Tottenham Hotspur and the English National Investment Company (ENIC)
How the Spurs owners may be halting their club’s progress.
Part 1: Daniel Levy
In April 2021, six football clubs from England, three from Spain and three from Italy proposed a breakaway league. Different from the traditional Champions League and Europa League of UEFA, these clubs proposed a league dedicated to the so-called “elite” clubs of Europe. They would play in a conference-style tournament similar to those of the sports leagues in America. There wouldn’t be any qualification, promotion, or relegation which made it off-limits to any other club regarded as inferior to these elite twelve. They called it the “Super League”.
Despite using the word “proposed” here, it really was less of a proposal and more of a statement. The owners of these clubs seemed determined to go ahead with the league and seemingly throw away every piece of history and pride associated with their clubs to compete in this Super League. Why? Profit.
Naturally, the idea of this Super League was resented by football fans, players, and managers all over Europe (Even those of the elite twelve). Nobody wants the club they love to say goodbye to its history and morals. It seemed very clear to everyone that the sole motive for these clubs was the opportunity to Americanise the sport and in doing so, make tons of money. In retaliation, fans all over Europe protested in front of stadiums, shaking the sport to its very core. They wanted their clubs back. The outrage was so large that in a matter of days, each of the clubs announced that they would be pulling out of this Super League. But although the league was scrapped, it still put the owners of all these clubs under a lot of scrutiny by the supporters.
One of these six English clubs was Tottenham Hotspur, a footballing institution based in North London that goes back to 1882. From the outside, Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs is a club that would seem attractive for anybody looking for a club to support. In the recent past, they’ve been competing in European Competitions more often than not. Domestically, they challenge at the top of the Premier League, and in 2018, they completed the construction of a brand new, beautiful, massive stadium that, probably, is the best football stadium in the world.
But scrape a little beneath the surface and things may not be so pretty. The fans are at constant war with the board, and more importantly, the owners. Spurs have failed to win a major trophy since 2008 and the fans have realized that the owners have been halting the progress of the club on the pitch for far too long. But who are the owners?
That’s a tricky question to answer. Many believe that Tottenham is owned by Daniel Levy, a savvy English businessman. And in a sense, it is true because Levy does have a 29.4% stake in the club. However, in actuality, Daniel Levy, who runs the entire club, is just the chairman. But let’s take a look at why Spurs fans dislike Levy so much. This piece, the first of two, will focus on Daniel Levy and bring some instances to light where he might not have made the best choices. The next piece will focus on the other part of the Spurs ownership.
Many fans feel Levy, known for his ruthless negotiation skills, is a man who puts his business sense ahead of what might be good for the club on the pitch. Clive Allen once said, “I have no doubt that Daniel Levy wants the best for Tottenham, but he operates with a cold business mentality. He makes decisions which from a business perspective are sensible but from a football point of view, are crazy.” If you look at Spurs closely, they have overachieved massively in the recent years with the resources they have had. This is testament to a fantastic manager in Mauricio Pochettino who, to the dismay of a lot of fans, was sacked by Daniel Levy in 2019 just months after Spurs qualified for the first Champions League final in the club’s history. Why? Because he felt that the club wasn’t achieving what it could have been. This was not the case.
Over the years, every time Spurs have found themselves in a good position in which they just needed a boost from a quality signing, Levy has tried to save some money by going for cheaper alternatives. Time and time again Levy has refused to bring great players to North London for the sake of only a couple million pounds. This has resulted in Tottenham falling at the final hurdle every single time. Funnily enough, at the start of the season in which Tottenham made the Champions League final, they were in the news for not making a single signing the entire transfer window.
Furthermore, Levy has made decisions that infuriated the fanbase because they mistreated well-loved people within the club or went against Tottenham’s morals of respect for the fans, players and staff. Spurs’ greatest ever manager, Bill Nicholson, famously said “It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.” Unfortunately, it appears Levy hasn’t done his best to uphold that saying.
Here are some more specific examples:
1] Martin Jol was, and still is, a well-loved personality in Tottenham. He started managing the club in 2004 and the fans loved him. However, in 2007, he was sacked by Daniel Levy in the most shocking manner. Tottenham played Spanish side Getafe and were trailing at halftime. This was frustrating especially because Tottenham had started the season horribly, with just one win in ten. Something just didn’t feel right when the team came out in the second half and word quickly spread around through the stadium that Martin Jol had, in fact, been sacked at halftime. The fans were livid. Throughout the second half chants of “Stand up for Martin Jol” echoed in the stadium. He was later replaced by Juande Ramos. This remains the most disgraceful sacking in Tottenham Hotspur’s history.
2] This one may have even cost Spurs a league title. It’s January of 2012 and Harry Redknapp’s Spurs are challenging for the Premier League title. Only 5 points behind Manchester City and United, Spurs would benefit a lot from a small injection of quality in a good defensive signing. One center-back Spurs are linked with is Bolton defender Gary Cahill. The other club interested in signing Cahill is Chelsea. This shouldn’t be a problem though, as Chelsea are, at this stage, a less attractive destination than Spurs. Chelsea sit in 7th place, well behind Spurs, having just sacked manager Villas Boas. Bolton have set the price of Gary at just 7 million pounds but SOMEHOW, Daniel Levy decides that is more than he is willing to spend and ends up signing a Ryan Nelson in his 30s at the end of the season. Cahill ended up signing for Chelsea and went on to have a very successful career at Chelsea.
2] One memory that is rather fresh in the minds of all Tottenham fans occurred in 2018, the summer when Tottenham Hotspur famously signed absolutely no one. However, there was one promising player from the Championship with whom Tottenham were heavily linked for the entire window. This player, named Jack Grealish, belonged to an Aston Villa side who were struggling financially. Aston Villa were desperate to sell some assets and were willing to sell Grealish for around 10 to 15 million pounds, a bargain for a young, English prospect. Spurs had agreed to that price. However, Daniel Levy heard that Aston Villa were indeed desperate for money and therefore withdrew that offer and went back with a ridiculous bid of 5 million + Josh Onomah. Around this exact time, Aston Villa were taken over by new owners who now refused to accept that bid from Spurs Grealish remained a Villa player.
Fast forward 2–3 years and Jack Grealish is the sole reason that Aston Villa are in the prem. Grealish has taken the world of football by storm and is now worth anything between 80 to a 100 million pounds. (Painful, I know)
I could name many more similar instances, such as the time when Tottenham missed out on Paulo Dybala because Levy refused to pay 8 to 10 million for his image rights, but the point is, Levy has repeatedly proven that he is willing to sacrifice the progress of the club on the pitch, to save a couple million quid off the pitch.
Some players that Levy has missed out on for the sake of 6 to 10 million: Ruben Dias, Fabio Coentrao, Bruno Fernandes, Milan Skriniar, Sadio Mané, Carlos Tevez, Edinson Cavani.
Another problem Spurs fans have with Daniel Levy is his high expectations from pretty average resources. As mentioned before, Levy refuses to go that extra step and sign quality players. Despite this, he still expects the club to be performing at the highest level, playing in European competitions, and winning trophies. And who pays the price for not meeting these unrealistic expectations? The managers.
It seems to be a recurring theme with Tottenham where the manager isn’t backed with good signings, therefore he can’t perform and is sooner or later sacked. To put it into perspective, from the time Arsene Wenger was appointed as Arsenal manager in 1996 to the time he left Arsenal in 2018, Tottenham Hotspur had hired and fired 11 managers and head coaches.
This focus on the managers is showing an effect on the squad which is growing stale, desperate for a rebuild. Whether or not Spurs fans get this rebuild, is up to Levy.
But why does Levy love to save the odd million so much? Tottenham have a massive fanbase all around the world right? So why is the Tottenham model a self-sustaining one where they need to sell to buy? If the Tottenham owners are so wealthy, can’t they invest more? Well, that is a problem that is beyond Levy. It stems from individuals higher than him in the hierarchy. These individuals have played an even bigger role in why the progress of Tottenham is stalling.
The full story behind these individuals will be covered in the 2nd part of this series.
