In the idyllic gated communities of Lyford Cay, the big disputes are over who parks their yacht where. Even for a luxury development on the small island of New Providence, where homes are valued in the tens of millions, this tranquil corner of the Bahamas is particularly cliquey. The social circuit revolves around the Lyford Cay Club, elegant and exclusive, emblazoned in pink decor. It’s an unlikely home for an East Ender born into humble surroundings above the Roman Arms pub.
Indeed, when Joe Lewis, a self-made billionaire who acquired his fortune through currency speculation and since 2001, the majority shareholder of Tottenham Hotspur, rocked up to this utopian yet impenetrably clannish society, his requests to become a club member were immediately snubbed. Still speaking like a Bow native, there were those within his new neighbourhood who would forever see him as nothing more than a waiter, a restaurateur, and ultimately a chancer.
For his new friends who were able to look past his background and the condescension towards “new money”, Lewis did belong. Worth over £4billion and with a yacht holding a full-size tennis court, the octogenarian is one of Britain’s richest men. On his walls hang Matisses, Picassos and a £26.3m triptych by Francis Bacon. Despite amassing so much wealth in the 1980s and 1990s, when his company ENIC began building up shares in a handful of football clubs in different countries, little was known about him. He preferred it that way. He does not even like having his picture taken.
The same could be said of his allies in the Levy family. Daniel had already managed almost a dozen businesses, a CV which in Lewis’ eyes made him the perfect candidate to be installed as Spurs chairman. Levy, then just 39 years old, had never intended to be as high-profile as his predecessor Alan Sugar. The Cambridge graduate had revelled in taking his seat among the other punters in the West Stand, completely unnoticed. He would nod knowingly as his fellow fans unwittingly preached at him about how their club should be run.
In his first programme notes 20 years ago, he reflected on what he had uncovered on those visits to White Hart Lane as a supporter.
“I know what it’s like to walk down a corridor in the grandstand and feel as if you’re in jail as the walls are unpainted and bare,” he recalled.
‘There are corporate areas at White Hart Lane with photographs on the wall but no captions; other areas with no pictures on the wall and nothing to signify the club’s history. They’re important to a club’s atmosphere. I learned a lot from being a non-executive director of Rangers. When you walk into Ibrox, you can smell the history.”
After the unflattering comparisons with his former side in Glasgow, came the mission statement: “We want to make Tottenham great again and to see this club competing in Europe every season.” It was immediately apparent that he was a detail man, even irked when the kiosks ran out of Maltesers for his son.
His notes were in fact a reproduction of an interview he had given in the Sunday Business magazine. That might have explained why they didn’t seem to be written with Spurs fans wholly in mind. ‘‘I’ve followed the Spurs since I was eight years old, but I’m not a fanatical fan,” he admitted. “The decision was made on business grounds, but obviously it is an advantage that I have been following the club for so long.”
When the new millennium had dawned, Tony Blair was into his third year of “New Labour”. In Haringey, not much seemed to have changed despite the optimism, but the new Spurs board had some ambitious hopes for the area. The 2001 financial accounts, the first since the takeover, had been a chance to lay down some lofty off-field plans. Levy announced that he had already identified two areas of the club in which he wanted to invest: “the Spurs Academy and the development of the stadium”.
Levy’s other main goal seemed an even bigger pipe dream. Reaching the Champions League had been a long-standing aspiration, one which seemed out of reach for a side that had not finished in the top four since 1990. Memories of away days at Oldham, Wimbledon, and those narrow escapes from relegation didn’t seem far off.
Now, after close to 20 years of ENIC, almost everything about Spurs has been revolutionised. Even the logo has changed and the motto has been anglicised – and in Tottenham, the club’s presence feels more inescapable than ever. Levy’s closest allies all state he cares deeply about the area and a quick survey of the N17 landscape, where the old White Hart Lane used to nestle in neatly below the tower blocks of Love Lane, is testament to the revolutionary vision which he has successfully instilled.
For some, question marks remain over the ambition of a board who have been so instrumental in developing Spurs’ global brand – and for better or worse, the heart of that conundrum is to be found in the towering £1bn Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
This is an edited extract of Tottenham, from the Lane: The Story of Spurs in N17 by Kat Lucas (Pitch Publishing, 2021). Available now.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3vIOfT8
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