The timing could not have been worse. The furlough and the bonus. There they were, side by side. A 20 per cent pay cut and a Government hand-out for the little people, a £7million bonanza for the executive breaking the bad news.
Daniel Levy, Tottenham's chairman, may not have been an outlier in his reaction to the coronavirus crisis, but the juxtaposition was little short of appalling.
No sooner had Levy announced that Tottenham's 550 non-playing staff had been placed on furlough — an enforced leave of absence, in which the Government pays 80 per cent of salary up to a monthly limit of £2,500 — than Tottenham's annual financial figures were released.