In other respects, Levy has been at fault – recently in his dithering in the whole Fabio Paratici shambles. Photograph: James Williamson/AMA/Getty Images

It is an indication of the shifting patterns of wealth that the five English clubs providing stadiums for the Euro 2028 bid are City, Spurs, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Everton, a group that would take some explaining to a visitor from 20 years ago – and in Everton’s case, may take some explaining in 2028.īut financing the stadium meant trimming budgets elsewhere and that, as much as anything else, was what checked Spurs’ rise under Mauricio Pochettino by making it impossible to refresh the squad as he would have liked.Ī dejected Richarlison after Bournemouth’s dramatic win at Spurs last weekend. Levy has done the best thing a non-state-backed club can do, which is to build probably the best club stadium in the country, a solid generator of revenue (unless there’s a pandemic, the timing of which was highly unfortunate for Tottenham). A season outside the Champions League does not have a devastating impact on spending. But the great advantage in effect limitless wealth offers is that clubs can afford to make mistakes. Which is where Daniel Levy is due sympathy. With the power of a state behind them, Newcastle should be able to accelerate away from Tottenham just as surely as City did. Nobody expects them to win and the sense must be that even if they do, even if they can qualify for the Champions League with all the advantages that entails for squad-building, in terms of revenue and attracting talent, it may ultimately be as meaningless as that win at the Etihad Stadium 13 years ago. Despite everything, victory would lift Spurs level with Newcastle, albeit having played a game more. Sunday’s match at St James’ Park is another crossroads. They did it last season against Arsenal, but it is Arsenal who are challenging for the title. The reputation for Spursiness, their capacity to falter at key moments, is not unearned, but Tottenham do win quite a lot of these decisive games. Tottenham enjoyed their European run – Gareth Bale destroying Maicon, Crouch’s winner against Milan, Joe Jordan squaring up to Gennaro Gattuso since then City have won the Premier League six times.

Crossroads jonathan