As Daniel Levy prepares for his 24th full season at the helm of Tottenham, fans will naturally start to wonder where this season will take them. Will the positive mood of last season hold? Will there finally be a trophy to vindicate the steady building of the whole Levy era? Off the pitch, will the club receive some much-needed external investment? Ultimately, will this be the year that anything changes, or will Spurs fans be having the same conversations again in the summer of 2025?
It will be clear soon enough whether Spurs have the players
they need for this season. On September 26, their eight-game Europa League group-stage
campaign will begin. From that point on, the Spurs squad will be stretched
further than they were in last year’s 41-game season.
Last season — at least until the very end — was a strikingly
positive one at Spurs. If 2022-23 was marked by fans’ anger at Levy as the
season unravelled, then 2023-24 was all about collective enthusiasm for the
Postecoglou era and his style of play. A lot of the public anger about the
direction of the club was neutralised by the appointment of a manager who was
in tune with the club’s traditions and the expectations of the fans.
Whatever the ups and downs of the football season, there is
another set of questions for Tottenham and Levy over the next 12 months. And
that concerns the future shareholding of the club. (At present, ENIC owns 86.58
per cent of the club, and 70.12 per cent of ENIC’s share capital is owned by “a
discretionary trust of which certain members of Mr (Joe) Lewis’s family are
potential beneficiaries”, according to the club’s website. The rest is owned by
discretionary trusts of which “Mr D Levy and certain members of his family are
potential beneficiaries”.)
Speculation about a sale is nothing new. It has been there
in the background almost since the moment that ENIC bought Alan Sugar’s stake
in 2000. Back then, the club was valued at £80m. Now, after almost a
quarter-century of Levy’s stewardship, it is valued at £4billion ($5bn), or 50
times that initial valuation. It has arguably the best training ground in the
country and the best modern stadium too, one that is integral to the club’s
self-sustaining business model.
The news last week
that Haringey Council have lifted the cap on major non-football events the
stadium can hold, from 16 per year to 30, will allow them to host more concerts
by the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga in future, making millions of pounds for
the club in the process. The stadium, the London location, the international
brand, and the global clout of the Premier League all make this an attractive
package.
There is very little prospect of a full sale any time soon,
and no real likelihood of the ENIC era coming to an end. What is on the cards,
however, is the sale of a stake in the club. Tottenham have been frank about
their openness to new investment.
If they could sell, for example, a 10 per cent stake in the
club for £400m it would be a serious equity injection for Tottenham while not
necessarily disrupting the operations of the club. The question is finding the
right person to take the other side of that deal.
So far this summer, there has been plenty of speculation
about Amanda Staveley potentially becoming a minority partner at Tottenham
after her departure from Newcastle United. Ger search for new projects could
involve buying a stake in another team. Tottenham have been linked. But whether
Tottenham would want such a high-profile minority partner, given how quietly
and discreetly they try to run things, is another matter.
Comments
Post a Comment