I don't think about it so much that it drives me to protest. I personally don't believe it'll actually achieve anything because I don't believe it'll bring a new owner out of the woodwork. All power to those that do, though.
I've got strong opinions on the ownership but can't protest. Loads have strong opinions on them and won't because it'll achieve nothing anyway and they know the fanbase won't be on board. To trigger something like that at a top 6 club (with a LOT of tourists/casual fans, and not as fiery as some of the Northern clubs) would take something big.
I respect the fans that protest because they're right. What they're doing will achieve nothing but their cause is correct. It's just that all ENIC care about is money and they'll only sell if it becomes more profitable than owning us, not because we kick up a stink. They don't care about us whatsoever, we are customers to them.
Must be season ticket renewal time.
Throw in “we will invest more in the team”
Throw in ‘ some surprises to come and get the fans intrigued and hopeful , ready to part with more of their cash. It’s like he uses the same playbook every year!
No doubt.
The thing of it is, the ENIC sporting project along with the Poch era died no later than February 2019.
Since then Spurs have:
1. Rode the most improbable streak of luck ever witnessed to the CL Final
2. Had United and Woolwich collapse so dramatically that we finished 4th despite taking 11 points from our final 12 games in 2018-19
3. Had Woolwich totally choke away 4th place last season
All of which is to say, the past five seasons have provided an illusion of success that hasn't really been there in terms of the performances or the strength of the squad.
We were a better side the five years from 2009-10 to 2013-14, for instance, than we've been in the five years ending this year. But it doesn't FEEL that way because of the couple of total flukes that have gone our way leading to lots and lots of Champions League participation.
Reactions would be different if a March 2019 smackdown at the hands of City had been our most recent CL participation, which is what our actual performances have merited.
When reality sets in and the backward progress of the project becomes clear, the everyday, normal fans are going to start to respond differently.
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To be clear, you’re giving ENIC full credit for the excellent and sustained progress between 2001 and 2018?
To be very clear, I am giving ENIC full credit for the excellent and sustained footballing progress between 2001 and that 2010-2014ish period I mentioned, and further full credit for the unqualified business success of the stadium project, the headaches and snafus of the process and all.
And no matter how starved of resources he was, Levy was the one who hired Poch, he's shown a good eye for managerial talent throughout his tenure and put the club in a position to experience that sort of miracle, even if he was then the one to destroy it.
Comparisons to Alan Sugar are cynical and stupid, but Levy genuinely did do better at reversing our Evertonization than other owners might have. And we really are in a position where the right leadership could build something awe-inspiring.
Daniel Levy can never and will never be that leadership, his project is over.
I disagree but I respect your balanced stance.
Agreed. ENIC were perfect for where we were when they took over, they've stabilised the club and given us steady progress ... they've just hit their ceiling. The way they operate can't be translated in to a team that makes that step from 'top 4 is our trophy' to a team who challenges for top honours. They've not got the sporting nous for that, nor the willingness to put in the resources.
The only thing I'll slightly disagree with is Levy's eye for managerial talent. His record on this is incredibly mixed, we landed on Pochettino between AVB & Sherwood. It's a bit scattergun at best tbh, with little sense of purpose/underlying philosophy as to what he wants a Spurs manager to be.
Scattergun certainly, impatient even worse, and you could argue he does better with hires he stumbles into under duress (Jol, 'Arry, Poch, Conte) than those who he's intentionally chosen as being the next step in his project (Hoddle, Santini, AVB, Mourinho).
But those four successes were all really the right man at the right moment for the club and besides Conte none of them was an obvious choice. And even the failures, where they have been actual permanent hires (so not Sherwood, Mason, or lets be honest Nuno) have been high quality CV's.
Even Ramos had a high-quality CV, though I'd mark him as the only genuine all-out fuckup among Levy's hires. And because god has a sick sense of humor he's ENIC's only trophy winner.
Is that record notably good compared to others? Short term picks have been dreadful .. some of the long term ones pretty crap too. Hiring AVB after he'd already been shown up as a bore merchant who wasn't Premier Leauge level was disastrously silly.
He's had a handful of good picks and then treated most of them terribly anyway. I wouldn't say his work around managers is stand out good compared to any of his peers. Most of the time it seems like chuck a dart at a board and hope sort of work.
Just to make myself upset, I went to go look up the xG for the 2012 Champions League Final in which Roberto Di Matteo's Chelsea stole our 4th place CL spot by nicking a penalty shootout from peak Bayern in fucking Munich in just a laughably one-sided game.
Bayern 3.17 Chelsea 0.60. And that's just in the 90 minutes, not counting Robben's missed penalty in extra time.
3.17 is a huge xG, for comparison, the 7-1 World Cup semifinal in 2014 was 3.15-1.62
(Incidentally, six of the same XI there, Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, and Muller. And David Luiz was on both the losing sides too.)
Chelsea's run that year was unreal. Barcelona hit the post/bar about 8 times in the semi-final .. at least it felt that way.
That final was just Bayern Munich smashing them for 86 minutes and then Drogba scoring a header from a corner ... nuts.
To tie the two threads of this conversation together, Chelsea's three CL finals came under Avram Grant, Di Matteo and Tuchel.
Some clubs don't have to get their managerial choices right.
Totally agree. Most of our fans are content with Woolwich winning the title & us winning the league cup every 23 years. In fact they attack other fans who want owners who will change this. Liverpool, United etc wouldn’t stand for this. Yet us mugs pay the highest price in the land for this. We have a corporate joke loser club who care more about making £££ & infrastructure than actual football.
I’d give up on them. They have made it clear they are more than happy with owners who win a league cup every 23 years. & are content with owners who have us trying to scrape top 4 & watch on us Woolwich win the title.
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More than 20 singing the chants at the away games, it’s pretty loud