I fully get you want success...we all do.
The reason i was stating you have changed is I'm interested to know whether you thought the way you did because that is the type of person you are?. ie you value doing things 'the right way'? and is the journey to you, just as important as the destination?.
So would you except any owner?.
If we were doped and it all came our way quite quickly, would there be something missing for you?
I think, if we were at the mercy of an owner that poured money into the squad ala Leeds, and let the infrastructure crumble, and who if they or we ran out of money or into regulatory trouble we would be really screwed, I would hate that. So I was always totally onboard with the idea we should build the right way, do it sustainably, because I wanted any success we had to be long lasting, I didn't want to plummet to League 1 because of a one CL semi final appearance.
I don't know which came first, the pragmatic idea that we should build sustainably because it gives us the best possible chance of succeeding in the long term, or the desire to 'do it right' to stick it to the oil money clubs. I think one probably fed the other. And I was all in with that. I was also all in with Poch, because I thought he was like all of us, and saw a way to get us there that was about doing things smarter, and building something that meant more, because it was built on solid foundations and you didn't skip your way there. I think when even he, a guy who seemingly is totally fine not needing the money that the other clubs needed, but had the best interests of Spurs at heart and just wanted to compete, when he seemingly thought the club weren't doing enough, that's when my trust in the ENIC plan started to waver. But I definitely did have a sense of pride that we were doing it the right way, likely underpinned by the understanding that if we didn't do it this way, any success if bought too early would be fleeting.
So right now, my feeling has changed. I don't think if we got bought this summer, spent a billion, and won the league, it would mean any less. I think we've done a couple of decades of really hard yards. Pragmatically speaking, we are now in a position that means if an owner decided to invest, having a 60k seater stadium and a strong global profile means at a minimum we should always sustainably be able to get ourselves back to being consistently in the top 6 if we ended up dropping for whatever reason. So that's good. I just think football as an asset class is now, at the top of the table, the preserve of people that are willing to spend and compete. I want some of that. That's the level of the playing field of the competitors we aspire to fight against.
It won't mean less to me. We have dealt with so much, lasagne, coming 4th in 2012, the stadium delays, Leicester having a freak of a season, Chelsea just being a run away train the next season, I think we've come so close with all of the constraints against us. Why not have the playing field levelled up?
Now we actually have the stadium, and the infrastructure of a tier 1 club, why not desire owners that will spend on the team in the same way? For ENIC, it is only ever going to be in line with their investment thesis. The numbers the club can spend will be bigger as a result of the better infrastructure, but it's still probably going to follow the risk profile that has been established already. They are an investment company after all. I just want the next investor up. I think we've earned it. ENIC have definitely earned their return.
