Levy / ENIC

  • The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

True, but on the flip side I think many would still support us if we had less moral owners even if they say they wouldn't.
I mean we ignore black little kids dying in collapsed mines so we can have an iphone.
You'd be suprised how we change our minds & aren't so moral if it means having to make changes. Especially if you say I am happy to support & fund slave & child slave labour but not support a club at football as they have evil owners.

& you have gone for the leeds example where as I could say man city. Also, that means you think ENIC would be up for selling us to owners who would massively mismanage us in to relegation & 16 years out of the top flight. So that is quite revealing & damning of ENIC.
But as igula says, it's an outdated comparison really. I don't think a leeds type thing would happen these days.

Yeah this is all hypothetical as ENIC don't look like selling anytime soon. It was a simplified stick with the owners or roll the dice & see what happens with new owners scenario I was going for.
How does anybody REALLY know about ENIC business practices. I'd be inclined to say that no business is that successful without being ruthless and perhaps unethical.
 
True, but on the flip side I think many would still support us if we had less moral owners even if they say they wouldn't.
I mean we ignore black little kids dying in collapsed mines so we can have an iphone.
You'd be suprised how we change our minds & aren't so moral if it means having to make changes. Especially if you say I am happy to support & fund slave & child slave labour but not support a club at football as they have evil owners.

& you have gone for the leeds example where as I could say man city. Also, that means you think ENIC would be up for selling us to owners who would massively mismanage us in to relegation & 16 years out of the top flight. So that is quite revealing & damning of ENIC.

Yeah this is all hypothetical as ENIC don't look like selling anytime soon. It was a simplified stick with the owners or roll the dice & see what happens with new owners scenario I was going for.

There's a flaw to this argument, it's not comparing apples with apples, in fact, let's take Apple! If you want to not buy an iphone, you can, I'm guessing you can't stop being a Spurs fan and choose another club?

You can say Man City, no one outside the club thinks they're anything but a state run, financially doped club who cheat the fair play rules and win at literally any cost. I hate Liverpool but I take solace with them winning the prem over them.

I am saying you do not know who comes next, ENIC could do their due diligence and it could still go to shit, let's say Amazon take over the club, but it turns out Amazon are knocked out of the market by a Chinese competitor, the club loses it's big rich sponsor and it goes to crap. That is part of your risk model, the next owner can still get it wrong with just plain bad luck, as can ENIC in fairness...

It's a good hypothetical debate but it is never that simple - the real world is nuanced, complicated, complex and other cliches!
 
How does anybody REALLY know about ENIC business practices. I'd be inclined to say that no business is that successful without being ruthless and perhaps unethical.

My cynical side would say of course not.

Over the years done a lot of work in a particular area of north west herts and I hear interesting stories regarding Paul Kemsley, my take on that is where’s there’s smoke there’s most probably fire.
 
There's a flaw to this argument, it's not comparing apples with apples, in fact, let's take Apple! If you want to not buy an iphone, you can, I'm guessing you can't stop being a Spurs fan and choose another club?

You can say Man City, no one outside the club thinks they're anything but a state run, financially doped club who cheat the fair play rules and win at literally any cost. I hate Liverpool but I take solace with them winning the prem over them.

I am saying you do not know who comes next, ENIC could do their due diligence and it could still go to shit, let's say Amazon take over the club, but it turns out Amazon are knocked out of the market by a Chinese competitor, the club loses it's big rich sponsor and it goes to crap. That is part of your risk model, the next owner can still get it wrong with just plain bad luck, as can ENIC in fairness...

It's a good hypothetical debate but it is never that simple - the real world is nuanced, complicated, complex and other cliches!
Ah, I heard others say they would stop supporting us. But I think they would find that harder than they think.
Even if we aren't comparing apples, we all support & fund child slave labour & are cool with little black african kids dying in collapsed mines which reveals a lot about our ethics & morals. So even though its not the same, personally I think it shows we choose things which require no inconvenient changes to be moral about. As soon as it is inconvenient we say this isn't comparing apples or the like.
Anyway, I get what you're saying. To simplify things, under a different owner things could be a lot better or a lot worse. I just feel we are going downwards rather than rising. We have peaked under ENIC.
 
How does anybody REALLY know about ENIC business practices. I'd be inclined to say that no business is that successful without being ruthless and perhaps unethical.
100%. They have done some unethical things. Nothing to be proud of. Find it strange some fans paint them as some moral owners we should be proud of.
 
Anyway, I get what you're saying. To simplify things, under a different owner things could be a lot better or a lot worse. I just feel we are going downwards rather than rising. We have peaked under ENIC.

There is a underlying worrying possibility in this, what if the club has already peaked, ENIC or not?

We got to the final of the Champions League and that might be our Apex.

All the conditions are right to sustain a decent club, we have the shiny new infrastructure and a good supporter base but what if the best that can do is make us a top 4/6 club? I am not saying we shouldn't have picked up more domestic trophies in the past or been better in terms of talent but there is another side to this coin, why should Spurs win the league, cup or Champions League?

We want them to, of course and you can argue back about season ticket prices, transferless windows and the club trying to take every opportunity to commodotise their fans, all of those things look amoral but they not mean our club should win a thing.

The ambition, the reality, the way you put that in to context will influence why you take your stand. Truth is no one bar about a handful of people can really decide where the club goes next and all we can do is choose to support the club or not. ENIC have been here a long time, I'm sure some fans have walked away from the club because of their stewardship but nowhere near enough for ENIC to change their desire to keep the club.

Even you have not said you would abandon the club until ENIC go, which suggests to me, you're not ready to make that sacrifice yet.
 
100%. They have done some unethical things. Nothing to be proud of. Find it strange some fans paint them as some moral owners we should be proud of.

You've got to understand that in football terms a lot of fans notion of morality is almost exclusively not utilizing any outside investment. The sole moral and intellectual challenge of a football club is becoming as much of a glossy global superclub as possible without ever taking in a check from the owner.

Levy has done very well as chairman under just about any framework, but under that particular one he's an almost Christ-like figure.

I used to have more attraction to that moral framework than I do now. We're a massive global brand that's entirely commercially-driven and have been for awhile now. The cuddly neighborhood football club is long gone. With that being the case I see absolutely no purpose in pretending Spurs are more "pure" than Liverpool or United because they deprive their managers of the revenue they've earned.

Purity and plucky underdog status and doing things the right way and being the neutral's favorite was all buried with White Hart Lane. We're playing the big boys game now and those who so cling to other notions just confuse me at this point.
 
Purity and plucky underdog status and doing things the right way and being the neutral's favorite was all buried with White Hart Lane. We're playing the big boys game now and those who so cling to other notions just confuse me at this point.

This is a fair point and it might be true that this represents the future - that clubs are big corporate entities effectively.

But if all premier league teams do that and all those clubs have limitless resource then does that not seem a bit pointless?

It's not so much a matter of scale, it's the idea that all clubs want the same limitless resource and that almost makes a new argument, why not say that every club has a limit on their transfer and wage spend, exactly the same for every team, then it's down to pure strategic management and nothing to do with the transfer pissing contests?

The point I'm making (very much around the houses) is maybe it's not Spurs that's broken here, it's possibly the game.
 
There is a underlying worrying possibility in this, what if the club has already peaked, ENIC or not?

We got to the final of the Champions League and that might be our Apex.

All the conditions are right to sustain a decent club, we have the shiny new infrastructure and a good supporter base but what if the best that can do is make us a top 4/6 club? I am not saying we shouldn't have picked up more domestic trophies in the past or been better in terms of talent but there is another side to this coin, why should Spurs win the league, cup or Champions League?

We want them to, of course and you can argue back about season ticket prices, transferless windows and the club trying to take every opportunity to commodotise their fans, all of those things look amoral but they not mean our club should win a thing.

The ambition, the reality, the way you put that in to context will influence why you take your stand. Truth is no one bar about a handful of people can really decide where the club goes next and all we can do is choose to support the club or not. ENIC have been here a long time, I'm sure some fans have walked away from the club because of their stewardship but nowhere near enough for ENIC to change their desire to keep the club.

Even you have not said you would abandon the club until ENIC go, which suggests to me, you're not ready to make that sacrifice yet.
Yeah I do appreciate its very hard to win stuff with teams like city & Liverpool around. That's why I feel like the only way is to spend a lot & wisely to do this. ENIC have failed on both fronts & won't spend what it takes to take us up a level. Which is why I am all for new owners as I know ENIC & levy won't do what's required. Whatever happpens over the next few years, it will be very interesting!
 
It's not so much a matter of scale, it's the idea that all clubs want the same limitless resource and that almost makes a new argument, why not say that every club has a limit on their transfer and wage spend, exactly the same for every team, then it's down to pure strategic management and nothing to do with the transfer pissing contests?

I can tell you from an American perspective that that isn't without its downsides as well.

There's a bland sameness to major American pro sports teams both in a sporting and business sense, and of course there's also the fact that ticket prices to American pro sports leagues are just as absurd and out of control (even worse, really) and yet the teams are forbidden by rule from investing those funds in the team.
 
I can tell you from an American perspective that that isn't without its downsides as well.

There's a bland sameness to major American pro sports teams both in a sporting and business sense, and of course there's also the fact that ticket prices to American pro sports leagues are just as absurd and out of control (even worse, really) and yet the teams are forbidden by rule from investing those funds in the team.

The real problem is that both strict controls and limitless spending achieve the same eventual outcome, that's awkward...
 
My cynical side would say of course not.

Over the years done a lot of work in a particular area of north west herts and I hear interesting stories regarding Paul Kemsley, my take on that is where’s there’s smoke there’s most probably fire.
Unaware of the name, Paul Kemsley. I'll Google but if you can help......?
 
This is a fair point and it might be true that this represents the future - that clubs are big corporate entities effectively.

But if all premier league teams do that and all those clubs have limitless resource then does that not seem a bit pointless?

It's not so much a matter of scale, it's the idea that all clubs want the same limitless resource and that almost makes a new argument, why not say that every club has a limit on their transfer and wage spend, exactly the same for every team, then it's down to pure strategic management and nothing to do with the transfer pissing contests?

The point I'm making (very much around the houses) is maybe it's not Spurs that's broken here, it's possibly the game.
You only have to look at the NFL to see where we are headed.
 
Nothing remotely unethical in the whole article.
Making his billions off the back of the financial misery of millions?

Fair enough. Maybe your idea of ethics is different to mine.

How about beiing the first snout in the taxpayers trough for state hand outs . While avoiding his own fair share protecting his billions as a tax exile moored in the Bahamas,

Premier League clubs accused of moral bankruptcy

Spurs reverse decison to furlough

Tottenham are rich but are pushing on with plans to furlough staff

Only being forced to back down by the shear weight of public opinion.

Does that meet your ethical values too?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom