One of the most fascinating aspects of the past week at Tottenham Hotspur has been the repositioning of the Lewis family as the official power behind the club.
In the decades after ENIC bought a controlling stake in Spurs from Alan Sugar in 2001 there was always an acceptance that Daniel Levy was the man steering the ship but one who would turn to his long-time mentor and one of the UK's richest men, ENIC owner Joe Lewis, when the biggest decisions had to be made.
It was never a publicly-stated thing and Lewis' name was only mentioned in passing on the club website under its ownership details, while the only quotes about him would come from managers and players after they had left. Some would speak about having held Spurs meetings in the Bahamas with the billionaire involved or simply met him on his superyacht. Lewis was the most background of owners you could possibly find.
Then a little while after he ceased to have public control of Spurs in 2022, with a family trust of which he is not a beneficiary taking over, Lewis became more of a public figure due to a court case involving insider trading which eventually ended with him pleading guilty and being fined £4million.
For Tottenham fans over the preceding years, the mysterious Lewis was very rarely seen at the club and became part and parcel of their frustration at the lack of success with Levy and a lack of investment. Banners with both men's faces on them were held aloft at protests with ENIC and Levy seen as synonymous in being responsible for Spurs' mediocrity.
Fast forward to these past few days and all of the above has been torpedoed. Levy is gone after 24 years and now the club has for the first time very publicly pointed towards those with the real power behind everything going on.
"This is a new era for the club under new leadership, completely backed by a majority shareholder, the Lewis family, so we can feel optimistic and ambitious for the future as well," Spurs CEO Vinai Venkatesham said on Monday.
It feels like a clear line has been drawn between the previous era and the one to come, even if the Spurs supporters may only see the names ENIC and Lewis still involved and will need to be convinced otherwise.
"I know the Lewis family really well," continued Venkatesham in the most public of statements about the family. "I think it's important for our supporters to know that they're very, very passionate about Tottenham Hotspur and they're ambitious for the club. And when I talk about their ambition, what they're really focused on is ensuring that everything that we do across the complete breadth of the club really centres back and is focused on giving our men's team and our women's team the best chance to be successful on the pitch over the long term.
"So that's their laser focus, all around being successful on the pitch. They know, of course, that we operate in a very competitive environment and that there are a number of other teams that have the exact same ambitions we have to compete to win the biggest trophies in the game, so we know it's not easy and we know that there's hard work ahead, but that is the focus.
"They're also focused on stability. They know there's been lots of change at the club, and now it's time for some calm and for some stability. And finally they believe and trust in the people that we have working in the organisation. Their model is all about empowering the people we have on the ground to deliver against the ambition they have and of course the ambition that we all share."
Publicly and privately there has been talk of investment, a desire to win and a frustration from inside the family that Tottenham's success on the pitch was not good enough during Levy's reign. The 63-year-old would have made a lot of money for the powers-that-be with his development of Spurs as an organisation and a brand, yet the claim is that the next generation of the already mega-rich Lewis family want more than simply financial gains.
The Spurs fanbase will be watching closely to see what comes next. Those who wanted Levy out will be unsure at this point whether that was only half the job or the main obstacle in their eyes has indeed been removed.
It's worth noting that with Joe Lewis now 88 and with the power resting very much in the hands of his children and grandchildren, there are different voices involved.
football.london reported earlier this summer that Lewis' daughter Vivienne is a regular presence at matches, popular around the club and approachable, known as "Viv". The 62-year-old, formerly a long-time partner of ex-Liverpool player Craig Johnston, was spotted last month sat along from Levy in the opening day Premier League victory against Burnley and at the final game of last season against Brighton.
Vivienne and her 61-year-old brother Charles, who set up ENIC with his father and Levy, are both understood to be the driving force behind the family's plans and the new era at Spurs alongside Nick Beucher, who is married to Vivienne's daughter Joanna. The latter is co-CEO of the Tavistock Group, which owns ENIC, alongside Daniel Levy's son Josh. Vivienne and Charles are both senior managing directors of Tavistock.
When the Levy news broke on Thursday, a source close to the Lewis family told football.london: "Generations of the Lewis family support this special football club and they want what the fans want – more wins more often. This is why you have seen recent changes, new leadership and a fresh approach. In Vinai, Thomas and Peter Charrington, they believe they are backing the right team to deliver on this. This is a new era."
Venkatesham was also willing in his club interview on Monday to go into more detail about the Lewis family members backing the new era.
"There's been a big focus on the club from the next generation of the family and to talk you through the key people, so the first is Viv Lewis, who is a very regular attendee at Tottenham Hotspur games and also frequently joins us on pre-season tour. So she was with us this summer for the whole of our tour to Hong Kong and South Korea," he said.
"And going forward around the club, you'll be seeing a bit more of her brother Charlie and also her son-in-law Nick. And the thing that ties them all together is their passion for Tottenham Hotspur and their ambition for the club moving forward."
It's a world away from the lack of public mention of Joe Lewis over the preceding decades and it's a bold move from the family to position themselves front and centre, even if it's with a view to backing rather than running the club. That will be left in the hands of Venkatesham on a day-to-day basis with help at board level from non-executive chairman Peter Charrington, himself a long-standing advisor to the Lewis family.
The new faces at the top of Tottenham will know they need to break away from the perceptions of the Levy tenure if they are to be seen as something fresh. That will begin with investment into the club, which has previously been relatively marginal from ENIC if you spread it across their 24 years in control, for Spurs have been constructed as a self-sustaining entity by Levy.
The current state of the game has moved on though and Tottenham's rivals in the transfer market were spending almost £300million each in the summer with Liverpool topping £400million. Even with Spurs' record-breaking revenue streams from the stadium and commercial activity, they cannot compete without help from their billionaire owners.
It's why Levy was seeking extra cash from ENIC and also outside investment for a minority stake. However, football.london understands that in this new era the Lewis family are not looking to sell the club in part or in whole.
When Venkatesham when asked about investment in the team, he said: "I need to try and answer your question without leading to a whole load of 'transfer war chest' stories tomorrow.
"I think it is very fair to say that we have firm backing from the Lewis family against our ambitions to be successful on the pitch, both on the men's side and women's side.
"They know that's going to require investment and we have their firm backing, but I would also say like all other 20 Premier League clubs, we also need to make sure that we're also cognizant and aware of the financial fair play rules, and that means we need to continue to grow our revenues.
"We need to continue to develop players both from the academy and young players that we buy. We need to make sure that we're selling players at the right time, and we also need to make sure that every time we're recruiting a player we're making smart decisions both from a sporting and a financial perspective.
"If you don't do that because of how the financial regulations work, you can find yourself in a position where you've got money to spend, but the regulations don't allow you to spend it.
"So I guess to summarise, absolutely there's financial backing against the ambition we have and like every other club in the Premier League, we need to do that in line with the financial fair play rules."
The proof will be in the pudding over the next couple of transfer windows. When it comes to financial fair play, Tottenham do have big revenue streams through the stadium and a Premier League low wage to revenue ratio of just 42%, but they have also been dreadful at selling players at the right time as Venkatesham stated.
Key will be the form ENIC's investment takes, along with the sponsorship deals put in place over the coming months and years, with those naming rights yet to be sold six years after the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened.
That could be accelerated as a big financial driver to aid Spurs with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability rules as long as the money gained exceeds the current brand benefits of having the club's name associated with the huge building in the Tottenham High Road.
It's certainly a very different Tottenham Hotspur on the face of it with fresh leadership at all levels. Only the future will provide the answers as to whether Levy was truly the obstacle or the executor. Spurs fans will be hoping it's the start of something bigger.