Sugar Daddy - Yea or Nay?

[Papercut]

We've generally been proud of the way we are run (economically) and I feel the general consensus has been that we are trying to 'do it the right way'. We've dismissed City and Chelsea and other clubs who throw money around to gain success. Recently however there has been murmuring about our approach and I get the sense that frustration is boiling over into impatience...

So a simple two option poll (for all you fence sitters! ).

Will we get more satisfaction if we continue this way and win a trophy? Will we win anything if we continue this way? Would you want money coming in abundance and bringing back players like Bale OR keeping our best?

Some may argue that football has lost it's soul anyway so it doesn't matter as much anymore?

 

[Roy1983]

We will never compete in the top 1-3 currently. I'll settle for 4th, regular C/L and a few cups under ENIC rather than selling our souls for a 'cheat fix'.

I have totally fallen out of love with football. I will never fall out of love with THFC. They are our club and always will be but the enjoyment has gone for me.

 

[DTA]

It will attract a lot of w ankers as new fans but to be honest we have loads of them already... And if we became successful even if we done it the 'right way' we would attract glory hunters anyway. Having said that my heart still says no, but my head says, its the only realistic way to compete, **** about city and Chelsea's trophies meaning nothing is just bull****, said to make ourselves feel better. They mean as much as any other trophy won (to the their fansand to the history books)

 

[Cochise]

I just don't agree with it personally. I'd much rather see us get the stadium and compete from there by offering better wages and bringing through our own youth talent.

 

[the dza]

Sugar Daddy -- build a big new stadium and have some rich f**k subsidise the ticket prices, rather than have the fans bent over to pay for "doing it the right way."

Cheaper tickets and better players might even make going to home games an enjoyable experience again!

 

[spurs' magna carter]

I always thought Tottenham Hotspur was principled, not desperate and sleezy.

Sadly I feel though we cannot go on as we are, the only way I could accept it is vast investment...into the new stadium. We have a problem on the pitch in which cannot be solved by just throwing money at it.

 

[dawaxman]

I'd be happy with either one of the following two options...neither of which we're doing right now:

1. Use homegrown (not being a xenophobe, I'm referring to players of any nationality coming through our academy and learning to play the Spurs-way) talent to have a team full of players who fight for their place, although I accept this would likely mean no huge 'success' in the foreseeable future

2. Total 'cheat-mode' where we get to see the likes of aguero, toure, kompany, Silva, navas play in our shirt



What we have right now is some horrible in-between state that is unsuccessful and feels a bit dirty (the £20+ mill players and the mercenaries). I know we'd all prefer us to do it the 'right' way, but boy would I enjoy us playing to win things...


Ps I'm a season ticket holder who has been going for over 25 years through thick and thin. I'm going to carry on going whichever way we go, so I'm not a 'plastic' fan, just one that might enjoy some trophies and CL runs too

 

[the dza]

I'd be happy with either one of the following two options...neither of which we're doing right now:

1. Use homegrown (not being a xenophobe, I'm referring to players of any nationality coming through our academy and learning to play the Spurs-way) talent to have a team full of players who fight for their place, although I accept this would likely mean no huge 'success' in the foreseeable future

2. Total 'cheat-mode' where we get to see the likes of aguero, toure, kompany, Silva, navas play in our shirt



What we have right now is some horrible in-between state that is unsuccessful and feels a bit dirty (the £20+ mill players and the mercenaries). I know we'd all prefer us to do it the 'right' way, but boy would I enjoy us playing to win things...


Ps I'm a season ticket holder who has been going for over 25 years through thick and thin. I'm going to carry on going whichever way we go, so I'm not a 'plastic' fan, just one that might enjoy some trophies and CL runs too

I think that's a great answer. If we're gonna be an also-ran, then I'd rather do it with 'our' players (and I'd probably extend that to coaches/management too). Then, it will actually be amazing when we win the odd cup and beat Arsenal, and we're not fixated on this top 4 thing.

But, I'd still like cheaper tickets (though they will surely come with the bigger stadium, at least for the lesser games).

 

[billyiddo]

Not for me thanks.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

Although I don't feel good about it, I can only see us challenging on a regular basis if we have a massive influx of cash. We are so far behind the likes of City and Chelsea plus Arsenal, United and Liverpool who have been getting the CL cash for years. Having a bigger stadium will only help if you fill it and the way we are playing that's a big ask.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Was always against it when Emirates Marketing Project came along and usurped us when we could have realistically achieved back to back CL qualifications. But my resolve has been weakening ever since Chelsea won the CL. I took absolutely no consolation in thinking "at least we're doing it the right way" after that painful night. Sadly, it's the only way you can win trophies and attract the best players. I need TP for my bunghole is what I say. I just don't think we will ever progress any further than we have done in the last 5 years or so. This is no knock on Levy or ENIC (who I'm not the biggest fan of). Yeah we might get some ungrateful fans, but guess what, we have loads already.

 

[Parklaner81]

I have totally fallen out of love with football. I will never fall out of love with THFC. They are our club and always will be but the enjoyment has gone for me.

Couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I'm sure it goes for countless others as well. Sad, very very sad. But true.

 

[jimmyb]

It's a yea from me.

I don't like this talk about doing things the "right way". Short of criminal activity or irresponsible overspending leading to administration (and maybe even liquidation), there is no wrong way.

Any other business owner in any other sector is allowed to invest in his company in order for it to grow. Why should football be any different? Stubbornly clinging to some kind of imagined moral high ground while watching the club fall ever further behind is not something that appeals to me. There is no consolation in it. No victory of any sort.

Football long ago ceased to be a pure sporting competition, contested on a metaphorical level playing field. Financial inequality within the game first gained real momentum in the 1980's when the big clubs enforced a change to the distribution of gate income. Instead of there being an even split between the two teams, the home team was thereafter to take all the receipts. Then came the Premier League. Then the Champions League. Then Chelsea. And Emirates Marketing Project. Each and every event a nail in the coffin of true sporting competition.

To stand on principle against this tide, Canute like, is pointless.

Not to mention trophyless.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. There's nothing wrong with it. And it would be a whole lot more fun.

 

[Spurmac1974]

How good would it be to build a team that can challenge without doing this? It will take a very special manager/group but it can be done! Football in general is broken though, from school age up its becoming a horrible win at all costs sport to watch and play in for most kids. Ive stopped my boy going, concentrating on GAA and swimming and he loves them both more!

 

[Rorschach]

For me it is all about how you view football. If you are desperate to win at all costs then fine, that's the way you see it. I see it more as a journey with ups and downs. If we jump straight to the end game then why bother watching. What's the point in bypassing the growth and progression of your club and the emotions that go with that.

I actually don't mind that we don't win the league or probably won't for the foreseeable future. I like to be proud of my team and how they go about things. I see empty spots in the table for Chelsea and City. I realise all fans are different but that's the type I am.

 

[jimmyb]

For me it is all about how you view football. If you are desperate to win at all costs then fine, that's the way you see it. I see it more as a journey with ups and downs. If we jump straight to the end game then why bother watching. What's the point in bypassing the growth and progression of your club and the emotions that go with that.

I actually don't mind that we don't win the league or probably won't for the foreseeable future. I like to be proud of my team and how they go about things. I see empty spots in the table for Chelsea and City. I realise all fans are different but that's the type I am.

The thing is that, even if we did get a billionaire benefactor of our own, we would only be levelling the playing field. We wouldn't be guaranteeing trophies. We'd just be ensuring that we were at least in a position to compete for them. As it stands, we aren't. And never will be. Not consistently.

 

[Baleforce]

yes

 

[sc25]

The thing is that, even if we did get a billionaire benefactor of our own, we would only be levelling the playing field. We wouldn't be guaranteeing trophies. We'd just be ensuring that we were at least in a position to compete for them. As it stands, we aren't. And never will be. Not consistently.

Its a yeah from me too, jimmy. We'd still have ups and downs...and prolly more downs. There'd be no guarantees, we'd still have to get the decisions right and make the right moves at the right times. Get the right manager and system in, get the right players in, etc. Just because you move up to, and are selecting from, a better talent pool you still have to do your homework and choose the right players and allocate your budget (even tho its bigger) accordingly. There would still be a lot of challenges, maybe even more so than now. We'd still have similar conversations as we do now about players, managers, etc.

When there was talk of a european super league I was worried we wouldn't get in it and would have been gutted if we didn't.

You better believe the Top4 most certainly do not want us to get sugar daddy. Stay as you are, please.

What if 3-4 other clubs (Soton, Everton, West Ham, Saudi Sportswashing Machine) got sugar daddy's? Would we still wanna continue to hold out?

How many Emirates Marketing Project fans would want to go back to the good ole days? Thing is, the Emirates Marketing Project fans never had a say in it anyway (and prolly nor would we), so it is what it is, better get on with it and make the best of it.

Some teams in lower divisions wouldn't have even survived without a sugar daddy. Teams like Reading would have disappeared as clubs. It wasn't even a choice for them.

 

[El Guepardo]

The key to this is whether we can realistically succeed without a rich owner. I don't think we can as the competitors have that in built advantage before they start. They bring in the top players and then we continue to launch threads asking why we struggle against these sides, well, duh!!

The difficulty now though is the Financial FairPlay rules, if that's what they are called. We can no longer spend £250m in one transfer window without the spend being accounted for.

So the fairy tale story of reaching the top table without selling our club seems way beyond us. The dream belongs in a book like Cinderella, it's never going to happen!!

I would feel my enthusiasm a little less if we buy our way to the top but, I want us to succeed and this seems the only way to do so.

 

[paxtonwolf]

I'd be happy with either one of the following two options...neither of which we're doing right now:

1. Use homegrown (not being a xenophobe, I'm referring to players of any nationality coming through our academy and learning to play the Spurs-way) talent to have a team full of players who fight for their place, although I accept this would likely mean no huge 'success' in the foreseeable future
2. Total 'cheat-mode' where we get to see the likes of aguero, toure, kompany, Silva, navas play in our shirt



What we have right now is some horrible in-between state that is unsuccessful and feels a bit dirty (the £20+ mill players and the mercenaries). I know we'd all prefer us to do it the 'right' way, but boy would I enjoy us playing to win things...


Ps I'm a season ticket holder who has been going for over 25 years through thick and thin. I'm going to carry on going whichever way we go, so I'm not a 'plastic' fan, just one that might enjoy some trophies and CL runs too

This. As you say we might not win any trophies for a while, (as it is now we havent anyway), but if I can see the players giving their all I can take that, and it makes any success 10 times sweeter