Yes, I've read that article a few times over the years.
As I said, Abramovich was clearly never serious about buying Spurs.
If he had been, he would have made an offer. He wasn't a wet behind the years rookie in business at the time. He was a billionaire eight times over. He knew the score. If you ask the owner of a company how much it would take to buy his company, the owner will NEVER give you a true valuation - unless he's an idiot. And Levy is no idiot. A savvy company owner will either give you no response at all, and wait for you to make the first move, or he will give you a hugely inflated valuation as a starting point for negotiations (or, as was the case with Abramovich, to weed out time wasters).
If Abramovich had been serious about Spurs, he would have seen Levy's response as the beginning of a game. The to and fro of negotiations would have commenced. But he did nothing. He clearly wasn't seriously interested. And to be fair, why would he have been when the alternative was Chelsea? Stamford Bridge is a short, easy drive from his Kensington home. White Hart Lane is a good hour's drive. Stamford Bridge is in a relatively smart, affluent area. White Hart Lane is in one of the most deprived areas of London (and rich Russians in London don't do deprived areas). Stamford Bridge was a 42K stadium that came with a couple of hotels attached. White Hart Lane was a 36K stadium that came with the Chanticleer attached (for those that remember!). Chelsea was, on and off, a Champions League team that had won the odd trophy over the previous six or seven years. Spurs was a club that languished in mid to lower table and rarely challenged for trophies.
Let's not forget, too, that Chelsea was a distressed seller. They were in debt to the tune of £100m+ and they were due to go into administration within three days. They were in last chance saloon. And that's where savvy buyers go shopping for bargains. By contrast, ENIC had no pressing reason to sell. Relatively speaking, they had only just got their feet under the desk. The club was in good financial health. And given what has happened since and how the club's value has grown, you'd have to admit that Levy was perfectly within his rights to quote Zahavi a figure that was well above market rate. Why should ENIC have sold their stake unless they were made an offer that was way over the odds?
Last but not least, Ken Bates spoke for (even if he didn't own) all the shares in Chelsea, so there were no complications with buying 100% of the company - important for a man planning to pump billions into it. By contrast, ENIC spoke for only 30% of Spurs shares. There were something in the region of 20,000 other shareholders at the time. Messy. In this respect too, therefore, Chelsea would have been comfortably the superior option.
