Sale of Spurs to Scholar

[zin]

Thanks, @ zin . So it was money trouble. I wouldn't consider what Scholar did devious, though, as suggested in other posts. Collecting proxies is a totally normal way to take over

I wonder why Wale resigned over the West Stand. The bumbling by the Richardsons makes sense: they weren't ready to turn Spurs into an aggressive moneymaker, and it showed. Arthur had been retired for ages, iirc, and Geoffrey knew no other job than shareholder since his 30s. (If I've got that right… maybe he stayed on to work and was a board member only on weekends)

The book goes on but it's a pain in the ass to scan, it does mention the poor attendances of the time (less than 20k) and the European ban as contributing factors as well to the poor finances of the club.

 

[OldSpur]

Ironically we have been in the shit since we have had jews in control.....oh the irony!
It's only a joke for all you knee jerking lefties so save your poison.

 

[Éperons]

the European ban

Right, but Scholar was already in charge when that happened. Earlier posts in this thread refer to that ban as being part of what messed up Scholar's hold on Spurs, but surely it was unrelated to what set up Scholar's takeover in the first place.

In short, I blame Thatcher.

 

[B-0-Sspurs]

Sugar was and is a business man not a football man but he did get us out of the shit thanks to Scholar virtually finishing us as football club.

Scholar was ready to sell us to Robert Maxwell before Sugar stepped in, so as much as sugar annoys me, lets pay him some kudos as wthout him we may be in a very different position.
I remember the east stand debaclle as well, Sugar was up for rmeoving the shelf completely and then claimed to be listening to fans when it remained, although much smaller. I also remember travelling up for the first game of the season and the match was called off at md day as the new east stand had not yet received its safety certificate.

Sugar was also shit on by players like Klinsmann, as good a player as he was he was a fucking mercenary who could not wait to fuck off after one season, he loved the whole messiah business when he came back as well, if i was Sugar i would have been pissed off as well with the players behaviour.

I also seem to recal that every one of the Sugar appointments, bar one, was welcomed by the fans and we did try all the managerial stereo types over the years with Sugar

Ex playing hero, back at his home - Venables, Ardiles
Highly rated but never heard of foreign coach - Gross ( Remember Wegner was starting to gel Woolwich at the time)
Old school coach who has won things - Graham
done well in lower leagues, derserves a chance at a top club - Francis
In the shit get Mr experience back - Pleat

 

[frontwheel]

It's funny how views about a decade appear later on. 20 years from now will Harry be fondly remembered?

Anyway the 90s were strange when you look at managers. Venables, Ardiles, Francis. All some form of terrace favourite.
Then Gross.... and then one of the most successful club managers of the recent times - The man in the raincoat. To me that always seemed like Sugar just thinking fuck it and acting like a businessman rather than a football chairman.

Sugar had a lot of people advising him, who knows which decisions were his and which were mainly others. Plus money was tight. I don't think you can underestimate how much trouble we were in during the early 90s.

I'm pretty sure we were financially ok before he brought in that cunt — who I hated more for his negative football than being a goon.

 

[mkkid]

If Sugar had appointed good managers we wouldn't have been in decline for so long. We were on the same level as the scum in 95, they had Bruce Rioch as manager. They signed Bergkamp and Sugar wouldn't as he didn't want another "Carlos Kickaball"

We finished above ,woolwich in 93.
They signed bergkamp and we signed ruel fox,Chelsea signed Zola ane we signed Armstrong.
It was a choice of Robert maxwell or sugar.we got the better deal there.
We had chance after chance to be successful and blew it with shit signings and poor managers.Much as people slagged G Graham off.He was need at the time.A cup win with ten men and we were robbed against Newcastle in that semi final.He would have beaten woolwich in that fa cup semi and we appointed that loser Hoddle.
The man who changed this club was Martn Jol.

 

[Flannerz]

We finished above ,woolwich in 93.
They signed bergkamp and we signed ruel fox,Chelsea signed Zola ane we signed Armstrong.
It was a choice of Robert maxwell or sugar.we got the better deal there.
We had chance after chance to be successful and blew it with shit signings and poor managers.Much as people slagged G Graham off.He was need at the time.A cup win with ten men and we were robbed against Newcastle in that semi final.He would have beaten woolwich in that fa cup semi and we appointed that loser Hoddle.
The man who changed this club was Martn Jol.

He turned down Bergkamp because of Klinsmann. He didn't want another "Carlos Kickaball".

 

[Eskimo]

We finished above ,woolwich in 93.
They signed bergkamp and we signed ruel fox,Chelsea signed Zola ane we signed Armstrong.
It was a choice of Robert maxwell or sugar.we got the better deal there.
We had chance after chance to be successful and blew it with shit signings and poor managers.Much as people slagged G Graham off.He was need at the time.A cup win with ten men and we were robbed against Newcastle in that semi final.He would have beaten woolwich in that fa cup semi and we appointed that loser Hoddle.
The man who changed this club was Martn Jol.

Hoddle was given fuck all to work with and had Pleat knifing him in the back at every turn.

Graham and his sidekick Houston were cunts... as for that matter is any spurs fan who praises that pair and slags off Hoddle.

 

[Anthony Beale]

We finished above ,woolwich in 93.
They signed bergkamp and we signed ruel fox,Chelsea signed Zola ane we signed Armstrong.
It was a choice of Robert maxwell or sugar.we got the better deal there.
We had chance after chance to be successful and blew it with shit signings and poor managers.Much as people slagged G Graham off.He was need at the time.A cup win with ten men and we were robbed against Newcastle in that semi final.He would have beaten woolwich in that fa cup semi and we appointed that loser Hoddle.
The man who changed this club was Martn Jol.

Theres no guaranteed formula for success, or everyone would be successful. Take the nostalgic rose tinted spectacles off.

 

[LeeMcl]

Hard to recall from memory the correct figures....but I think the club debt in 91 was indeed about 10 million. Scholar brokered the deal to sell Gazza for 8 million ( reduced after injury to 5 million ) so once Gazza was sold there was zero risk of being shut down. Its almost certain the club would not be shut down regardless as it was the parent company that held the debt not just the football club, which as part of the parent company's holdings and would have been sold off as a going concern while the other bits were sold off or closed down.

On arrival Dodgy Tel & Sugar both invested 3.5 million each, which removed any of the long term risk of being closed, and it really would not have been a risk. In their first season I am pretty sure Spurs sold rather than bought anyone of value, Durie aside....by the end of 92 the heart of the cup winning team, Lineker, Stewart etc were all moved on for big money and the club was back in the black, Sky came into town & even then we were able to buy quality players like Teddy Sheringham.

El Tel got rumbled in 93 and from there it was pretty much down hill, although having signed Cundy in 92 it might well have already gone to rat shit, but it really was the 96-01 period where we hit the abyss.....generally as we seemed to buy on the cheap and pay low wages ( remind u of ENIC ? ) and could never quite get the beating of teams with a bit of grit ( remind you of ENIC ? ) and lastly Gerry the Mullet had a style of play that was in-flexible, dour and defensive and flair became an over rated luxury ( hang on that that also remind you of anyone ? )

Back to Scholar, no lesser light than Gary Mabbutt confirmed that Scholar loved Tottenham and was acting with the best of intentions at all times, despite everything that went wrong under him we were the equal of Man United in his period in charge, under Sugar Spurs eventually became the equals of Wimbledon with Fans....as a famous player once said.