Any top-level coach looking at Spurs will know that there is a ceiling to Levy and ENIC’s ambition. All Levy cares about is the top 4. THFC is a cash register and a brand to be sweated for all it’s worth.
Once upon a time, we had 2 world-class players in Bale and Modric, players you build a team around, but Levy wasn’t interested. A bit more investment at a crucial time and who knows what we might have achieved. Instead, we got Saha and Nelson.
Spurs finished 4th but lost out on Champions League due to Chelsea winning a domestic cup. Redknapp fell on his sword, and we were back on the hiring and firing bandwagon until Levy stumbled upon Poch (LVG was his first choice) Forward a few years, and we are blessed with 2 world-class players in Kane and Son and a number of top drawer players.
Kane is a once-in-a-lifetime player, a world-class player who cost the club nothing, a Levy wet dream. We finish the 16/17 season unbeaten at home and 2nd in the league.
The team and the gaffer are in their pomp and another couple of players suggest Spurs can be serious contenders. Again Levy shows no interest and instead sells the best Right Back in the Premier League to a direct rival and replaces him with a reserve for half the price from Paris St Germain.
The slow malaise continues and the gaffer’s warnings about the need for fresh recruits are ignored. The inevitable happens when the gaffer can no longer coax performances out of a squad that is sick of the sight if one another.
Levy then hires a serial winner perhaps a couple of years past his sell-by date but a winner all the same who has won trophies at every club he’s managed. Until he arrives at Hotspur Way that is.
He’s expected to wave a magic wand with players who are unfit, disinterested, and plain not good enough. The failure to succession plan for the departures of Dembélé, Vertonghen, Eriksen and the demise of Rose and Ali has finally caught up with the squad.
José calls out a few of the snowflakes but player power prevails and Jose heads off into the sunset on his Vespa with another hefty severance package courtesy of our bumbling chairman. So what next? What mud is left for Levy to throw at the shopping centre wall?
We’ve had the affable Dutchman, the babbling Spaniard, the Cockney Wheeler Dealer, the precocious Portuguese, the underappreciated Argie, and the manager who has won it all. Each one ultimately suffers the consequences of Levy’s meddling, his buy cheap buy twice approach.
Every one of them either had squads that were dismantled on them or handed squads that were damaged. But managers are now onto Levy to the point that you now have Graham Potter ruling himself out of the job in favour of the stability of Brighton.
Young coaches probably prefer to learn their trade at a low ranking club where they are allowed to lose a few games without being in fear of their job, where they don’t have to work under unrealistic demands of an autocratic chairman who controls everything from player recruitment to the tea bags at Hotspur Way. I saw one comment on Twitter the other day that struck a chord with me, it said ‘people are saying Kane needs to leave Spurs to win trophies, it is Levy that needs to leave for Kane to win trophies’ Chance would be a fine thing, what a joke shop THFC is right now.
Also, players that want to leave us to ‘Win’ stuff, well this season, Kyle Walker, possibly a treble winner, Erikson, Champions with Inter, and even looks like Trippier might be looking at a league winners medal too. That’s the sort of thing that worries me that kane and Sonny will be looking at this summer..
Agree 100%, and can you imagine how much better it would have been if Levy had not left Poch without new players for 2 years !!
This is 100% spot on H. Obviously the worst case was not backing Poch, then sacking him when it went wrong, but Poch was such a decent guy that instead of downright coming out and saying ‘Levy needs to buy me some new players to refresh this squad’, he was all polite about it. Regards Redknapp, I know people say that he courted the England job etc, but if Levy had backed Redknapp instead of the Saha/Nelson fiasco, then whoever came in after him would have carried on the good work. As it is that was the beginning of some great players leaving, Modric, then Bale etc etc. What says everything to me was when he sacked Jose, his press release stated ‘This group of talented players’. He actually thinks that a succession of managers will try to get a tune out of this current squad, and if success is not forthcoming then it’s the managers fault and he will be sacked. For me personally, i want a manager who gets his teams playing on the front foot, who is tactically aware enough to change things when they are going wrong (As bielsa did last saturday, extra man in midfield and bobs your uncle), and someone who knows where players are past their sell by dates and need to be replaced, and i dont care about him being some superstar manager..
Levy insults Spurs fans globally when he says he’s a Spurs fan too. This is a chairman who’s continually pulled the pants down of fans and managers since he got the job. Nothing will change with him at the helm.
last night Woolwich beat Chelsea to put them 1 point behind us. The icing on the cake of this season will be to see them finish above us yet again. Levy will take no blame of course. He never does.
ENIC OUT !
Just such a shame it didn’t end in a trophy, would have been talking about those years for decades to come if we’d have turned a couple of those finals into silverware 🙁
I would argue that the players are equally affected as the fans. The slowly lose all motivation.
Well done eleven stone and Harry for putting it up.
The truth hurts.
This would be perfect to send to Levy to give him a few home truths!
daniel.levy@tottenhamhotspur.com
Ahfukinmen! to that.
I love it every bit of this post very true to the bone. Now the question is the problem is identified and is clear, how you move forward and solve it is anybody’s guess. The gentleman is not going anywhere soon, the club is in debt £1 billion and the players most of them are league 1 level have no chance in the PL.
Maybe Daniel Levy will oversee a glorious future for Spurs on the football field. Let’s hope so.
One thing that is becoming clearer by the day is that the Pochettino era for all its flaws looks like a golden age compared to what we have now.
There are control freaks & there are control freaks. I wonder if Levy has ever been assessed. The must be a name for people who can’t prevent themselves from getting involved but when it doesn’t go to plan, blame the people below him. This is a joke shop with far too many jokes in it.
Hard to disagree with any of that.
Not being interested in achievement on the pitch when the opportunity presents itself has been the hallmark of Levy’s tenure. He and ENIC are wasting everyone’s time, apart from that of the investment company…