The Answer to the THST Questions

The Answer to the THST Questions


Answers

I am inspired to write another piece by the ego driven ineptitude of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust (THST) who, as you know are only concerned with people who attend matches and not the worldwide supporter.

They are an organisation who don't answer questions, who don't ask official supporters clubs around the world the views of their members.

Their 6-point plan demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of the business world, the running of a multi-million pound organisation and a football club.

Indeed their plans would have taken the club backwards while demanding trophies, it was counter-productive, as sadly many are.

For Tottenham to win trophies REGULARLY you first have to understand how that is achieved.

Everyone here will shout investment into the team and yes there is an absolute correlation between big spending and trophies, only one Premier League title has been won by a club who didn't take this route.

Leicester City's win was the direct opposite of how every other team has won it, the stats showed they shouldn't have but players with the right mentality came together at the right time under the right coach.

If we accept that expenditure on wages and transfer fees are important then the  money has to be generated by the club to pay these without putting the club at financial risk, in other words you don't gamble, you spend what your income allows.

If you want to spend more, you earn more. All very simple.

On 27 September, after a few bad results, the THST asked the club for a meeting which was turned down.

The THST do not tell you at which meeting they decided they wanted to ask the club and what questions they were going to ask.

If it were after the start of the season then their assertion that it isn't as a result of a few bad results doesn't hold up.

They claim it is two years of drift, totally ignoring a worldwide pandemic having a huge affect of the footballing landscape and again showing a great lack of ability with the THST.

Let's have a look at what the THST ask.

1. There is a widespread feeling of a lack of direction at the Club:
  • What is your vision for THFC?
  • What are your objectives and how are you measuring progress against those objectives?
  • Where do you want the Club to be in five years’ time, on and off the pitch?

The vision is to do that and the stadium has been built to generate extra income that will allow us to get a lot closer to the club generated income of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.

There shouldn't be anyone who doesn't know what the vision of the club is as this has been stated.

Daniel Levy told us the vision is to compete with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid, both on and off the pitch.

To compete on the pitch, you first have to generate the money off the pitch to do so, in other words the business side.

Quite why the clueless THST need to ask that question when they already have been given the answer merely shows the ineptitude of the people running it, basically for their own ego's.

Progress isn't a straight upward curve, it's a jagged line in a general upward direction.

I don't think the THST understand that to get to where we want to be the building of the business comes first, the football WILL NOT generate the income.

The football must still be built and we have grown from a club finishing 11th and 12 with no money to a club that was recently in the Champions League Final and who the 'entitled' fans now expect to be finishing in the Top 4 in every season.

2. Does the Board think we’ve gone forward or backwards in a footballing context over the last two years?

A pandemic reducing our income while the cost of the stadium has still to be paid for at full rate is obviously going to affect the money available for transfer and wages.

We were told the stadium would not affect the transfer budget, yes, but that was with a full stadium of fans generating an increased income, not a worldwide pandemic totally changing the landscape, changing the income hugely.

No other club has the expenditure we do for anew stadium, none, so no club is affected as we are.

Is that going to hit the football side, yes, obviously.

We have players at the club who came to not like the methods under Pochettino and stopped playing for him, who didn't like the methods under a proven winner in Mourinho and stopped playing for him and if reports are to be believed, don't like Nuno's methods already and have stopped playing for him.

The common denominator here is the players and I'll say it again, that all potential purchases should be mentally assessed by a body language expert and a football psychologist, whose reports should carry significant weight as to whether we proceed to buy said player or not.

We have to improve our success rate in the transfer market and as mentality is 90% of the game, it is common sense to pay particular attention to it.

Yes we have had a blip in the last two years, every club has ups and downs, but it is assessment over a longer period that matters, plus we have only just appointed a new head coach and the THST are not even giving him time to have an impact before they start questioning him!

That again shows their agenda is on the back of a few results.

3. Can you expand on Daniel Levy’s comment on restoring the DNA of the Club, and provide examples of how that is being achieved?

Jesus, Fabio Paratici has only been here one window and Nuno Espírito Santo has had just seven Premier League games.

There are two examples, two appointments, who have obviously been instructed that that i8s the path we must go along.

Give it time to work for goodness sake, again, another example of how clueless the people running the THST actually are.

They are working against the club.

4. You have said your focus has always been on achieving success on the pitch. Do you think that one trophy in 20 years is an acceptable outcome?

This is something I looked into a couple of years ago and found out that Tottenham had won 25% of the trophies won by clubs with less money than Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Since than Arsenal's income has gone down with no Champions League football.

Tottenham have been to a UEFA Champions League final, something beyond the wildest dreams of any fan and just dismissed by many. 

FA Cup Semi-Finals (beaten 4 out of 5 times by sides with more money)
17/18 Manchester United
16/17 Chelsea
11/12 Chelsea
09/10 Portsmouth
00/01 Arsenal

League Cup
20/21 Runner-Up to Manchester City
18/19 Semi-Final beaten by Chelsea
14/15 Runner-Up to Chelsea
08/09 Runner-Up to Manchester United
07/08 Winner
06/07 Semi-Final beaten by Arsenal
01/02 Runner-Up to Blackburn Rovers

In the last 20 years Spurs have been involved in 14 semi-finals or beyond, 7 semi-finals and 6 finals, winning one.

Of those 14, we have lost to a side with more money than ourselves 12 times.

Tottenham Premier League finishes in the last 20 years, 10th, 14th, 9th, 5th, 5th, 11th, 8th, 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th.

All but one of those won by a side with more money than us.

Again the need for the club to generate more money showing it's importance, hence why that has to be the priority if we are to achieve the aim of winning trophies REGULARLY.

You can see there is an improvement, a dip, further improvement, a dip, which will then be followed by improvement again, as money from the stadium kicks-in.

5. Are you aware that there is a widely-held perception that football is not the priority at THFC? What would you say to Spurs supporters who feel that way?

That they need to understand how success is financed and read the answer to the above question.

Income has to be built to provide the trophies they require.

In addition, Fabio Paratici has only been in the job one window so must be given the opportunity to build the squad.

6. It would reassure supporters if you could provide a clear explanation of where profits earned from non-football events at the stadium go?

Every fan knows where they go.

They go into club accounts that allow the club to increase the wages budget and transfer budget.

As Daniel Levy has previously said, the stadium will be a game changer for Spurs.

That tells anyone with common sense where the funds are going, it is just that there has been a pandemic and the stadium has not been earning while still needing to be paid for.

7. Can you give an update on stadium naming rights?

Everything does appear to be in place, again there is no way you're going to sell naming rights during a pandemic or with the possibility of another pandemic.

This is possibly the only question amongst these questions that actually needs an answer.

8. Could you give a clear explanation of the relationship between different parts of the business, and how resources are used across them?

All parts of the industry are looking to provide income to the football club with the ultimate goal of developing the club into a regular trophy winner.

The answers to these questions answer this question really.

9. How does the Club ensure that its property development arm does not act as a drain on resources and management focus? What is the Club’s involvement in property developments undertaken by related parties? How does the Club ensure that asset disposals to related parties are undertaken at fair market value?

The property development arm is there to add revenue streams to the football club. A hotel, for instance, is essential for security and privacy for the wealthy VIP personalities it will be built for.

Again this attracts events to the stadium and having a private golf course then allows them private recreation.

10. Supporters made their opposition to the proposed European Super League clear. Can you give a guarantee the Club won’t support any attempt to revive that or any similar project?

No obviously not, that would firmly place Tottenham as a second tier club without access to the big TV and broadcasting deals in the game, as they would all go to that league.

They are really the only games that TV companies want to show, they would throw money at the competition and reduce it drastically from other tournaments which reduces income and reduces the quality of player the club could attract.

All quality players would want to be playing in a Super League and it would be essential that Tottenham were in it.

This is another example of the THST acting against the best interests of the club because they simply don't understand football finances and where the money would be, thus where Tottenham have to be.

11. Have the fines and costs incurred by the Club’s involvement in the ESL been paid from the personal finances of owners or directors, or from Club funds?

What a dumb question, why on earth should they be?

It was absolutely essential that Tottenham were a part of any new league or tournament that involves all the top clubs.

That is where all the money in the game would go.

TV and broadcasting would show that rather than the Champions League or even the Premier League.

The THST fail to understand the economics of the game.

It is the job of our owners to keep us as an elite club and inclusion in any new Super League is an essential element of that, anything else and the club would become second tier and enter a decline.

It is ludicrous that the THST are that naive.

12. Can you elaborate on what has happened to your plans for the Club Advisory Panel and the Fan Director on the Board, announced in April? We submitted plans for a Supervisory Board, INEDs and a Fan Director in a two-tier Board structure that would embed football and fans at the heart of the Club. Will you discuss those plans and seek an agreed outcome which is supported by fans?

There isn't any need and the plans submitted were nonsense as they would take the club backwards.

Those plans showed the THST doesn't understand money dictates football and therefore generating it is a priority.

Until they understand that, then they will always be working against the long term interests and plans of the club.

The THST does not want to work with the club, but dictate to the club without the understanding of how their plans are financed.

You have to look to the future and understand that income has to continue to grow or you stagnate and go backwards.

13. We also asked the Board to examine creating a share ownership structure that could broaden ownership of the Club and could potentially provide an injection of cash. Can you update on how this is progressing?

Utterly ridiculous idea that does not need progressing. ENIC own the club, there is no need for them to give up their ownership to people who don't have the long term interests of the club at heart.

That would just create division and stagnation taking us backwards. Everybody has to be behind the one vision, the one goal, to build the club so that is has the income of Barcelona and Real Madrid and thus able to compete at that level on the field too.

That is not the vision or the planning of the THST, thus their plans are at odds with what we require.

Increasing revenue will lead to trophies, it's a by-product.

What the THST need to do is understand that developing club generated revenue is an ongoing process and vital because it pays for the football.

Thus if you want to spend more on the football, you need to generate more money.

Until they can grasp this basic and get on board with it, there is little point meeting them.

Their views, even if they don't realize it, take the club in the wrong direction and demonstrates why they shouldn't be anywhere near the boardroom or why their questions don't need to be answered.

Once they are in line with the published direction of the club, then and only then are they worth talking to, especially as I said at the beginning, that they are only concerned with the fan who attends games and not the supporters around the world, whom they ignore.

Well that's it for this morning's offering folks.

  • Don't forget to share this post on social media
  • Visit the THBN website each day
  • If you are a supporters group, distribute the article or direct members to it
  • Americans share share share, a big audience I'm looking to grow further
  • Outside UK - again looking to grow the audience, every share helps