ENIC will be sensing Tottenham financial disaster - and it could cost Roberto De Zerbi his job
It's mid-September and Tottenham Hotspur are yet to win - or even score a goal - in the Premier League.
Saturday's 0-0 draw with Everton was the latest failure for Spurs, with many starting to feel a sense of deja vu about how the new season is going to unfold.
Last term, the North London club survived the drop on the final day, finishing 17th in the Premier League standings for the second year in a row.
Although it's early days and only four games have been played, but surprise, surprise, Tottenham are sitting in 17th again.
Spurs were able to play in the Champions League last season courtesy of the Europa League success under Ange Postecoglou, but with no European football in the new campaign, the club's financial situation is starting to become strained.
And with it looking as though another poor campaign is unfolding, which would leave the Londoners without European football for a third consecutive year, the economic outlook is starting to become unsustainable.
Why Tottenham's big-money summer spend is going to land them in trouble
Tottenham's first summer transfer window without Daniel Levy looked like a transfer window without Daniel Levy.
Only Liverpool (£219.4m) and Ipswich £(190.7m) outspent Tottenham's net spend of £176million during the summer, in which the likes of Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali, Savio and Jan Paul Van Hecke were all signed permanently for big fees.
In total, Tottenham spent £334m, offsetting that slightly with the sales of Luka Vuskovic, Cristian Romero and Djed Spence.
It's a huge outlay by Spurs and one that is so far biting them in the backside because the money they've splashed isn't shining through in their Premier League performances.
And that could spell trouble for Roberto De Zerbi, especially when Spurs have shown a tendency to drop the axe over the last year and a bit, with Postecoglou, Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor providing the evidence.
Why Tottenham's big spend and poor performances matter from a financial view
Speaking on talkSPORT last week, football finance expert Stefan Borson gave a worrying insight into what the future could look like for Tottenham if they continue to struggle in the league.
"I think one year out [of Europe] is probably manageable," he said. "They'll breach the Football Earnings test if they qualify for European football. Either way, whatever happens now they're already over that. On a three year basis you only have a maximum hit of €60m."
UEFA's Football Earnings Rule says that teams aren't allowed to have a loss of €60m in a three-year period.
Borson says that unless Spurs sell big early next summer, "they're likely to be in immediate breach of the football earnings rule".
And what's the punishment if Tottenham do break the spending rule?
UEFA will punish Spurs, but how they punish them will likely depend on how badly they've broken FER rules.
FC Astana were fined €100,000 and Partizan €200,000 for minor FER breaches during the 2025/26 campaign.
However, clubs from Kazakhstan and Serbia are hardly splashing the cash like a club in the Premier League, so Spurs are unlikely to get a slap on the wrist like those.
Ultimately, Spurs don't want to have to spend millions on a big fine, nor do they want to be hamstrung when they do eventually return to European football.
They should be fine if they can buck up their ideas and start actually winning games (scoring some goals would no doubt help, too), but right now, it's hard to see much going right.
ENIC will be monitoring this situation among many others, and they're all things that could have implications for De Zerbi.