Sunday’s 2-1 loss at home to struggling Leicester City was a chastening one for Tottenham Hotspur, but the vast majority of the ire from supporters wasn’t directed the way of boss Ange Postecoglou.

It was chairman Daniel Levy who bore the brunt of the anger from fans as Spurs slumped to another defeat, leaving them 15th with just one win in their last 11 Premier League games, with that success coming against rock-bottom Southampton.

For Postecoglou, his job has not been an easy one this season with the list of injured players ever-growing, with key personnel, especially in defensive areas with the likes of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, as well as striker Dominic Solanke, meaning that the Spurs squad has been stretched to the limit, and is likely to continue to have to do so until the end of the season.

Criticism of a boss whose side are expected to challenge for Champions League football but instead find themselves closer to a relegation battle would usually be entirely understandable, but it is Levy facing the sternest criticism.

Champions League football being achieved at the end of this current season seems almost impossible from the position that Spurs find themselves in, so looking ahead to next term it already seems fair to assume that there will be no European competition.

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The Champions League has been a major financial boon for the club in seasons past, with the return in 2022/23 to European football’s elite knockout club competition, a competition they reached the final of back in 2019, providing a boost to revenues.

In the four financial years between 2015 and 2019, Spurs made a pre-tax profit of £314m, the next highest being Liverpool at £187m. Now, much of that profit could be attributed to the sales of Kyle Walker to Manchester City and Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, but the needles were all moving in the right direction heading into the club’s new stadium in 2019.

The new stadium has provided a huge boost to matchday and commercial revenues, with total revenue now up to £529m for the 2023/24 accounts that are set to be released, with the figures appearing as part of the Deloitte Football Money League report that was released last week, where Spurs fell one place to ninth.

Making the jump from 10th to seventh were Spurs’ fierce north London rivals, Arsenal. The Gunners have been a club that have been forced to endure some lean years, with the return to Champions League football for the 2023/24 season being the first for seven years, during which time the club had lost plenty of financial ground.

But Arsenal have managed to see revenue streams across the board increase at the same time as competitive success through investment in the first team.

However, a look at estimates for the 2023/24 accounts from football finance expert Swiss Ramble shows that Spurs’ amortisation charges, which is the cost on the balance sheet of player incomings, where the guaranteed sum of a deal is spread over the length of the contract, is set to jump from £108.6m in 2022/23 to £141.7m for 2023/24. A pre-tax loss of almost £42m is predicted on the back of losses of £94.7m and £61.3m.

Arsenal’s amortisation charges, for example, are tipped to rise from £139.1m to £175.9m after another summer of heavy investment.

Spurs’ losses for 2023/24 will be stemmed by the profit made on the sale of Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in August of 2023, but with player trading having otherwise slowed down, and with the club having little room to engage in such things this January, 2024/25 may be another challenging year, and the following financial year, where there will be no Champions League football again, may be another bruising one.

Spurs have had to pay compensation to a succession of managers since Mauricio Pochettino left in 2019, with Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, and Antonio Conte all walking away with tens of millions. Should Postecoglou be sacked then it would likely be another £10m plus to pay up for the Aussie boss, and then beginning a search for a boss with no ability to change the squad until the summer, with a lengthy injury list. It may be a case of assessing what can be gained from making another loss on sacking a boss at such a time.

But it is understandable that Spurs fans direct the anger the way of Levy. The club has sold its prized assets over the past decade, and while there has been a fantastic new stadium that has arrived, one that will enable them to compete at the highest level for years to come and reduce the reliance on broadcast revenues increasing every cycle, there has been little progression on the pitch, regardless of who has been standing on the sidelines. The football strategy has not been as advanced as the business one.

But the kicker is that the job for Postecoglou, or whoever holds the title of boss this summer, is that a repeated lack of Champions League football will impact what can be done in terms of additions moving forward, as revenue will struggle to achieve growth over a prolonged period when there is no prize pot to boost it, as in the way that Liverpool and Manchester City have been able to do for several years, while Arsenal have now returned to that group and Chelsea look like being on the cusp of challenging for top four football again.

The good news will be, however, that Spurs’ wages to revenue ratio remains healthy, and if the projected figures for 2023/24 are correct, then the club will have a squad cost ratio, which is to replace PSR from the start of next season, of around 69%, which is under the 70% threshold for UEFA competition qualifying clubs, and 16% under what would be allowed for others, meaning that there would be some room for manoeuvre.

Spurs’ crisis this season is borne from a threadbare squad, and one that has been exposed through significant injuries. The club is some way behind the rest of the so-called ‘big six’ when it comes to spending, and that has turned out to be impactful as they haven’t been able to piece together a squad capable of sustaining success at a time when others are starting to knock at the door, such as Aston Villa, Newcastle United, and Nottingham Forest, while Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth’s strategy has allowed for them to surpass Spurs.

The anger comes from perceived inaction when it comes to addressing the actual product on the pitch and not just business that surrounds it. For that, many fans certainly think that it is Levy who carries the can.