Daniel Levy - Chairman

[Baleforce]

If the goal is sporting excellence, perhaps...but often i ask: is that actually the goal?

What else would it ever be.

 

[glorygloryeze]

What else would it ever be.

Pass...

 

[Baleforce]

Pass...

And isn’t that a sign of higher ambition in itself?

 

[Batspur]

Surely attempting to do it in a sustainable manner is more ambitious than what City and Chelsea have done.

Oh definitely. You can see how ambitious we are and how successful it's been.

It's only been a quarter of a century. Levy's model is clearly successful...

To dare is to dream.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I would say that given Chelsea at the time ENIC took over had one league, a few fa and league cups and one European trophy and now have a trophy haul we would die for and an international exposure far greater than ours and are a far more attractive option than we are.

I don’t think they are making it up as they go along, you can argue they are manipulating the system and probably the rules but I think they have a plan and it’s working better than our one currently

I thought you meant where they are at today
No one can argue that they haven’t been the second most successful club in the country over the last 20 years
I don’t think they have a plan currently… they are literally buying players one summer and selling them in January .. or trying too
The previous owners were much smarter on that front but we also know they cheated as confirmed with their off the books payments to get Willian and Hazard over clubs like us

 

[Bedfordspurs]

What i'm looking for is for someone (as usually happens) to say how that piece is WRONG and that our owners HAVE NOT caused us to be where we find ourselves overall due to showing a lack of ambition.

An example of a key line i'd love someone to argue against:

“But even if players are added – and given Spurs’ wages-to-turnover ratio is a Premier League low 47%, there must be plenty of PSR wriggle room – it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that they should have been signed in the summer. Whatever the shortcomings of Postecoglou – at least some of which can be explained by the way the relentlessness of the Premier League addles minds as form goes awry – the ongoing pattern is the result of a club trying to do things on the cheap. It feels absurd now that they were one of the six English clubs involved in the Super League project: they currently lie 15th, undone by a chronic failure of ambition.”

That piece isn’t wrong
It’s only half the story
Having the head room is great. But having the actual money to spend is much better
Collect Lego and have some empty shelves… the Lego I want though is expensive and rare so I have to pick and choose what I buy
None, not one article addresses the money issue
It’s why these tables are toxic for fan bases and create very daft arguments
The worst one the Deloitte money league
Barcelona are very high on that… yet can’t buy the players they want because… they don’t have the money.

 

[DubSpur]

Might be an issue if we're in the championship.

We won't be in the championship and it still wouldn't be a problem.

 

[RigorMortis]

I think any plan that spends a £Bn has a fair chance of being better?

But Chelsea have finished 12th, 6th and are currently 6th....so is that better?

well it’s very early days but they are on a better trajectory than ourselves in my opinion and we are talking about since ENIC have been here.

it’s not a news flash that the more you spend the more likely you are to succeed.

 

[RigorMortis]

There's more to being our peers than that. In the league at that time our peers were the likes of Villa, Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Leeds.
Arsenal were a top team for the 10-15 years before ENIC came in and Chelsea were getting a huge injection of oil money at the time.

again in your opinion. In my opinion we have a distinct advantage over the teams you mentioned based on our location, fan demographic and pull.

That Arsenal have been a top team just highlights they have made better footballing descisions. Chelsea got owners with deeper pockets but that’s the landscape we are in.

How do you think the approach from ENIC will lead us to success on the pitch

 

[Bedfordspurs]

again in your opinion. In my opinion we have a distinct advantage over the teams you mentioned based on our location, fan demographic and pull.

That Arsenal have been a top team just highlights they have made better footballing descisions. Chelsea got owners with deeper pockets but that’s the landscape we are in.

How do you think the approach from ENIC will lead us to success on the pitch

Chelsea owners keep on borrowing to buy players
They key is they aren’t borrowing against the club

 

[RigorMortis]

That piece isn’t wrong
It’s only half the story
Having the head room is great. But having the actual money to spend is much better
Collect Lego and have some empty shelves… the Lego I want though is expensive and rare so I have to pick and choose what I buy
None, not one article addresses the money issue
It’s why these tables are toxic for fan bases and create very daft arguments
The worst one the Deloitte money league
Barcelona are very high on that… yet can’t buy the players they want because… they don’t have the money.

but again wether it’s a lack of ambition, a lack of ability or a lack of means or more likely a combination of the three, doesn’t it still point to the same conclusion, ENIC are not good enough to take this club forward

 

[billyiddo]

How do you think the approach from ENIC will lead us to success on the pitch

Money, same reason anyone else can be successful. We're 3rd highest net spenders in the league over the last 5 years, keep that up for long enough while increasing our wage budget (which will happen as new signings come in and existing players get rewarded with bigger contracts) then eventually the rest will sort itself out.

 

[RigorMortis]

Chelsea owners keep on borrowing to buy players
They key is they aren’t borrowing against the club

yes they are. but working in banking it’s not uncommon that banks lend money against alien facility.

i don’t know enough about the structure of the loans but i assume BoA are confident that the borrowing is manageable

what was more interesting is how they didn’t fall foul of PSR

 

[RigorMortis]

Money, same reason anyone else can be successful. We're 3rd highest net spenders in the league over the last 5 years, keep that up for long enough while increasing our wage budget (which will happen as new signings come in and existing players get rewarded with bigger contracts) then eventually the rest will sort itself out.

That’s an if that happens in my opinion and not a when

 

[DubSpur]

again in your opinion. In my opinion we have a distinct advantage over the teams you mentioned based on our location, fan demographic and pull.

That Arsenal have been a top team just highlights they have made better footballing descisions. Chelsea got owners with deeper pockets but that’s the landscape we are in.

How do you think the approach from ENIC will lead us to success on the pitch

Arsenal had been a top team before ENIC were involved with Spurs, or do you want to blame them for the mistakes made by Scholar and Sugar too? They have fallen back from where they were pre-ENIC and even fell below us for a number of years.
The real top teams since ENIC were involved have been Utd up until Fergie left, Chelsea, and City. They've all one thing in common, tons of money, and for two of them it's oil money.
The only way ENIC or anyone else will get success, bar for the odd season, is for FFP rules to be really enforced. The only hope that we have outside that is to continue to buy top young talent, develop them, and hit it lucky with the right manager.

 

[Lemonade Money]

Arsenal had been a top team before ENIC were involved with Spurs, or do you want to blame them for the mistakes made by Scholar and Sugar too? They have fallen back from where they were pre-ENIC and even fell below us for a number of years.
The real top teams since ENIC were involved have been Utd up until Fergie left, Chelsea, and City. They've all one thing in common, tons of money, and for two of them it's oil money.
The only way ENIC or anyone else will get success, bar for the odd season, is for FFP rules to be really enforced. The only hope that we have outside that is to continue to buy top young talent, develop them, and hit it lucky with the right manager.

ENIC have shown we can consistently finish above arsenal, liverpool, and man u. Like you say, the last hurdle is chelsea and city getting their wings clipped by FFP.

 

[RigorMortis]

Arsenal had been a top team before ENIC were involved with Spurs, or do you want to blame them for the mistakes made by Scholar and Sugar too? They have fallen back from where they were pre-ENIC and even fell below us for a number of years.
The real top teams since ENIC were involved have been Utd up until Fergie left, Chelsea, and City. They've all one thing in common, tons of money, and for two of them it's oil money.
The only way ENIC or anyone else will get success, bar for the odd season, is for FFP rules to be really enforced. The only hope that we have outside that is to continue to buy top young talent, develop them, and hit it lucky with the right manager.

i’m not really sure what your point is.
You asked me about our peers and in my opinion it’s three teams, two who are doing better and one who are comparatively worse,given a common set of variables such as location , fan base demographics and size, stadium etc.

That Arsenal had more ambitious ownership when Sugar was in charge has very little to do with where we are under ENIC.

Also what you have said is factually incorrect Arsenal won two titles whilst ENIC were in charge including their unbeaten season when they secured the title at the Lane.

yes they fell away for a while whilst at least getting CL revenue. There was a point where their fans could point to a real lack of ambition from their owners and there was susttained efforts on the part of their fan base to change that, wether it was that or other factors, it can’t be argued that in recent years their owners have shown real determination to be sustained challengers at the to of the table, regardless of wether it transpires or not

That same thing cannot be said for ENIC at any point in the last 25 years

 

[Batspur]

i’m not really sure what your point is.
You asked me about our peers and in my opinion it’s three teams, two who are doing better and one who are comparatively worse,given a common set of variables such as location , fan base demographics and size, stadium etc.

That Arsenal had more ambitious ownership when Sugar was in charge has very little to do with where we are under ENIC.

They had David Dein. We had Daniel Levy.

We've probably spent similar over the years.

Wonder what the problem is?

 

[DubSpur]

i’m not really sure what your point is.
You asked me about our peers and in my opinion it’s three teams, two who are doing better and one who are comparatively worse,given a common set of variables such as location , fan base demographics and size, stadium etc.

That Arsenal had more ambitious ownership when Sugar was in charge has very little to do with where we are under ENIC.

And in my opinion and I think most peoples opinions, our peers when ENIC took over would be similar sized clubs in similar positions in the league. Not the top teams and not those backed by oil money. Arsenal And Chelsea might be viewed as our peers now (fudge off with WHam as our peers), but that is due to the progress under ENIC.

The point, you asked "How do you think the approach from ENIC will lead us to success on the pitch", the answer was given.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

yes they are. but working in banking it’s not uncommon that banks lend money against alien facility.

i don’t know enough about the structure of the loans but i assume BoA are confident that the borrowing is manageable

what was more interesting is how they didn’t fall foul of PSR

They did
So they sold the hotel to themselves
They can’t do it again so are selling players to Villa and vice versa