How Tottenham went from football’s shrewdest club to the brink of disaster

{"text":[[{"start":9.75,"text":"Tottenham Hotspur will travel across London on Tuesday night for one of the most financially consequential games in football history."}],[{"start":17.75,"text":"Victory against rivals Chelsea would see Spurs take a big step towards maintaining their place in the Premier League after the club’s worst season in more than 50 years. Defeat would leave the door open to relegation and a potential drop in revenue of up to £270mn next year alone."}],[{"start":37.9,"text":"Spurs’ plight belies its longstanding reputation as one of the game’s most shrewdly run clubs under former executive chair Daniel Levy, who was ousted last year by majority owners the Lewis family."}],[{"start":50.7,"text":"Over the course of his 25-year tenure, Levy garnered a reputation for overseeing a lean, frugal operation — former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson once said that negotiating with him was more painful than his hip replacement."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":65.7,"text":"But his latter years were characterised by wasteful spending on players and worsening performances on the pitch. The spectre of relegation is prompting a reassessment of Levy’s legacy and bringing fresh scrutiny of Tottenham’s substantial debts and widening losses."}],[{"start":81.3,"text":"The club, the ninth biggest in the world by revenues, has spent €1.26bn on new players since 2019, the fourth highest outlay by any European club and more than European champions Paris Saint-Germain, according to estimates from Transfermarkt. Its net transfer spend of €853mn over that period is lower than only that of Arsenal and Manchester United."}],[{"start":105.35,"text":"The net amount Spurs owed to other clubs for players stood at £240mn last summer."}],[{"start":111.89999999999999,"text":"“I don’t think the quality of players they’ve bought has been poor,” said Omar Chaudhari at data consultancy Twenty First Group. “[But] there’s clearly a cultural issue where players have got worse after going there.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":124.94999999999999,"text":"Levy’s exit marked an abrupt end to one of sport’s most enduring alliances, going back to when he and Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis took control of the club in 2001. Under the leadership of Levy, who still owns just over a quarter of the club, Spurs went from being a mid-table team to one that regularly finished in the top six."}],[{"start":146.64999999999998,"text":"The former Tottenham boss, who has kept a low profile since his departure, told the BBC this week that “because of where we are in the league” he felt “a lot of emptiness” but remained optimistic the club would stay up. Relegation would leave Levy as a minority owner of a less valuable club and dependent on the Lewis family to turn it around."}],[{"start":166.7,"text":"Levy’s crowning achievement was the construction of the £1bn Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which now stages American football games and big music concerts, helping Spurs develop a US-style business model in which growth is driven by income from non-footballing activities. "}],[{"start":184,"text":"Tottenham’s annual revenue has grown from £460mn pre-pandemic to £565mn in its last financial year. Its commercial income hit £276.7mn in 2024-25, more than current league leaders Arsenal."}],[{"start":201.25,"text":"But over the past five years Spurs have reported cumulative pre-tax losses of £382.8mn. Net debt, comprised largely of borrowing that funded the stadium, stands at just over £850mn — among the highest of any club."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":218.1,"text":"Lewis, who moved his holding in the club into a trust in 2022, largely left the running of Spurs to Levy for much of the past 25 years. "}],[{"start":227.5,"text":"But his descendants are taking a much more hands-on approach. Central figures at Spurs include Lewis’ children, Vivienne and Charles, and his grandson-in-law Nick Beucher. The club set up a new five-person board following Levy’s departure under non-executive chair Peter Charrington, a longtime family associate. It is run day to day by chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, appointed last summer."}],[{"start":252.4,"text":"People close to the club said Spurs executives have been attempting a turnaround that’s akin to “fixing the plane while keeping it in the air” — a phrase that has become a mantra internally. "}],[{"start":264.05,"text":"The Lewis family’s assessment is that Levy’s focus on the commercial operations and a potential sale of the club in 2024 led to a neglect of the sporting side."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":273.5,"text":"Someone who knows Levy disputed this characterisation, saying that money generated from the commercial division was fed back into the first team. The person said the club had long been in need of additional investment to compete at the highest level, and pointed to Levy’s ultimately fruitless search for new shareholders in 2024."}],[{"start":292.1,"text":"Levy said at the time that “to continue to invest in the teams and undertake future capital projects, the club requires a significant increase in its equity base”."}],[{"start":301.70000000000005,"text":"While the Lewis family had been open to offers for Spurs — which has an estimated enterprise value of €3.65bn according to consultancy Football Benchmark — people familiar with their thinking insist they are now committed for the long term. Soon after Levy’s departure the club cut ties with Rothschild, the bank overseeing talks with potential investors, and said it had rejected takeover approaches. "}],[{"start":326.15000000000003,"text":"Levy, the Lewis family and the club declined to comment."}],[{"start":329.75000000000006,"text":"The family was preparing to inject significant additional funds this summer, on top of £135mn pumped in over the past two years, the people said."}],[{"start":338.70000000000005,"text":"Those funds could be sorely needed. Analysts at Ampere Sports estimate that if Spurs were relegated its revenue would drop as much as 45 per cent compared with the 2024-25 season, or by up to £270mn, driven mainly by a fall in television income. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":357.15000000000003,"text":"But hopes are rising that Spurs can avoid the drop, thanks to signs of improvement under Roberto De Zerbi, the club’s third head coach this season. The team has been unbeaten in four games and is out of the relegation zone with a slim two-point cushion above West Ham United. Both clubs have two games left to play."}],[{"start":378.55,"text":"Some blame the decline in performances at Spurs — which also finished 17th in the Premier League last season, a woeful outcome masked by winning the Europa League — on Levy’s tight control over the wage bill. "}],[{"start":390.95,"text":"While he was willing to sanction big spending on transfers, a refusal to match wages offered by the world’s top clubs left Spurs unable to compete for the best players. Wages account for 44 per cent of the club’s revenue, the lowest in the Premier League."}],[{"start":406.34999999999997,"text":"People close to Spurs said Levy’s approach left Tottenham with an unbalanced squad short on leaders and that the value of many players had declined since they joined. They added that there will be a new approach to transfers and wages in future regardless of whether the club stays in the Premier League."}],[{"start":424.95,"text":"But the person familiar with Levy’s position said he had to work within the confines of Spurs’ finances, which were hit hard by the pandemic at a time when it needed to generate cash to service its debt. During Levy’s tenure the Lewis family did not inject the capital required to regularly compete with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, the person added."}],[{"start":445.09999999999997,"text":"Former head coach Ange Postecoglou, who was hired and fired by Levy, took a less sympathetic view."}],[{"start":451.79999999999995,"text":"In an interview on YouTube show The Overlap this year he said: “When you look at the expenditure, particularly in the wage structure, they’re not a big club.”"}],[{"start":462.29999999999995,"text":"Data visualisation by Dan Clark"}],[{"start":471.8999999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779003296_1529.mp3"}