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Daniel Levy - Chairman

Whilst I dont disagree that football clubs are extremely precarious financially, I've never heard of the group of financial analysts before (and given the nature of my work, I would have done had they been credible) - this smacks of someone writing something to get their name into the papers

I think the main point* is that, if you have money to invest, there are better, more profitable investments. On the other hand, with two clubs totally distorting the overall picture, averages are not too helpful. Some people are making long term investments which should eventually pay off when they sell.

* As you point out they are not well known, so perhaps that is the main point of this report.
 
Well, ideally, I'd like us to work up to success on our own dime too - but where we differ is that the scenario where I envision that happening is one where the club is owned by all of us, the fans, as part of a trust that controls the majority of the club's shares. Like in Germany, more or less. In an ideal world, the fans own the majority of the club - you can even keep Levy's share around (I believe he owns about a fifth of the club, iirc) and have him continue on as chairman, but the real triumph of working our own way to success comes when there is no other option, and when it's a combined effort by the fans themselves as owners and custodians of the club they love.

That's my ideal scenario - but, failing that, I don't really see much of a bonus in being majority-owned by a billionaire who leaves us to fend for ourselves over a billionaire who at least helps us along. In fact, it's somewhat pointless - we laugh at other clubs being billionaire's playthings, but we are one ourselves - only difference is that Joe Lewis isn't interested in playing around with us, and wants to sell us off for a profit when the time comes. That we have to build up the slow, arduous way in that scenario...I don't know, it seems pointless to me. What's the moral point of it? It's not that we had no other choice, it's "Our billionaire is more frugal than your billionaire, so we had to do it the slow way". That's hardly stuff for the ages.

I'm not saying ENIC aren't finally doing a good job, or that they're a drain on our club - they are going to leave the club in a better state than they found it in, and that's solid, if unspectacular progress, even if it came with little real investment on their part relative to more activist ownership groups. I'm content with where we are and where we're going. But I don't think being some mute asset that is traded on for profit with little investment on the part of our owners is some heroic endeavour on our part - it's just arbitrarily limiting ourselves because our billionaires don't spend on us, unlike other clubs' billionaires. If we were fan-owned, then that problem wouldn't arise because we are *owned* by the little guy, the everyday guy and gal in the stands who loves the club and wouldn't primarily be interested in selling it on for a profit. There is a moral point to succeeding in such a way, because the arduous effort is backed by the knowledge that it is genuinely our way. At present, though, it isn't our way, it's the way of a billionaire in the Bahamas who wants maximum profit for minimum expenditure, and thus forces us to be run in a certain manner- the fans don't come into it either way. You could switch him out with another billionaire who did spend a lot of cash and it would be no more or less morally s.atisfying - but the trophies would be s.atisfying on a more basic level, at least.
I doubt I need to tell you but the fan ownership scenario is something that can't happen in the PL. The monies in play now are too vast and we have gone too far down the current road to change that. For me the next best thing is having our club run by a fan who has our best interests at heart, and I believe Levy is that. In fact I could see him bouncing around at Spurs until he retires and who would begrudge him. He will ultimately be remembered as the chairman who brought Spurs back to dine at the top table.

Although we still sit here trophyless (which is annoying to say the least) the last two seasons could easily have gone down as two of the most memorable in the club's history if things had gone our way at crucial times in the season. If the wind had blown a different way, if the ball had spun this way rather than that, if someone didn't get injured, or someone did, we could be all sitting here tossing with joy for the last two summers. It was that close really. And how sweet that would have been to know we did it off the back of hard work and organic growth rather than just buying the bloody thing.

I'll take another season like last rather than Joe shooting his load over the transfer market in a last vain attempt to win the thing.
 
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I wouldn't trust our fans run a table at a boot sale

Well, that holds true for most football fans - but the German ones manage just fine being owners of their own clubs. The administration of a club is different to its ownership in most respects - the only link in the case of fan ownership is that the club *has* to be run on its own money because there is no other option and it is the chosen way of the fans (who chose that manner of operation by helping to buy the club in the first place).

German clubs are run by professional CEOs very much in the Levy mould in many cases, and stolidly dependable ones in others. The fans own the club and thus the club can't price tickets out of their reach or conduct other 'fan-side' business without getting their approval, but the 'football' side of it is run much like we run our own football operations. And like I said, you could keep Levy if you wished in this ideal scenario of mine, because he could still be a part-owner like he is now (he owns about 20% of the club's shares, iirc). He could still be chairman in that scenario if people so wished.

I doubt I need to tell you but the fan ownership scenario is something that can't happen in the PL. The monies in play now are too vast and we have gone too far down the current road to change that. For me the next best thing is having our club run by a fan who has our best interests at heart, and I believe Levy is that. In fact I could see him bouncing around at Spurs until he retires and who would begrudge him. He will ultimately be remembered as the chairman who brought Spurs back to dine at the top table.
Although we still sit here trophy less (which is annoying to say the least) the last two seasons could easily have gone down as two of the most memorable in the clubs history if things had gone our way at crucial times in the season. If the wind had blown a different way, if the ball had spun this way rather than that, if someone didn't get injured, or someone did, we could be all sitting here tossing with joy for the last two summers. It was that close really. And how sweet that would have been to know we did it off the back of hard work and organic growth rather than just buying the bloody thing. I'll take another season like last rather than Joe shooting his load over the transfer market in a last vain attempt to win the thing.

I agree that it's impossible in the PL as it stands - any steps towards fan ownership across the board will need to be political (Labour, for example, talk a good game about fan representation on club boards, and that's a start - even if I doubt they'd ever actually pursue such a policy were they to be elected). More promising possibilities can only really happen if the inflationary bubble the Prem is in pops - maybe once the TV deals stop appreciating in value.

But yes, I agree that it's impossible at present, which is why it's the *ideal* scenario for me. :p

The next best thing to fan ownership is having our club run by a fan who has our best interests at heart - again, I have no problem agreeing with you there. Only difference is, my vision of that 'next-best' owner is one that also spends money to pursue his ambitions for the club, as opposed to just running it well on the club's own dime. It is, after all, also an ideal scenario, so you can pretty much wish for as close to perfection as you can get *short* of fan ownership - that's a generous fan owner, in my mind.

Levy is a fan, and he will no doubt keep coming to games even after he makes a killing selling us on to someone else - I also have full confidence that he won't sell us to just anyone, but only to someone who will steward the club as he has through the years. That's commendable, and it speaks to how well he's juggled his multiple competing responsibilities as a fan of the club and as a chairman representing both ENIC and the club's own long-term security.

But the path he's put us on in terms of self-funding our own ambitions isn't one that's morally more significant than Mansour or Abramovich spunking a billion to pole vault their teams ahead of us in terms of honours won, is my point. It would have been morally significant if it's something we could point to and say 'we chose that route', or 'that was our only option, and we did it well'. As it stands, we have a billionaire owner like any other club - as much a plaything as any other club is. Only difference is, their owners are generous and ours are stingy, so while their owners funded their teams and won things, our owners built us up over one and a half mostly barren decades. It isn't our choice, any more than being sold on to another set of billionaires will be our choice when it happens - so where's the moral triumph in that? Might as well hope our billionaire owners are generous as opposed to stingy - might actually cross the line that way, instead of groaning at the ball 'spinning this way instead of that', or about somebody getting injured, or about the wind. ;)

The little things like seeing players come through the academy, showing a responsibility to our youth players and the local community we are indelibly a part of, making our games more accessible to fans of all backgrounds - these are things that are tangibly morally satisfying, and in a sense they are choices that can be made independent of our ownership status (we as a club have chosen to give a damn about our youth team players and the Spurs Foundation - many previous managers haven't cared about the youth team and many more loaded clubs haven't engaged as much with their charity arms, so we know it's a conscious choice we can make irrespective of our ownership status and investing strategies). But ultimately, in terms of the big question of spending versus not-spending, I just don't think there's any moral superiority in one over the other when circumstances have left us with the same billionaire owner as other clubs have - only one that chooses not to invest too much in his asset. He's not some murderer with the *struggle cuddle* of a country or the abuse of its most vulnerable on his hands, thank GHod - but beyond that, his stinginess doesn't count as a moral victory any more than Chelsea/City's obscene spending does.
 
Thankfully, we are 100% fan owed.

Is Joe Lewis a fan of ours? I don't know, he seems like a very stand-offish fan, if true - I can understand Levy not pursuing the fan dream of spending money on your club because he's the junior partner in the deal and doesn't have that much money to splash about anyway (relatively - he's rich, just not Abramovich-style rich), but it seems odd that Joe Lewis would be such a fan and yet rarely (if ever) pop over to watch the games or bankroll his team. Even Abramovich spends nearly every other weekend at Stamford Bridge.
 
Is Joe Lewis a fan of ours? I don't know, he seems like a very stand-offish fan, if true - I can understand Levy not pursuing the fan dream of spending money on your club because he's the junior partner in the deal and doesn't have that much money to splash about anyway (relatively - he's rich, just not Abramovich-style rich), but it seems odd that Joe Lewis would be such a fan and yet rarely (if ever) pop over to watch the games or bankroll his team. Even Abramovich spends nearly every other weekend at Stamford Bridge.
Well he is 80.
 
The thing about chairman is that they are a easy target for fans of all clubs, if they do not buy a certain player they call him, if he puts ticket prices up they call him, if they do not throw loads of money into the latest " new player on the block" they call him, etc, etc etc,etc.

The truth is there will always be those that think they/he is doing a bad job, but i do not think there is a better chairman in the Prem and i take his faults ( never known anyone at any job who does no make mistakes) and i thank him for pulling up this great club from the mediocracy it was in when he first came here.
 
Hahah Joe Lewis does not spend his personal wealth in funding us so he is not a fan? Hahahahaha I have never read so much crap in my life
 
Well he is 80.

Wasn't 80 when he bought us - still can't remember him showing up too many times.

I don't know, the way he's run the club just doesn't seem like what a fan would do in his place - if you had the money to push your team to success (and believe me, Joe has more than most - even more than most billionaires), and you owned the club, wouldn't you do it to see the team you loved pick up the titles and trophies that would, in turn, define you as one of its best-ever owners? Jack Walker did it with the team he loved, Abramovich does it (albeit with far more blood-stained cash) with his team, smaller club owners up and down the land (usually businessmen) buy their beloved clubs and plough in as much as they can before funding them becomes too much and they hand them over to other owners. It seems like the done thing if you are a millionaire/billionaire and a fan of the club you own - the way Lewis has run us would at the very least be a major exception to this trend. And, as mentioned, he barely shows up to watch our games - once every few years if we're lucky. Does that speak of a deep emotional attachment to the club?

Overall, the way he's run us has largely been as an investment which will, in time, generate a profit on the initial purchase price of over 2000% or more when he lets it go. That's a fantastic business decision. And I'm not saying he's objectively been a *bad* owner, because he hasn't taken any money out of the club or impinged on our operating ability in any way. But he hasn't been particularly beneficial either, and his ownership of the club seems like it isn't really like a labor of love - more a calculated business decision with minimum expenditure for maximum profit.

*Levy* is a fan. There is zero doubt about that. And Levy can't be blamed for not putting his own dosh in because he doesn't have enough of it to really sustain suspending in any meaningful capacity, so he does his job as a chairman and does it well. But Levy's the junior partner within ENIC - Joe Lewis calls the shots, and I'm just not sure he's as ardent a fan of the club as some people believe him to be.

Hahah Joe Lewis does not spend his personal wealth in funding us so he is not a fan? Hahahahaha I have never read so much crap in my life

See above. And leave out the asinine snark, thanks.
 
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Wasn't 80 when he bought us - still can't remember him showing up too many times.

I don't know, the way he's run the club just doesn't seem like what a fan would do in his place - if you had the money to push your team to success (and believe me, Joe has more than most - even more than most billionaires), and you owned the club, wouldn't you do it to see the team you loved pick up the titles and trophies that would, in turn, define you as one of its best-ever owners? Jack Walker did it with the team he loved, Abramovich does it (albeit with far more blood-stained cash) with his team, smaller club owners up and down the land (usually businessmen) buy their beloved clubs and plough in as much as they can before funding them becomes too much and they hand them over to other owners. It seems like the done thing if you are a millionaire/billionaire and a fan of the club you own - the way Lewis has run us would at the very least be a major exception to this trend. And, as mentioned, he barely shows up to watch our games - once every few years if we're lucky. Does that speak of a deep emotional attachment to the club?

Overall, the way he's run us has largely been as an investment which will, in time, generate a profit on the initial purchase price of over 2000% or more when he lets it go. That's a fantastic business decision. And I'm not saying he's objectively been a *bad* owner, because he hasn't taken any money out of the club or impinged on our operating ability in any way. But he hasn't been particularly beneficial either, and his ownership of the club seems like it isn't really like a labor of love - more a calculated business decision with minimum expenditure for maximum profit.

*Levy* is a fan. There is zero doubt about that. And Levy can't be blamed for not putting his own dosh in because he doesn't have enough of it to really sustain suspending in any meaningful capacity, so he does his job as a chairman and does it well. But Levy's the junior partner within ENIC - Joe Lewis calls the shots, and I'm just not sure he's as ardent a fan of the club as some people believe him to be.



See above. And leave out the asinine snark, thanks.[/QUOTE
Lewis is a tax exile who doesn't like football

He likes golf though
 
?

Overall, the way he's run us has largely been as an investment which will, in time, generate a profit on the initial purchase price of over 2000% or more when he lets it go. That's a fantastic business decision. And I'm not saying he's objectively been a *bad* owner, because he hasn't taken any money out of the club or impinged on our operating ability in any way. But he hasn't been particularly beneficial either, and his ownership of the club seems like it isn't really like a labor of love - more a calculated business decision with minimum expenditure for maximum profit.
.

Sorry mate but that is absolute gonads look how far we have come since he bought us, saying he has not been particularly beneficial is rubbish.
 
Lewis is a tax exile who doesn't like football

He likes golf though

Fair enough - at least the part about being a golfer, anyway. :p But if he doesn't like football, then it's even less likely that he's a fan of the club, as opposed to just an owner looking to maximise his profits from buying us and selling us on later.

Sorry mate but that is absolute gonads look how far we have come since he bought us, saying he has not been particularly beneficial is rubbish.

Why? What material difference has Joe Lewis made to the club? He bought us sixteen years ago, and we've largely developed on our own dime since then - and the man responsible for slowly and carefully building us up using our own finances (making a lot of mistakes along the way, but I won't quibble) is Levy, not Lewis.

If Lewis didn't exist and Levy had the funds to buy us himself, there would be zero difference in terms of the way we're run - ditto if any other disinterested rich investor bought us and put Levy in charge. Lewis hasn't really benefited the club in any significant way - as an absentee owner, he's let Levy be the public face of ENIC and run us without much money from him, or obligations *to* him.

You see what I'm getting at? You're attributing our slow, stumbling rise to Joe Lewis, when the reality is that it's down to usually solid administration by Levy over the years. Lewis not being there would have made zero difference to the way we were run - *except* perhaps in the installation of Levy as our chairman. That doesn't mean Lewis was actively detrimental to the club either - like I said, he never took money out of it, as far as I can tell. But he didn't put much money in, either, makes no difference to us as an owner, and really hasn't done much beyond leave us to appreciate in value as an asset for most of the time Levy has kept us running.

So yes, he himself absolutely, 100% hasn't been particularly beneficial - claims to the contrary require supporting evidence that doesn't exist, as far as I can see.
 
I'm sure there are plenty of clubs out there whose fans wished their owners would take a back seat and let more qualified people take charge - he has no obligation to do anything other than ensure the club is being run well, which it is, so...
 
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