Daniel Levy may have made private appointment behind the scenes as £250m Tottenham mystery deepens

01/28/2025 04:30 PM

With Tottenham in freefall under Ange Postecoglou, the blame game is in full swing in N17. Is it a rotten football culture and fixation on all things commercial, or simply a biblical injury list?

In truth, the current soap opera at Spurs is probably a combination of all of the above coupled with umpteen other structural issues.

It’s hard to argue that the manager isn’t culpable for several of them, but it is Levy’s blood that fans are baying for – and with one trophy in the 21st century, who can argue with them?

Tottenham are without a win in their last seven Premier League matches.

Granted, that run was punctuated with a 1-0 League Cup semi-final first-leg win over all-conquering Liverpool, giving them a half-decent chance of a first trophy since 2008.

But although the last decade or so has been characterised by a belief that silverware of any description would change things at Spurs, the malaise in this corner of North London is now well beyond a quick fix.

Winning English football’s least prestigious ‘major’ honour probably wouldn’t stifle the calls for Levy to step aside as chairman.

Similarly, it probably won’t be a determining factor in whether Ange Postecoglou keeps his job as far as ENIC are concerned given the paltry prize money and prestige on offer from the League Cup.

For context, the difference between finishing in 15th (Tottenham’s current league position) and 14th in the Premier League is worth around 20 times more than the payout for winning the League Cup.

And if there is one thing that moves ENIC and Levy, it is money.

The owners have never taken a penny out of the club via equity, although Levy has been paid over £50m in his role as chairman since he took the position – initially on an interim basis – in 2000.

Having engineered the move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, made the Spurs the most profitable club in Premier League history, and hiked revenue by over 1,000 per cent, Levy would argue he’s good value.

And while Tottenham fans – who measure success against wholly different criteria – would disagree in the most extreme terms, the 62-year-old has proved his business acumen once again in recent weeks.

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Tottenham smash £250m barrier

Deloitte recently released their annual Football Money League, which ranks clubs according to official data based on various financial metrics.

In terms of revenue, Tottenham fell from 8th to 9th place, with their absence from the Champions League seeing turnover fall from £550m to around £515m.

However, commercial income has risen from £218m to approximately £250m.

And given that Spurs have struck nine new sponsorship deals since the start of the season, fans can expect to see that figure rise again when their 2024-25 figures are released.

In details that don’t make good reading for supporters desperate for more investment, Spurs also had the lowest wages-to-turnover ratio of any club in the Money League.

We can also confidently say that, although not every club’s accounts are out yet, that will translate to the lowest wages-to-turnover ratio in the Premier League for 2023-24.

Levy and ENIC would argue that their business model is sound and that they are simply spending within their means.

The more cynically minded among us, however, would contest that they have simply found that spending enough to compete four the top six places in the Premier League delivers the best income-expenses ratio.

In any case, it is not working this season, and no amount of commercial income will offset the ignominy that a bottom-half finish in the Premier League – or worse – would cause.

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The Todd Kline mystery: Where is Tottenham’s CEO?

Although Spurs fans are sick of hearing about their commercial department, they may well be wondering who is steering the ship at present.

It has been almost 12 months since Tottenham announced that chief commercial officer Todd Kline would be exiting the club in a prosaic statement that suggested he may have left under a cloud.

Soon after, it emerged that Kline had defected to Chelsea.

Spurs are yet to announce his successor, although an unnamed official under the banner of ‘chief commercial officer’ did attend a leading sports business conference late last year.

Whoever it is, they could have a big hand in the future of the club as they will likely be given a seat on the board, according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

Speaking exclusively to TBR Football, Maguire said: "Commercial revenue is one area where clubs have an element of control.

"Therefore, having someone with experience in the role and can communicate at 'C' level is essentially

"I would imagine the commercial director will have a board position because the decisions they make are significant financially in the long term."