On Friday night, Tottenham Hotspur ended a totally unnecessary weeks-long gambit of uncertainty around manager Ange Postecoglou by simply giving him the axe. The fact that they waited so long to come to any sort of a decision or offer a public notice of their future intentions left everyone thinking that Postecoglou would stay after guiding Spurs to a historic Europa League title triumph against Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Spurs were stuck in limbo and unable to make any approaches on the transfer market, losing out on top targets like Rayan Cherki while watching the very club they beat on the transfer market sign one of the best players in the Premier League in Mathus Cunha and rule them out of a similar caliber player in Brentford right winger Bryan Mbeumo.
For long suffering fans of Tottenham Hotspur, this is just another June, but, at some point in over 20 years of this charade, the nub on the end of the pencil has been forcefully erased down to metal scraps that are ready to chafe and gnaw at the pages of history.
And the history of Tottenham is as grim as Juventus legends Antonio Conte and Giorgio Chiellini have painted it. In a recent piece, The Telegraph's Matt Law outlined just how little ownership group ENIC and chairman Daniel Levy have invested in the club since taking over the miraculously still-floating ship in 2001.
Tottenham's spending under ENIC is unbelievably miniscule
ENIC themselves have spent just 122.1 million pounds to fund Tottenham since 2001, which averages out to around 5.3 million pounds per season in investment. That is such a paltry figure that there are teams with no Premier League success to speak of that have invested significantly more than that in their football clubs.
The fact that Tottenham have won the Europa League and competed for Premier League and even Champions League titles in these last nearly 25 years of ENIC rule is a testament to the incredible people and fans that have populated the organization's grounds over the years.
This figure paints the most indicting and biting picture possible of the magnitude of the fundamental, long-standing issues that have plagued this club. How can Tottenham compete with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, or even Arsenal and Liverpool with this little spending? Signing and retaining the world's best players is an impossibility under this miserly, miserable model.
The firing of Ange Postecoglou has opened new wounds for Tottenham fans, who have scarcely had time to celebrate a beautiful and historic Europa League campaign. Now, the focus and the ire are turend back to Levy and a club that seems more callous and cruel than merely incompetent.