American investment firm declares interest in Spurs

Remember earlier this week when reports emerged that Spurs would be for sale for £1 billion? Well it would seem where there's smoke, there's fire. According to the Telegraph, the American investment firm Cain Hoy has expressed preliminary interest in purchasing Tottenham Hotspur.

An offer has yet to be made by Cain Hoy, who it should be noted, launched operations 24 hours ago. According to a statement:

"In accordance with Rule 2.6(a) of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Code"), Cain Hoy must, by not later than 5.00 p.m. on 10 October 2014, either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Tottenham Hotspur in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or announce that it does not intend to make an offer, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. This deadline will only be extended with the consent of the Takeover Panel (the "Panel") in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code.

"This announcement has been made without the consent of Tottenham Hotspur. A further announcement will be made in due course."

So it would seem that this is - wait! What's that?! A CLUB STATEMENT FROM SPURS APPEARS! IT'S SUPER RESPONSIVE!

Tottenham Hotspur Limited ("THFC") notes the continuing press reports surrounding a potential takeover and the announcement released by Cain Hoy Enterprises, LLC ("Cain Hoy"). THFC confirms it is not in takeover discussions with Cain Hoy or any other party.

As stated in yesterday's announcement regarding the new stadium project, THFC has been in discussions with multiple providers of finance so that the optimum financing package for the project can be achieved and, in the course of those considerations, has met representatives of Cain Hoy. However, there are no ongoing discussions with Cain Hoy.

The Club is focused on the new stadium development and the season ahead.

Now, while it would SEEM like Spurs are making a categorical denial here, it is important to note that both statements are true. Basically, Cain Hoy are determining if they're interested in making an offer, Spurs haven't been negotiating with Cain Hoy yet, and Cain Hoy now has a month to make their intentions known.

Now what does this mean for Spurs? Who knows.

Despite the protestations of David Conn, I find it difficult to say American ownership of English soccer teams is Satan Incarnate. On the one hand you have the total disaster that was Hicks and Gillett and on the other you have Liverpool's current regime, which has been both successful and not exactly cheap. Somewhere in the middle, you have Randy Lerner at Villa, who certainly spent for a while until he saw exactly how much of his money went into Emile Heskey's bank account and subsequently gave up. Then we have the Glazers, who are apparently terrible and sucking Manchester United dry as they spend approximately eighty gagillion dollars this transfer window.

It should be noted, for the benefit of the hashtag brigade, that Cain Hoy's interest is being led by a London-born investor, but I'm certain that will make little difference in the hysteria that is sure to be unleashed in the Spurs community.

Regardless of this, we have no idea what to expect from Cain Hoy. Zero. None. Nada. They could turn us into City or Aston Villa. We don't know. What we do know is that the people calling for the end of ENIC might prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't.