The audit: Tottenham Hotspur

On-pitch performance

Thomas Frank’s arrival brought a warm brand of intelligence after ­decades of manager churn. Expectation has dimmed with unconvincing performances against Aston Villa and Monaco but a relatable head coach is what Spurs needed. Three home wins from 17 Premier League fixtures since November is an anomaly that needs rectifying.

Under a new leadership group of Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven and James Maddison, Frank has blended long throws and other ­theories from his Brentford days into a solid ­4-2-3-1 that lacks a splash of creativity. The new star is Mohammed Kudus, who is ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal on dribbles attempted and completed. Kudus is an early contender for signing of the season.

Newsletters

Sign up to hear the latest from The Observer

Every Weekday

Daily Sensemaker

Clear, calm analysis on the stories driving the day’s news

Every Weekday

The Observer Daily

The very best of our journalism, reviews and ideas – curated each day

Weekly

Food Weekly

A dispatch from The Observer’s kitchen table – from Nigel Slater’s recipes to interviews, features and hot tips

For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy.

Other strengths include outstanding centre-backs (Romero and Van de Ven), an accomplished crosser at right-back (Pedro Porro) and a commanding No 6 (João Palhinha). Centre-forward is a weakness. Dominic Solanke’s ankle injury has exposed Richarlison’s inconsistency. Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are also injured and much missed.

After 17 years without a trophy, May’s Europa League win bought a respite from the old Spursiness and raised self-esteem. But it barely disguised a dreadful league placing of 17th, with 22 defeats in 38.

History

Six Champions League campaigns in 10 seasons is a respectable return for a team built for a top-four finish, but not to be regular title contenders.

Last season aside, they are where data crunchers would expect them to be. The “glory game”, however, calls for more. If “heritage” still matters, fans can be comforted by the Bill Nicholson Gates and the Harry Kane and Ledley King murals. Spurs last won the FA Cup in 1991, the League Cup in 2008 and the title in 1961.

Money talks

If the party line is believable, the Europa League win was an epiphany, jolting the club away from Daniel Levy’s prudence to pleasure seeking.

“The ambition of the Lewis family is really clear,” says Vinai Venkatesham, the chief executive and Levy’s de facto replacement after he was eased out in September. “They want us to be focused on ­driving success on the pitch. They want us to have more nights like the one in Bilbao.”

In the glow of a European conquest the [Joe] Lewis family handed more than £100m of extra funding via 13.5 million new shares in Tottenham Hotspur Limited. A net spend of £154m in this summer’s transfer window was the league’s fourth highest.

Spurs are ninth in the worldwide revenue league (Deloitte) but have the most restrained wage inflation of the top six Premier League clubs – a reflection of Levy’s parsimony.

Fan satisfaction

“Levy out” is in the bin of angry chants. Now Tottenham supporters marvel at the club’s urge to communicate. Venkatesham is an enthusiastic club channel interviewee and joint-sporting directors recently took to the in-house couch to explain their roles.

Fabio Paratici, back after a 30-month Fifa ban for financial irregularities, says his skills are “players, managing players, transfer window, loans and pathways”, while Johan Lange will concentrate on scouting, football insights, performance and the academy. Modern fans devour this kind of detail. With Levy out, Tottenham’s ­followers are mostly ­optimistic the club will “compete”, that ­amorphous hope. Nostalgia still soothes the soul – less so with younger fans, who want gratification now. From the Double winners of 1961 through Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne and on to Harry Kane, retrospection was a defence against disappointment and sometimes ridicule.

Products and prospects

An academy that formed Graeme Souness, Hoddle, Peter Crouch, Nick Barmby, Sol Campbell, Ledley King and Kane isn’t prolific these days in sending graduates to the first team.

Paratici, Lange and new performance director, Dan Lewindon will be expected to improve the supply chain from youth to senior levels. No home-grown players started the Villa or Monaco games. Harry Winks (10 England caps) was the most recent hyped starlet but now plays in the Championship at Leicester.

Mikey Moore (on loan at Rangers), Luka Vušković (loan to Hamburg), Alfie Devine (Preston), Luca Williams-Barnet, Tynan Thompson and 16-year-old Jun’ai Byfield are among the most promising prospects.

Ownership

Enic sounds like a privatised energy firm but is one of the more colourful corporate monoliths.

Its 88-year-old overlord, Joe Lewis, born above an East End pub, owns works by Picasso and Matisse and a $250m yacht. In January last year, he pleaded guilty in the US to insider trading after sharing share information with his pilots and ex-girlfriend.

The contrast between Lewis’s tycoon lifestyle and his tight hold on Tottenham’s budgets has long frustrated fans. But nobody could accuse Enic, a “Bahamas-based investment group”, of not building up its asset. It owns 85% of the club’s share capital, and is in turned owned by the Lewis family (70%) and the Levy family (30%). Officially the club, worth about £4bn, is “not for sale” but Lewis and Levy are nicely placed. Three reported overtures went nowhere: from PCP International Finance Limited, a consortium called Firehawk Holdings and the American Brooklyn Earick.

Women’s team

Yet to finish in the top three after six years in the Women’s Super League, Tottenham women are showing flashes of promise under new manager Martin Ho, after nine months without a victory. Four wins from six this season is an auspicious start.

They play at Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road (capacity: 9,271) but at least three WSL games will be held at the main stadium: Chelsea (8 Feb), Everton (15 March) and Manchester United (26 April). A designated new training ground is planned next to the main Enfield complex.

Ho says of the club’s owners: “We are well supported. They are doing everything they can to make sure we grow … they have some really ambitious plans for this team.”

The club’s facilities

Here at least they are undisputed champs. Other clubs squirmed with envy when they saw the Enfield training complex. The £1bn stadium (62,850) adjacent to the old White Hart Lane site feels like an NFL arena transplanted to N17 – but without the good transport infrastructure. The NFL logo next to the Spurs one on the stadium supports the analogy. Two more American football games were staged there this autumn.

Opened in 2019, the ground is designed to be vertiginous and lifestyle-y, with Europe’s longest bar, a retractable playing surface and much sustainability cred.

Atmosphere

The 17,500-seat South Stand beneath a giant golden cockerel was conceived as a wall of noise, modelled on Borussia Dortmund’s, but the mood can be subdued when the entertainment level dips, which is true these days of most big grounds.

But a chant not heard since the Uefa Cup win of 1984 has returned: “Champions of Europe”. The victorious manager, Postecoglou, has since been sacked twice in 135 days.