Depends on the yacht i guess. That one Abramovich has looks pretty expensive. You know, the one he uses to tap up players
Well yeah, when it's not your money, of course you would. I'd quite like it if we were allowed to field 15 players and everyone else still had to play with 11. It's about being on a level playing field though and whilst City and Chelsea have overspent and run up huge losses so have Liverpool. Personally I've learnt to accept that clubs will overspend and flout FFP but I wasn't the one saying City didn't deserve it because of their "new money". There's no bitterness, I was just pointing out that Liverpool significantly overspend just like Chelsea and City. Our financial model clearly isn't a failure, Levy and Lewis have taken the club forward sustainably and one bad season doesn't change that. I'm getting tired of repeating it on here but anyone who thinks Levy and Lewis aren't up there as one of the best owners/chairmen in the league doesn't know what they're talking about.
Liverpool do not overspend anywhere in the region of Viagra clubs , they do not indirectly sponsor themselves for huge overinflated sums as the other two. It is unfair to compare with the other two. Our financial model is failure in my case , as silverware is success, nothing else. If the owners has invested 10 million plus for the last 5 years we may have won the league, certainly been top 4 as we would have held on to our star players. (nothing by to todays standards ) How stupid is that ? Penny pinching has been a complete bulls up, Why does any talented player want to leave us ? If I was a multi billionaire owner of Spurs, yes it is very easy to say, I would build the stadium out of my own pocket as a token of goodwill to a very poor crap crime ridden area of London . A Legacy which may help as a regeneration . If I was Lewis , even £300 million he would hardly notice , he made that in one day. "Best owners , chairman in the league" Yes our rivals love them . Not on your nelly!
"You lost £90mill over 2 seasons, there's no "not really" about it." Even if you assume that was to clear down debt, the day to day running of the Poool still cost 70m odd Euros more last season than it did Spurs.
Ok... As far as I'm concerned the Liverpool side is reasonably honest. Suarez dives - yes. He did so on Sunday and could have seen red for it. His general attitude on the pitch is '**** you I want to win'. That can come across as good or bad. However, his diving is now rare - and he spends most matches having lumps kicked out of him because he's unstoppable. Sturridge has started to be theatrical and needs to stop. Skrtel is a dirty bugger in the box... again this is pretty common but for my heart's sake he needs to stop. That's 3 players out of a squad. Not really a 'dire' problem. On the penalty count... We've got so many this season because of (1) the trickiness and speed of our attackers and (2) our direct attacking tactics and (3) Suarez has learned how to dink the ball into the fullback's hand EDIT: And our finances and ethics are clearly not comparable to City or Chelsea, come on. We had a massive financial problem a few years ago and now have owners who are trying very hard through commercial deals and prudent transfers to make us self-sufficient - especially after the Dalglish transfers. We are clearly trying to build a team full of young, talented players taken from lower sides or frozen out at other big clubs.
I might be wrong but I think Arsenal's new deal for their stadium naming rights is bigger than City's so whilst it seemed like a pisstake at the time, it arguably was a sensible business deal. You think £50mill over 5 years could make the difference between winning the league and doing as we've done? Sorry but that's completely speculative and in my opinion wildly over optimistic. Even top 4 is a huge guess which you're taking as a certainty. You don't get to be a billionaire by throwing £300mill around in charitable speculation. He's a businessman and Spurs is a business to him, he owes us charity no more than he owes Everton fans, or Torquay fans. But yeah, you do that when you become a billionaire and get us into the CL and challenging for the title for 5 years. Then read the message boards as fans like you complain. "I mean if Sidney Fidler wasn't so tight and spent just another £50mill we could have won the Champions League by now. Certainly we'd have got to a final at least. And what's another £50mill when you've already spent £300mill anyway? If I was a billionaire I'd have given the club £500mill." When ENIC took over we were a midtable team spending money each year and going nowhere. Now we're regularly finishing in the top 5 and building a new stadium. In that time Enic haven't taken any dividends and they haven't tried to raise profits, only revenue. They could've raised their spending to match Newcastle's, or West Ham's, or Villa's as each club tried to establish themselves at the top end of the table but instead we remained sustainable. "Sustainable" might not be an exciting word to you but each of those clubs who spent more than they could afford ended up losing out and 2 of them are relegated whilst the other teeters on the edge of relegation. So I quite like the word "sustainable". Then there's the teams above us. Abramovich has lost over a £650mill getting Chelsea and City must be running at about the same in a shorter time due to the price rises since Abramovich came into the market. So much for us getting anywhere with an extra £10mill a year. Liverpool, well they've spent about £190mill more than us in just in wages in the 4 seasons they've spent below us so it's easy to see why they've ended up overtaking us again. Arsenal are possibly the most frustratingly run business of all, if you're a fan. They pay off debts early(a ridiculous thing to do for a growing business), keep £100mill in cash sitting idly in the bank and let their best players run down their contracts and leave without replacing them properly. If Gazidis didn't inherit one of the best managers in the world then they'd likely be battling it out in midtable by now. In terms of money spent for progress in the league, only Everton's Kenwright has done better than Levy and Lewis so despite all your frustrations about all the stupid things they've done and the penny pinching you hate, yes they are one of the best owners in the league.
YV : The bottom line is that talk is cheap. When one has to pay for what they say, then they don't talk so much. Saying that ENIC should have injected a bit of cash strategically for NEW STRIKER etc is fair comment. Saying they should behave like Sugga Daddys is not.
Kenwright's been a relatively crap owner, in terms of developing the club and spending money, but he's picked his managers wisely and stuck with them, so far. Their Chang deal, for example, is worth £16m to the club over the next three seasons. Our deal with AIA pays that for one. They've failed to invest in players in most years, making a profit and bringing through talented youngsters supplemented by loanees. The club's financial side seems to be rather neglected and their stadium plans seem no nearer to fruition than they were in the 90s. Are Levy and ENIC perfect? Of course not. Are they far better than most of the owners in England? I'd say so. Even if you're not happy with how things are on the field, at least we're not Tottenham Tigers and we don't play in red!
and at least we don't just hire and fire managers willy-nilly! Oh hang on, ok the anti-ENICs can have that one
But what are ENIC in it for? They could clearly find funds to invest in Spurs if they chose to do so and have a go at competing with the wealthier clubs in the PL. But the impression they give is that the club is to be run prudently, so as not to risk financial stability. The club is around the 5th or 6th biggest financially and the team performs around that level too. It's hard to imagine the club being more than two places above or below its standing in the financial league; not enough money is invested to make a challenge to the clubs above realistically viable, but they would not risk the club falling below the level it is at either. The upshot is a risk free policy for ENIC, but whilst football continues to acquire more wealth, the club as an asset steadily grows - to ENIC's benefit of course. Steady financial growth is perhaps their motivation and not the glory of winning trophies as it is for the fans. More impetus re the stadium, more risk re transfers and wages might suggest differently, but their track record so far means they are more likely to be thinking what profit can be gleaned from selling Lloris and Vertonghen.
The money it would take for us to compete financially with the big clubs is huge. Not even like a one off £50mill but £40mill a year in wages and about £20/30mill in transfer fees just to catch up with Liverpool. You never know, Lewis might have a few million extra earmarked for when we have the new stadium up and running and assuming the new stadium is boosting our revenue significantly it would make a far bigger difference doing it then too. That's purely guesswork though and I don't actually think it will happen. As I was saying earlier, whilst Lewis might be able to find £50mill in the pocket of an old pair of jeans you don't get to be a billionaire businessman by taking a £50mill punt on a business here and there. With the money flying around at the top of the league these days a punt is really all it would be.
As YV points out, the financial disparity between us and the sides that we're competing with, barring Everton, is enormous. Liverpool's last reported wage bill was £35m higher than ours and they had a net spend of around £24m more than us for this season. The owners simply couldn't inject £60m into the club every year, even if they wanted to, as we'd fall foul of the FFP rules. Levy seems to think that the best way forward is via the new stadium and bringing through more youth players and it's hard to disagree with him. The investment in both areas seems to be outside the scope of UEFA's investigations, so we're capable of investing on those things without being punished.
Many of us agree but some prefer "steady financial growth" over "the glory of winning trophies" Sadly it is far more evident to followers of other teams than many of our own. The fans of the clubs above us would regard it a catastrophe if ENIC took them over.
Enic must be in it for the end profit but even with that in mind they have to reinvest to keep the club at a certain level but it's a strange one as making a profit from owning a football club is a long winded process as usually owning a football club is based around passion or a dream. But we're seeing more owners invest in football clubs to make money in the long term as Utd are owned by the glaziers and they are only in it to make money. Aside from the initial purchase, what is the amount that Enic have invested? As when you buy a business you have to usually make personal investment before you reap the rewards of the business being self investing but that's where we are, Enic and Levy don't have to invest their own money as if we carry on with the current model it means less risk and more end profit. Just when is the End. How long do Enic intend to remain as our owners? We're approaching 14 years of Levy and Enic. They must have a clear target for when they decide to sell.
Au contraire. You've forgotten the strides we've made in appealing to an influential and prized demographic. You're not being fair, Boss.
"Just when is the End. How long do Enic intend to remain as our owners? We're approaching 14 years of Levy and Enic. They must have a clear target for when they decide to sell." That will be the mythical Uncle Joe will sell when Spurs are valued at 500m. Until then, ho hum. As I continually tell you all, there is no financial imperative for when that must occur (though I suspect that to win that £1 bet with Levy it must happen in his lifetime) .
Back on the topic of Liverpool: It was one of the rare EPL games that I watch that does not involve Spurs and I have to say that after a couple of seasons of watching Spurs' labourings it was like the bit in Wizard of Oz when it goes from black and white to colour. Players comfortable on the ball! A clear and simple structure to the midfield and attack! Sensible defending and incredibly quick and exciting breaks down field! I thought Coutinho looked handy from MOTD highlights before but I was hugely impressed by his hard work, decision-making, tackling and skill going forward. Same could be said of Sterling. Basically those two alone would walk into the Spurs team. And that's before you get to Suarez and Sturridge (who actually looked dangerous but wasteful). It actually reminded me of the good old days under Harry and really made it clear what a gap there now is between our two clubs. It was kinda depressing, whilst also being a very entertaining game.
