The unrest at Tottenham Hotspur runs deeper than just the first team
Charlie Eccleshare
Apr 27, 2023
Sat at a cold, dark Hotspur Way as the rain battered down outside, the symbolism was stark.
A power cut at Tottenham’s training ground meant those waiting to hear from Cristian Stellini (an interim head coach only in charge after the departure of Antonio Conte and three days away from being sacked himself) preview the game at Newcastle (what turned out to be Spurs’ worst Premier League defeat in a decade) and discuss the departed managing director of football Fabio Paratici (a day after he had resigned following a FIFA ban from football) were trying to keep warm and attempting to find phone reception with the wi-fi down.
It was not the picture of a club in great shape and the fact Tottenham’s second managerial sacking in the space of a month was met with such a collective shrug of the shoulders on Monday was instructive. Spurs, who face the real prospect of no European football next season, have been without a permanent head coach for almost a month now and the first game of next season will make it four different managers in 12 games. By then, the club talisman and all-time top scorer Harry Kane will be in the final year of his contract and there is no indication at this point he will sign another one.
Their latest interim head coach Ryan Mason is very well thought-of at the club, but he has managed a total of seven games in his career and, for the second time in three years, is tasked with saving a season that is spiralling out of control.
Ryan Mason
Ryan Mason has returned (Photo: Getty)
Meanwhile, the women’s team are also without a permanent head coach and could be relegated from the WSL (Women’s Super League), while after Paratici’s departure, there is no managing director of football. At academy level, Spurs’ under-21 side are second bottom of Premier League 2 and are facing relegation — although they have won the under-17 Premier League Cup this month and are in the final of the under-18s event.
Daniel Levy has so many issues to resolve that his to-do list is becoming the football equivalent of US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld’s famous memo 20 years ago where he tasked Doug Feith, the under secretary of defence for policy, with the not insignificant request of sorting out America’s issues with Syria, Libya, Pakistan and Korea.
But beyond the headline challenges facing Spurs, The Athletic has spoken to numerous well-placed sources from across the business — inside and outside the club — to get a proper sense of the picture at Tottenham Hotspur.
It should be said that every business the size of Tottenham has many unhappy members of staff and there are many employees who love working there. Many point to how far Spurs have come in a short space of time — the fact that under Levy, other than Manchester City, they are the only club to have successfully gone from outside the elite group of clubs to inside it.
Spurs were also credited for changes they’ve made to their recruitment operation, bringing in more staff members and significantly enhancing their data analytics offering at substantial expense. Hiring external counsel to survey staff on how the football operations were being run was also praised and cited as being a very unusual and commendable step for a big club. (It was this process that led to the creation of the chief football officer role and the appointment of Scott Munn; the expectation is Spurs will make more changes off the back of it).
Spurs are also rightly proud of the Tottenham Foundation’s excellent work in the local community and the school the club sponsors, which has helped youngsters from underprivileged backgrounds successfully apply to Oxford and Cambridge.
Kane and Ledley King meet Sadiq Khan (Photo: Getty)
But beyond all that, what state is the club really in? The Athletic has spent the past few weeks speaking to a range of well-placed sources to answer that question.
There were positives, as outlined above, but many of those who spoke to The Athletic, mostly anonymously to protect relationships, voiced concerns about the club.
These included:
- Claims that morale among some members of staff is very low, with a lack of communication and clarity on strategy cited as reasons why. Frustrations date back to the decision to furlough staff in 2020 and the way in which staff were blindsided by the club’s intention to join the European Super League (ESL) a year later. One member of staff wearing Tottenham clothing was confronted by Spurs fans in the street after the ESL plans had been announced
- A belief among many employees that the culture of the club has been lost and it’s not clear what it stands for anymore
- Tensions among recruitment staff
- A feeling that Spurs is too top-heavy with not enough autonomy for more junior members of staff
- A number of departures are said to have left Levy with even fewer people to turn to for advice
- Question marks over the leadership of chief commercial officer Todd Kline and the fact there has been a string of departures in the commercial department — with multiple employees leaving without other jobs to go to.
- A feeling that the academy, such an important part of Spurs’ identity, was neglected by Paratici and Conte, and a suggestion that academy players called up to train with the first team were “just there as cones”
There are different perspectives on many of these points, which will be explored, and an important point to make is that the feel of a football club is so inextricably linked to its performances on the pitch. Were Spurs to start performing better then there would likely be a big improvement in staff morale. And many make the point that Spurs is a very well-run club compared to many in the Premier League, especially when it comes to infrastructure. It’s been said so many times that it’s become a cliche, but the stadium and training ground are the best equipped in the Premier League. And if you don’t think this stuff matters, look at Manchester United with their leaking Old Trafford roof and looming costly rebuild. Or the headache that not having a fit-for-purpose stadium causes Chelsea. Tottenham have none of these issues with their stadium. Hotspur Way is so good — apart from the odd power failure — that Italy trained and stayed there before the Euro 2020 final. It was one of the very few aspects of Spurs that consistently pleased Conte.
But, at the moment, there’s no getting away from how low many at the club feel. A sense of disappointment that an institution they care so much about has become such a target for criticism and ridicule.
For many at the club, the disillusionment started with the club’s decision to furlough 550 members of non-playing staff in March 2020 as part of the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and meant those that were furloughed took a 20 per cent pay cut, while the UK government paid 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 per month. Spurs eventually bowed to public pressure and reversed the decision, but it was seen as out of touch by a lot of employees and left a sour taste. In Tottenham’s view they, along with other clubs like Liverpool, were attempting to protect jobs, but it ended up being a bad miscalculation.
A year later, staff were blindsided by Spurs’ plans to join the European Super League. A confidentiality agreement meant Tottenham couldn’t tell staff ahead of time, but in the immediate aftermath of the story breaking, many were stunned by the lack of communication and some were angered by having to answer questions from external parties about an issue they had no knowledge of. One member of staff remembers a colleague wearing Spurs apparel in the street and being harangued about the Super League by angry supporters. It made them cautious of wearing Tottenham gear.
Spurs fans protest (Photo: Getty)
Pochettino’s departure followed by the pandemic so soon after, and all of the associated issues that brought, are said to have had a big impact on the culture of the club. The huge losses that COVID brought meant Spurs had to adapt, but there’s a feeling that in doing so they lost their way and lost sight of what made them different.
Staff speak of the club feeling commodified and going from the upwardly-mobile upstart under Pochettino to not really having a clear story to tell. A feeling that besides the new stadium, which isn’t even that new anymore, what is it that makes Spurs special?
It’s largely a consequence of becoming a bigger and more successful business, but it’s been suggested that Spurs have lost their idiosyncratic qualities and become a “copy and paste” big club, bringing in the experienced managing director of football, the slick chief commercial officer.
One could argue that people can’t have it both ways: wanting Spurs to behave more like a ‘Big Six’ club and then complaining when they do. The sweet spot is to grow but not lose sight of what helped you grow in the first place. The young players coming through, the style of play, the feeling that — for better or worse — Spurs did things a bit differently. Spurs have not yet found that sweet spot. They know this and are mindful they’re on a journey and need to learn lessons along the way.
Generally, the mood at the club improved once COVID restrictions eased and staff could return to the offices. But a couple of years on and with Spurs lurching from one disaster to another (keeping on Paratici when he was banned from Italian football and the subsequent ban when his ban was then made global went down particularly badly), many issues that never really went away have resurfaced. Spurs’ position on the Paratici ban is that they followed due process throughout.
These issues include a feeling among many that the club feels directionless and has lost its culture and the sense that everyone is pulling in the same direction towards a shared goal.
Spurs, in fairness, have taken steps to address this. In February, they hosted a town hall meeting for their staff, with more than 500 people present, where Levy set out his vision for the club. The first slide was about trophies and how that was what he wanted first and foremost for the club. There was then an open Q&A with the board followed by drinks afterwards.
There’s also a feeling among some that the structure of the club is too top-heavy and that junior staff lack autonomy and that only Levy’s very small group of trusted advisors have much influence.
Levy, though, is credited with attempting to be less micromanaging in style. One well-placed source called the way Spurs operated a couple of years ago “the Daniel show” and the idea that he struggles to delegate is well established (the stadium build is a good example). Levy acknowledges he can be too hands-on, but those who are familiar with the Spurs operation point to his reduced presence at the training ground once Paratici arrived as evidence of him being able to take a step back. Likewise, allowing an external consultant to gather views on the football operation, leading to the hire of Munn, which should allow him to delegate further.
Much of the day-to-day running of the club, meanwhile, is looked after by the respected director of football administration and governance Rebecca Caplehorn. She takes the lead on player contracts for instance — traditionally viewed by outsiders as a major focus of Levy’s — with the chairman only being brought in at the end.
Last summer also saw the arrival of three senior figures in the recruitment department to work into Paratici — Gretar Steinsson, Leonardo Gabbanini and Andy Scoulding (those four men replacing only two: Steve Hitchen and Brian Carey). Hemen Tseayo, formerly of Manchester United, has joined recently as head of strategy and is expected to have Levy’s ear.
Gretar Steinsson (Photo: Getty)
But the past few years have seen some of those who Levy used to use as a sounding board leave the club.
The late former commercial chief Simon Bamber, for example, was someone who gave his honest opinion to Levy having known him for years and the two enjoyed a very good relationship. The decision to let him go in 2021 was a very unpopular one. Bamber had been described as the “heart and soul” of the club’s off-field operation. He was known for having the human touch and his departure is said to have had a major effect on the culture of the club.
Academy head John McDermott, who left in 2020, was another person whose opinion Levy valued. Then there was the director of football operations, Trevor Birch, who left in 2020 after only a few months in the job (though there’s debate, too, about how much influence he actually had) and director of technical performance Steve Hitchen, who went in 2022 and whose influence had waned by then. Paratici’s departure last week, meanwhile, reduced the number of directors at the club from six to five.
Away from the footballing departments, there have been many other departures in the past few years. Selwyn Tash, who provided external legal advice for more than two decades is one, along with senior figures in the marketing, commercial and press office departments, including head of marketing Emma Taylor and head of retail Victoria Hawksley, both of whom had been at the club for 15 years. The departure of long-serving staff who loved Tottenham added to the sense the culture of the place was changing. And although it’s part of football for people to frequently move around, going further back it’s striking how many of those who have departed have excelled in senior roles at respected organisations.
Birch is the CEO of the English Football League, Darren Eales is the CEO of Newcastle United (6-1 winners over Spurs on Sunday), Paul Barber is the CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion, Michael Edwards left Liverpool as sporting director last summer, and Paul Mitchell has been linked with some of Europe’s biggest clubs after stepping down as Monaco’s sporting director. The irony is that had these people not left Spurs, they’d be precisely the sort of people they should be going after to add expertise at the top of the club. From Spurs’ perspective, their former employees excelling after leaving is evidence of how much they learned while at the club.
The perceived lack of voices at the top of the club other than Levy’s should be helped by Munn’s arrival as chief football officer in July — a hire that is also designed to improve the overall culture at the club.
There’s also the newly formed Fan Advisory Board (FAB) to consider but, despite the hard work of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust in boosting the FAB’s remit, its members, in line with Tracey Crouch’s recommendations in the fan-led review of football governance, won’t have voting rights on board decisions.
For many, there’s been a feeling that with all the negative stories about Spurs in recent months, the club has been “under siege” and, with Conte in charge, many felt the first-team area at Hotspur Way was a very unwelcoming place with a distinctly cold atmosphere (Conte’s relationship with the medical staff was particularly frosty). Little things Pochettino did, like shaking hands with colleagues and always saying hello and good morning, went a long way.
Changing this culture will be one of Mason’s main tasks because the atmosphere at the training ground has a big effect on players’ morale and performance.
(Photo: Getty)
And it is worth remembering how quickly the whole feel of a club can change with a proper figurehead and improved results on the pitch. That figurehead should, of course, be the head coach and you only need to look at how Pochettino transformed the club and brought all aspects of it together to know it is possible to make major changes in a short space of time. Especially as Spurs are a club with excellent structures in place, most notably the stadium and training ground.
One challenge in trying to find their next Pochettino is that the man who was supposed to be leading that head coach search has been banned from football. So it’s Levy who is in charge instead and, as it stands, Spurs have been without a permanent head coach for more than a month and are still yet to make a breakthrough, although they have now narrowed down their targets, with Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann among the remaining candidates. Meanwhile, their loathed rivals Chelsea are on the brink of appointing their former hero Pochettino.
In the background, Tottenham’s recruitment staff are working away looking at potential summer targets on the playing side, getting used to their new way of working after Paratici’s ban in March and subsequent resignation last week.
The absence of a director of football is an issue for Spurs and it’s been suggested that they would ideally appoint one before getting a new head coach so they can have alignment across the football departments. But anyone they would like to bring in would most likely require a period of gardening leave before joining, meaning their chances of bringing in anyone before the summer are essentially gone.
With Munn not starting work until July 1, that leaves Steinsson effectively in charge and there’s a relief that there is at least now clarity about the Paratici situation. Not knowing what was happening there naturally lead to uncertainty within the department.
As technical director, Steinsson has the widest remit, including recruitment, the medical department and the academy. Then there’s Gabbanini, whose focus is player recruitment, working on talent identification with a team reporting into him. Scoulding oversees strategy on youth recruitment and the contract side of things and is the de facto loans manager. Part of his job is to try to bring the first team and academy closer together — a divide that has grown larger since Pochettino and McDermott left the club.
Paratici’s departure has led to a calmer atmosphere in the recruitment department. With him in charge, there was a high-energy, sometimes combative atmosphere that didn’t always suit everyone.
And with so many new arrivals last summer, there were periods of tension and turbulence among the staff, some of whom were keen to make their mark. Gabbanini, a close ally of Paratici, is a determined workaholic who throws everything into the role and is demanding of those around him, which can rub people up the wrong way. Others, though, have suggested this is more of a language and culture issue. Steinsson is also a forthright character and louder than most of his more reserved colleagues.
Fabio Paratici (Photo: Getty)
Spurs’ decision to bring in all three of Steinsson, Gabbanini and Scoulding last summer may have led to some tension about how responsibilities are divided up, but it has meant that, with Paratici leaving, there was still a structure in place and well-connected, experienced operators to step in. And with Munn arriving in July, that’s a big increase in senior personnel at a club often accused of being too streamlined in senior positions. Even with these hires, though, it’s still Levy leading the managerial search.
Nevertheless, Spurs have put a lot of work into structures, processes and culture in the recruitment department, and this, allied to greater investment in data analytics, is to their credit.
The biggest task Spurs face this summer, though, is convincing Kane to renew his contract. Allowing a player to run down their contract has been the doomsday scenario for Levy ever since Sol Campbell did it in 2001, soon after the ENIC takeover. But it looks increasingly likely this will come to pass, with no indications at present that Kane will sign a new deal.
And whereas two years ago Kane was begrudged for agitating for that switch, the general consensus now is that he has earned the right to do as he pleases and that any anger would be directed at the club for not doing enough to create an environment where he can stay and be successful. Former Tottenham defender Danny Rose said on Sunday that he would like to see Kane leave Tottenham and that his former team-mate “deserves better”.
Along with selling players, a key revenue driver for any football club is their commercial activity.
Thanks to Levy’s sound management, Spurs’ financials are in good health.
But, on the commercial side, there have been some disappointments over the past few years. The headline failing has been the lack of a naming-rights partner for the stadium. It will be half a decade next April since the stadium opened, though Tottenham’s position has always been that the partner has to be the right one at the right time.
But for chief commercial officer Kline, securing a naming-rights partner was part of the reason he was brought in two years ago. As the “About Me” section of his LinkedIn page says: “Tottenham have appointed a former NFL executive as the club’s first chief commercial officer to aid the search for a lucrative naming-rights partner for their stadium.”
There have been other commercial disappointments since he took over. Partners like Hugo Boss not renewing their contracts is just what happens sometimes, but the departure of Audi was more contentious. In that case, Audi were unhappy that Spurs had signed up Cinch, who they viewed as a competitor, as their official sleeve partner for more money. There was no renewal when Audi’s four-year deal with Spurs expired last year, with INEOS Grenadier now the club’s car sponsor.
Last January also saw Spurs announce a partnership with Fast as its official one-click payment partner, only for the company to collapse three months later.
Last month, there was embarrassment for Spurs when they breached their licence for the number of gigs they could put on at the stadium in one year. To put on the extra night, which made it seven gigs in total this year, Spurs had to submit another planning application to Haringey Council. The agreement reached was that the extra concert would replace one of Spurs’ other allotted non-football events (they are allowed a total of 16, with six supposed to be concerts).
Concerts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium are now another key revenue driver for the club (Photo: Getty)
There have been plenty of successes as well — the ongoing relationship with the NFL and other sports that, alongside the concerts, make the stadium close to the 365-days-a-year venue it was designed to be. February also saw Spurs add to their sporting portfolio by signing a 15-year strategic partnership with Formula 1 that includes the world’s first in-stadium electric karting facility and London’s longest indoor track.
Many supporters rolled their eyes when this was announced and feel similarly about other commercial ventures the club have pursued, but the idea, as Levy reiterated in his Cambridge Union interview last month, is that this revenue is then reinvested in the football side.
What’s perhaps more significant about the F1 deal is that it was negotiated almost single-handedly by Levy, supporting the idea that he is spread too thinly as this shouldn’t really be part of his remit. The counter-argument, though, is that a business like Spurs that isn’t bankrolled by a nation-state has to be fleet of foot in the way it brings in revenue and, in this case, the deal came out of Levy’s connections and vision.
The commercial side of the business can feel abstract and things like this have a knock-on effect — there are only so many things even a workaholic can deal with at one moment. And the start of 2023 was hardly a quiet time for Spurs in other areas.
Zooming a bit further in, there have been a lot of changes in the commercial department since Kline’s arrival. The sales team has been boosted but elsewhere a number of staff members have felt the working atmosphere was not a positive one and many have left without jobs to go to.
From Spurs’ perspective, the churn is partly down to the effects of the pandemic and a different working environment, with a new man in charge not being for everyone. Bringing in fresh ideas is of course not necessarily a bad thing and, from Kline and the club’s perspective, is about raising standards.
But a lot of the departures have been senior staff, including senior head of partnerships Cindy Wolf last year (to join the Six Nations) and senior partnership manager Sam Colley at the end of 2021. Head of partnership services Oliver Bethell left last month without a job to go to — as was the case in the past 18 months for a number of his colleagues, including the whole business development department.
Senior staff have also been brought in while Kline has been in charge, but many of those who departed had been at the club for a long time and loved Tottenham.
One of the biggest cultural shifts at Spurs over the past few years has been the distance that has grown between the first team and the academy.
Under Pochettino and the then academy head McDermott, the two areas of the club were very closely aligned. The way youngsters were integrated into the first team was not perfect in this period, but it coincided with the breakthrough of academy players like Kane, Mason and Harry Winks.
But McDermott left to join the FA in 2020, a few months after Pochettino’s departure and, under Paratici and Conte, the distance grew with a feeling and subsequent disappointment that neither man had much interest in the academy.
Conte called young players up to train with the first team, but they were described by one training-ground source as “being like cones”. It’s also been suggested that the first team gave very little consideration to the youngsters’ commitments for the academy sides and being used in 11-v-11 shadow games naturally reduced their training time.
Under Jose Mourinho, a similar thing happened when Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett trained with the first team, but there were doubts over whether it was the best thing for their coaching and development.
Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett (Photo: Getty)
One school of thought is that Spurs should try to bridge the gap between the first team and the academy by making more use of youth-team coaches Yaya Toure and Jermain Defoe. Both are Premier League legends — Toure a three-time winner — and there could be value to hearing from them, even if it was just to offer some insights from their careers rather than necessarily coaching. It’s not always an easy dynamic between recently-retired former players and career academy coaches, but some felt it was a missed opportunity when neither were named as part of Mason’s interim staff on Tuesday.
The academy is a big part of what Spurs stands for and relegation for the under-21s would be damaging to the club’s prestige and potentially affect their ability to recruit and hold onto players and staff.
Already in the past year, they have lost emerging talent manager Chris Perkins to Woolwich and the highly rated pair of 16-year-olds Jayden Meghoma and Samuel Amo-Ameyaw to Southampton.
In Spurs’ defence, they do not have the same budget when it comes to their academy as some of their rivals. It’s still considered by many experts to be right up there outside of clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and Woolwich, who spend a lot more.
Tottenham can also point to winning the under-17 Premier League Cup this month and reaching the final of the under-18s event as evidence of the good shape they’re in. Simon Davies, another new hire last year — and, like Munn, a City Football Group alumnus — is said to have raised standards. Munn is expected to do likewise. And Mason’s arrival should help in the short term, with around eight academy players training with the first team currently and expected to be properly involved.
The academy matters not just for providing players for the first team but for the way it shapes how Spurs view themselves. It’s a major part of their identity and culture.
One area Spurs are less established is on the women’s side, where they are facing the reality of becoming the first team to have been promoted to the WSL and then suffer relegation. Though, according to a report last week, Levy is among those pushing for an end to WSL promotion and relegation. The logic is that this would be the best way to build a more competitive, sustainable top flight because clubs would invest more in players and infrastructure without the fear of being relegated. It was said that the threat of relegation — Spurs are just two points clear of the drop zone — did not influence Levy’s thinking.
In any case, Tottenham are still without a permanent head coach after the sacking of Rehanne Skinner in March following a run of nine straight defeats. Skinner’s former assistant, Vicky Jepson, is in temporary charge.
Spurs did invest in new players in the summer and again in January, most notably with the record £250,000 signing of Bethany England. As yet though, the signings have not led to a major improvement in results and, as former Spurs goalkeeper Chloe Morgan put it on The View From The Lane podcast last week: “They’re one of the richest clubs in the world but that’s never really translated into real achievement for them.
(Photo: Getty)
“It’s interesting that when they entered the WSL for the first time, it was the same time as Manchester United and you can see how stark the contrast is. United are into the FA Cup final and in contention for their first WSL title, while Spurs are languishing at the bottom.
“Also, they moved from the Hive to Brisbane Road last summer and I don’t think that venue has ever felt like home. There’s been so much criticism about the way the pitch is and the fact it’s not their home ground. It’s not their space.”
The logic behind moving to the bigger Brisbane Road was that it would improve the infrastructure around the women’s team. Spurs can also point to improved training, medical and nutritional facilities, and the appointment of Andy Rogers as managing director, as evidence of their investment in the women’s team. They are also planning to host two women’s matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the end of the season.
As yet, though, the women’s team have found success on the pitch elusive. It’s hoped that the arrival of Munn, who oversaw the creation of the all-conquering Melbourne City women’s team, will make a difference.
So, where do Spurs go from here?
There are problems at the club, but so many of them can be resolved if they bring someone in who energises the place again and really makes them believe. Some are more deep-rooted, but some will feel that little less important even if Spurs can pull off a shock against Manchester United tonight.
Tottenham Hotspur is a great institution and everyone at the club is working extremely hard to try to get them back to where they belong.
It is undoubtedly a journey, but it’s one everyone associated with the club is desperate to start properly enjoying again.
Additional reporting: Jack Pitt-Brooke
theathletic.com
