Daniel Levy - Chairman

[BrainOfLevy]

Can I firstly applaud you for arguing your point in an incredibly respectful way over the past few pages? A lot of people could learn a lot from your approach. Engaging with others, seeking to understand and articulating passionately and clearly. Well done sir and welcome back. This forum always needs posters like you.

However, I do disagree with your view; the bit I take particular issue with is that one of the main cruxes of your argument is that you’re fed up with others poking fun at our lack of trophies. As in life, paying attention to others, particularly those that are not part of your nearest and dearest, can be a road to perpetual anxiety and angst. Not that you’re after advice, but I’d still say, shut out that noise, if you can, and enjoy the ride. It’s the journey, not the destination, that matters. It’s why I can still have a signed 2018/19 shirt up in my office and beam at it with pride, remembering Ajax, remembering City and not feel the need to take it down for daily Zoom calls, in spite of colleagues constantly jabbing with their ‘but what have you won?’ jibes.

At least that’s my view and your welcome to disagree with it should you want to.

Thank you sir. Appreciate the kind words.

I think the reason the jibes from rival fans hurt more now is because deep down, I’m starting to agree with them. It comes from within me. I want to win not because the fans take the tinkle, but because I want to win.

I am right there with you, I will never be prouder of the club probably than that run to the CL final. I remember the month leading up to that match, the ‘Ajax thought they’d won iiiiiit’ dancing in the stadium, it was amazing. The fact that we did it the right way, and it was this squad that had been together and been through so much getting there, it really was magical.

But now I just want to win. When we get called bottlers, I kind of agree with it. When we make a silly mistake in a big game, I’m just a little bit done with assuming it’s all part of the journey. I understand the reasons for always coming close, given our constraints, I just don’t want those constraints anymore. Now we actually have the stadium, I’d like to accelerate our path to success. Not just because of rival fan jibes, but because deep inside me I want to win too.

 

[parklane1]

If I think that I am a better football fan than the rest of you were saying we would never build the stadium, surely they were just totally wrong? I was never worried we wouldn’t build it. Everything they did, every tea leave to read suggested that the way to build the value of the club was to build the stadium. It was in their interest to do and they pulled it off, magnificently.

I think it was the biggest part of their ability to increase the valuation and that now leads to me thinking with them...what next? Do they have the second act? Was a sustained run with the stadium ever in their plan? Are they the best people to continue with this second act? I think these are fair questions.

The opinion was that if/when Levy got the building permission granted he would sell up take the money and run, and once again the Levy haters were wrong again.

 

[Finney Is Back]

You mean you did not want to hear it, it was on several forums and also said at matches and in the pubs on a lot of occasions. Believe it or not.

I wouldn't care if I heard it or not. Not sure why I wouldn't want to hear it?
Personally I think it has always been clear that ENIC were doing all they could for Spurs to have a new stadium.
To be fair I don't really go on any forums other than this one, so maybe other forums happened to have a different viewpoint on this? In the stadium and pubs before/after matches both home and away I can honestly say that I never heard anyone stating that they felt we would never build the stadium.

 

[parklane1]

I wouldn't care if I heard it or not. Not sure why I wouldn't want to hear it?
Personally I think it has always been clear that ENIC were doing all they could for Spurs to have a new stadium.
To be fair I don't really go on any forums other than this one, so maybe other forums happened to have a different viewpoint on this? In the stadium and pubs before/after matches both home and away I can honestly say that I never heard anyone stating that they felt we would never build the stadium.

It was those saying Levy would never build the stadium ( the point i made in my post which you quoted), he would get the building permit and sell up and make money. They were wrong once again.

 

[Lilbaz]

Am torn about whether we need new owners or not. I want to win things and think we need investment to do so. Levy doesn't care about the cups, it's all about the champions league and the money that comes with it. Which is fair. His job is to grow the club and maximise profits.
My biggest fear is what's happened with Burnley happens to us. I'll let Simon Jordan explain.

In a perfect world, they'd introduce a salary cap (say 50% of turnover with a ceiling for the cities and chelsea). An investor buys 40% of the club and that money is used to clear the debt. Levy stays on as chairman and we play on a more level playing field.

 

[Finney Is Back]

The opinion was that if/when Levy got the building permission granted he would sell up take the money and run, and once again the Levy haters were wrong again.

I don't understand why holding the opinion that Levy would sell up after getting planning permission would make that person a Levy hater? It would be a perfectly valid thing for an owner to do to get planning permission and sell up. Why would that be used as a stick to beat Levy with? I expect ENIC to own Spurs until the exact point that they either think the asset has little growth left to do, or somebody comes along and offers them a price that is over the odds enough to make them not want/need to stick around to wait for that remaining envisaged asset growth. That's the nature of business.

I do remember some chap called (I think) Harry Hotspur who had a website that used to say things about ENIC selling up (as well as some frankly absurd accusations), I always used to find it rather strange that he felt the owners getting planning permission but then selling to somebody else to develop the stadium was a bad thing. That being said he was somebody that seemed to be on the side of Archway Sheet Metal Works so I wondered whether he had an ulterior motive there?

 

[SpurMeUp]

If I think that I am a better football fan than the rest of you were saying we would never build the stadium, surely they were just totally wrong? I was never worried we wouldn’t build it. Everything they did, every tea leave to read suggested that the way to build the value of the club was to build the stadium. It was in their interest to do and they pulled it off, magnificently.

I think it was the biggest part of their ability to increase the valuation and that now leads to me thinking with them...what next? Do they have the second act? Was a sustained run with the stadium ever in their plan? Are they the best people to continue with this second act? I think these are fair questions.

Spurs has been around for many more "acts" before this, and will for many more after of course. I think the attraction of buying Spurs would be from an American investment group who could open a european NFL franchise. At the moment Levy's goal for 2 decades is to bring success to Spurs. It goes beyond that as he was a season ticket holder beforehand apparently. So with new revenue streams some or all of the money would go back into Spurs. Enic havn't taken out money have they? They have reinvested everything, bar Levy's pay. Can you imagine a NFL owner coming in, who favours americian football and does the reverse? Funds the NFL team using Spurs?

Take a random handful of PL clubs, and tell me, who have better owners? Seriously, careful what you wish for. We are in safe hands now.

 

[Lilbaz]

Spurs has been around for many more "acts" before this, and will for many more after of course. I think the attraction of buying Spurs would be from an American investment group who could open a european NFL franchise. At the moment Levy's goal for 2 decades is to bring success to Spurs. It goes beyond that as he was a season ticket holder beforehand apparently. So with new revenue streams some or all of the money would go back into Spurs. Enic havn't taken out money have they? They have reinvested everything, bar Levy's pay. Can you imagine a NFL owner coming in, who favours americian football and does the reverse? Funds the NFL team using Spurs?

Take a random handful of PL clubs, and tell me, who have better owners? Seriously, careful what you wish for. We are in safe hands now.

There was talk a good while back that lewis has wanted to buy an nfl franchise.

 

[SpurMeUp]

There was talk a good while back that lewis has wanted to buy an nfl franchise.

He must be really bored

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Spurs has been around for many more "acts" before this, and will for many more after of course. I think the attraction of buying Spurs would be from an American investment group who could open a european NFL franchise. At the moment Levy's goal for 2 decades is to bring success to Spurs. It goes beyond that as he was a season ticket holder beforehand apparently. So with new revenue streams some or all of the money would go back into Spurs. Enic havn't taken out money have they? They have reinvested everything, bar Levy's pay. Can you imagine a NFL owner coming in, who favours americian football and does the reverse? Funds the NFL team using Spurs?

Take a random handful of PL clubs, and tell me, who have better owners? Seriously, careful what you wish for. We are in safe hands now.

I'm very open to the fact that we may get worse owners. I'm also very willing to argue that we won't *necessarily* get 'worse' owners, we might get owners more willing to invest some of their own cash to help us grow further. I'm unsure ENIC's plan is ever really to do that.

That's what it comes down to, a stick or twist. Now that we have the stadium, I am more minded to twist. Before the stadium I was very happy with ENIC's plan, because I wanted us to be on a more stable footing, not be reliant on owners.

 

[Bishop]

Good post. However, there are some positives. We can attract top players. The training center, London and the stadium might not trump more money but they don't harm our package. We can compete on some players, but unlike City etc we can't afford to fill the team with expensive talent, we still need a mix and balance. And history has taught us (Levy) that top money does not always correlate with top performances. Hungry up and coming players often outperform 'made it' stars.

The other positive is Levy's financial care. Not only do we attract cheap lending due to his prudence, we are also more agile than United, Pool, RM, who have must higher wages than us. And that will be hurting them now. Of course we are missing all that stadium revenue so it is hurting us too, but at least we are not as committed to wage expenditure as others. That puts us in a stronger position now.

Finally, history shows we are in the mix. We are making finals, we are in and around the top 4. Despite this titillation of fans and their disappointment when they don't get the full monty, it is a good thing. It shows we are doing the right things, and are competing. If we keep doing what we are doing, with incremental improvements the law of averages means we will win. And I hope we can become a dominant force with the stadium behind us.

And with commensurately much less success. You can speak of hope for the future but those teams have had the success now. Who knows which way the future will go and I don't think any of those teams wage demands are as taxing as you might think in terms of the wages to revenue ratio.

 

[Modric THFC]

Recent news is that the Premier League are asking Sky and BT for same money as last time TV rights deal.
And BT Sport being put up for sale.
This means TV money has peaked.

Stadium income should become more important.

I also question why any billionaire would come in and pay the 2 billion ENIC would want.
You'd be better off getting a club like Villa on the cheap and pumping money into it.

 

[Lilbaz]

Recent news is that the Premier League are asking Sky and BT for same money as last time TV rights deal.
And BT Sport being put up for sale.
This means TV money has peaked.

Stadium income should become more important.

I also question why any billionaire would come in and pay the 2 billion ENIC would want.
You'd be better off getting a club like Villa on the cheap and pumping money into it.

Domestic tv had already peaked. The last tv deal was less than the one prior (even with more games) . The wildcard is dazn as the only real competitor for sky now. But even they paid less for serie a rights than the previous deal.

The big hope for the prem is that they could do a streaming service for games at say £10 a month (media have dubbed the idea premflix). Watch whatever game you want. This hasn't been set up yet. Also may effect match day attendance so will probably be trialled with the overseas market first.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Recent news is that the Premier League are asking Sky and BT for same money as last time TV rights deal.
And BT Sport being put up for sale.
This means TV money has peaked.

Stadium income should become more important.

I also question why any billionaire would come in and pay the 2 billion ENIC would want.
You'd be better off getting a club like Villa on the cheap and pumping money into it.

The growth areas are overseas TV revenue (already bigger than the home market I think?) and then ultimately streaming.

You would struggle to get Aston Villa on the cheap their two owners are worth a combined total of around £10 billion.

 

[SpurMeUp]

And with commensurately much less success. You can speak of hope for the future but those teams have had the success now. Who knows which way the future will go and I don't think any of those teams wage demands are as taxing as you might think in terms of the wages to revenue ratio.

The very fact we can realistically compare ourselves to these clubs and say we are not all that far off...is testament to Levy. 20 years ago we weren't close to the elite.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

 

[thfcsteff]

The very fact we can realistically compare ourselves to these clubs and say we are not all that far off...is testament to Levy. 20 years ago we weren't close to the elite.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

...and Pochettino, who was so far ahead of projections with the team that everyone grew complacent and expectant.

 

[Lilbaz]

...and Pochettino, who was so far ahead of projections with the team that everyone grew complacent and expectant.

We got cl with harry too.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

Domestic tv had already peaked. The last tv deal was less than the one prior (even with more games) . The wildcard is dazn as the only real competitor for sky now. But even they paid less for serie a rights than the previous deal.

The big hope for the prem is that they could do a streaming service for games at say £10 a month (media have dubbed the idea premflix). Watch whatever game you want. This hasn't been set up yet. Also may effect match day attendance so will probably be trialled with the overseas market first.

The thing is literally everyone uses a VPN i and 3 people working in a hardware store use them. If overseas can stream individual games then everyone will be able to.

 

[Lilbaz]

The thing is non-figuratively everyone uses a VPN i and 3 people working in a hardware store use them. If overseas can stream individual games then everyone will be able to.

You'd still have to pay though. And probably watch it in a foreign language.

Singapore has been mooted as the trial.

 

[DubSpur]

You'd still have to pay though. And probably watch it in a foreign language.

Singapore has been mooted as the trial.

There's plenty of English speaking countries that would buy the rights as well.