Seventeenth twice and they don’t know how, what move for ENIC now?

In the end we clung on to our Premier League position on the last day. But for the second season in a row the ninth richest club in world football is The Worst Team That Stayed Up. So what are the club’s owners going to do about it?

The flurry of official statements and interviews in the last week indicate they know they have to provide answers. But that flurry itself has projected a reactive and contradictory stance that has increased the feeling that these owners and this board do not even know the right questions.

Chairman Peter Charrington, a man best known in football for not knowing how many players there are in the first team, was first to emerge on the day after the season ended. Charrington is a key lieutenant of Joe Lewis, and sure enough he talked about “the Lewis family” which is how ENIC have sought to rebrand themselves. 

Apparently, the Lewis family had “stepped in” last September, had recognised “something seismic had to change,” and “authorised a full reset”. And it seems that they “discovered some uncomfortable truths,” most alarmingly that “football success had not been driving our decisions.”

Some obvious questions arose. How had the Lewis family been in charge for 25 years but not noticed these things? If they had noticed last September, how could they explain this season turning out to be one of the worst of the 25? And when would we ever hear from the owners themselves?

Another statement was rushed out to clarify the earlier statement – an unerring indicator of a spin operation gone wrong – this time from the actual Lewis family.

Apparently they had “lived the highs and lows” with us for 25 years. They accepted they were ultimately responsible, of course, but the truth was they had trusted “the experts” to do the job properly and so the ultimate ultimate responsibility rested with those idiots. 

But who were the idiots who appointed them? The statement didn’t clarify. 

What has been pretty clear to most people is that football hasn’t been a priority at Spurs for years. If the Lewis’s didn’t notice the people they appointed, and in particular the man they made the highest-paid chairman in the Premier League, weren’t prioritising football or building an elite sporting culture they are either incompetent or negligent. If they noticed but did nothing, they are simply negligent.

The statement about the statement was unconvincing. That’s partly because it continued the theme of blaming the previous incumbents that was begun shortly after last September’s realisation that a “full reset” was needed. And here we come to current CEO Vinai Venkatesham.

Vinai first appeared on our screens in April last year, alongside former club Chairman Daniel Levy. The pair were all smiles, Daniel talking about Vinai’s “integrity” and “communication skills”; Vinai saying, “Working with good people is the leading characteristic I look for when I am looking for a new role. Daniel and I have known each other professionally for a very long time and we’ve got really complimentary skills, and I think we are going to form a really powerful partnership.”

And yet, by September Levy was gone and Vinai’s message had changed. Despite having known Daniel professionally for “a very long time” it had taken just five months to find out things were very bad indeed. By March this year he was telling the Fan Advisory Board in a meeting of which there is currently no record on the official site but was widely reported at the time, that “significant change” was needed.

Now, if you arrive saying you came because of the previous boss, then after a few months say the previous boss is responsible for everything that is wrong, people will be inclined not to trust you, or your judgment. 

The brass neck of the people who oversaw Levy’s reign throwing him under a bus has prompted some revisionism which needs nipping in the bud. Because let’s be clear, there was a lot to blame Levy and his regime for. There were multiple occasions when football was obviously not prioritised. Add to that the establishment of a top-down culture of control that suffocated innovation and initiative and there is plenty that was wrong. 

But spare me the sob stories about poor Daniel being summarily dismissed while his possessions were cleared and sent to him in a van while he was banned from returning to the premises. He got the same medicine he dished out to plenty of managers and players before him. The fact that it happened to him too proves more than ever that this is the ENIC way; Lewis family values if you like. 

The statements that Levy presided over a toxic culture that didn’t prioritise football and that he has been scapegoated by the people that allowed – or should that be encouraged? – him to do it can both be true. And they are. The one constant at Tottenham since ENIC took over is that everyone is to blame except those responsible. 

Vinai’s return to the media spotlight after his retirement when the glow of the Europa League win faded consisted of him repeatedly using the word “reset” and the phrase “blend of youth, leadership and experience” and avoiding answering some key questions. Why did they back Thomas Frank for so long when it was clear it wasn’t working? Why did they appoint Igor Tudor? And why didn’t they offer Roberto De Zerbi what it took instead of taking a punt on Tudor?

All these decisions were made by the current incumbents. The strong suspicion is that Frank was backed because sacking him would have reflected badly on them, and that Tudor was appointed because he was cheaper than De Zerbi. None of those reasons are “prioritising football success”. Unpleasant as it is, ask yourself if Vinai and the equally out of his depth Johan “don’t panic” Lange would have dithered over sacking Tudor too if the unfortunate man’s father hadn’t died and a mutual agreement reached. 

It would be unfair to characterise Vinai as a ditherer though. He has been very firm on at least one issue, the morally repugnant and divisive decision to erode senior concessions. But again, that’s not prioritising football success. And what was the word missing from the recruitment blend he mentioned? Ability. They just don’t get it.

We have heard it all before – the faces change but the reality remains the same. It’s been an opinion widely shared in football for some time that Spurs suffer from a lack of football knowledge at the top, and that remains the case. The leaks of transfer targets name the same names the manager before this and the one before him were alleged to have wanted. Tudor was appointed on Fabio Paratici’s recommendation. The crew at the bridge of the good ship Tottenham haven’t got an original idea or an ounce of football knowledge in their heads. 

Is this still the original reset or are we resetting the reset? Will this regime ever be honest about what they got wrong? All these questions feed in to the bigger one of how much better will things realistically be next season. De Zerbi has done a remarkable job and deserves huge credit, but my original doubts about him were focused on the words Bust Up With The Board. It’s not hard to see him blowing his top when the spin from the top is revealed to be emptier than Johan Lange’s contact book – which transfer window will the showdown come in may be a good punt on the prediction markets. 

What needs to happen? We need a genuinely world class sporting director, which means getting rid of Lange. We need football knowledge at the top levels – offers from Ben Davies and Toby Alderweireld should be taken up. They are both bright, understand Spurs, and have recent enough experience to connect with the players. I’d add Steve Perryman into that mix, a man described by leading sports psychologist John Syer as “the best captain of any sport I ever worked with” and who has Spurs in his veins. If he’s prepared to take a role, the club should bite his hand off. 

What also needs to happen is that the owners do what they say they are going to do. Master communicator Vinai has already signalled to every agent on the planet that they can push Spurs for megabuck wages – although don’t rule out this being a ploy for the club to be able to claim targets had priced themselves out – so the real need to pay for talent on the pitch may already be difficult to deliver. Given they have said it so many times before and not done it, I put the chances of them doing it as extremely low, if not non-existent. 

The only hope is for a canny buyer to seize the chance to move in. A buyer who can get the fans on side by showing they understand what is wrong and are prepared to fix it. This club still represents a great opportunity and while I’d be the first to urge caution over any buyer – remember ENIC were the saviours once – it is clear the current owners are not the answer. They say the club is not for sale, but everything is for sale if the price is right.

So fans need to keep the pressure up. All the organised groups have made mistakes and the level of organisation among fans needs to be better, but if the genuine grassroots energy that went into supporting the team over the line last season can be harnessed, that will count for something. That means understanding what each group can do. The FAB and the Trust still can’t call for owners to go without an alternative being available, partly because calling for no ownership would be a dereliction of responsibility and partly because the Club shouldn’t be given the chance to cut communication. They need holding to account. Other groups, though, can, and Change for Tottenham were brave in clearly demonstrating at the end of the final game. The three groups can work together to apply pressure from different angles, and clear communication and connection with the fans is key to that. There is a vibrant network of fan media that can help. 

Last season was one of the worst I can remember. I genuinely did not enjoy going to so many games. And I suspect I wasn’t alone. Times journalist Alysson Rudd would no doubt say that’s because of a sense of entitlement. I’ve always thought journalists who get free entry to matches should think carefully about calling paying customers entitled, but there is a link with the high ticket prices, the balance sheet showing the ninth richest club in the world, the hefty executive salaries, and an expectation that all this should mean your team at least competes competently. 

As the song says, if I hadn’t seen such riches I could live with being poor.