Tottenham Hotspur’s hierarchy has flooded supporters with communication this week after what has been described as a dreadful and near-disastrous season.
Non-executive chairman Peter Charrington opened with a letter to fans, followed by a statement from owners the Lewis family, before CEO Vinai Venkatesham gave two separate interviews, one with the BBC and one with the club.
A further club interview with Roberto De Zerbi also followed, making it an unusually busy period of communication from those running the north London club.
Venkatesham’s second interview, conducted with the club directly, was notably not promoted across any of Spurs’ social media channels, meaning many supporters would have missed it entirely without media coverage.
That absence of promotion was strange, particularly after such a turbulent season, given that fans deserve access to the words of those running their club.
In terms of tone, Venkatesham appears visibly affected by what has been a bruising debut season at the club, a far cry from the bubbly figure who was previously seen discussing wine with Daniel Levy.
The CEO is now using words like “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” showing at least a public awareness of how difficult the season has been for supporters to experience.
A consistent thread running through the hierarchy’s various communications this week has been an implicit pointing of blame toward Levy, whose 24-year tenure shaped the structures now being criticised.
Venkatesham stopped short of naming Levy directly, even stating “none of this is meant to be a criticism, by the way, of anyone or anything,” yet everything said pointed squarely at what came before September.
September is the key word, as that is when Levy departed and Venkatesham assumed full control of the club’s operations going forward.
“I think it’s fair to say that the club was in a much worse state when you’re able to look at it from the inside than I thought when I looked at it from the outside,” said Venkatesham in the interview.
He added that “Tottenham has been left behind in far too many of those areas,” referencing an acceleration of quality across all Premier League clubs over the past five years.
“This is not going to be fixed by a tweak here, a player here, a member of staff here, an investment here,” he said, calling instead for “a fundamental rebaselining, a complete reset.”
When asked about the January transfer window, a period in which no attacking players were signed while the squad suffered mounting injuries and the club’s previous top scorer had already been sold, Venkatesham gave a long but evasive answer.
The response never admitted fault in the January decision-making and never directly engaged with the question, resembling more closely a political deflection than a straight acknowledgement.
The stakes of that inaction were enormous, with one more West Ham victory potentially enough to send Tottenham down for the first time in close to half a century.
The words “sorry” and “apologise” do not appear anywhere in the club interview, a notable omission given what supporters have paid to watch across this chaotic campaign involving four head coaches.
Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor were only raised in the BBC interview, with Venkatesham coming close to calling the Tudor appointment a mistake without using that specific word, while never addressing the Frank decision with the same candour.
On the positive side, Venkatesham pledged investment in the wage structure, which he said “hasn’t been fit for purpose,” alongside transfer spending backed by the Lewis family to bring in top players within financial fair play rules.
“We will fix this, and that is the absolute focus of everybody here,” said Venkatesham, promising that owners, the board, and all club staff are united around returning Tottenham to where “it absolutely has to be.”
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