I think all Spurs fans share the same frustration when it comes to Daniel Levy. I have complained about him endlessly on this blog, and in my opinion, I think the positives and negatives of having him as a chairman are very simple to analyze.
Financially, he is no mug, and we can be very proud of both the stadium and the training ground. It’s definitely a tick for Daniel Levy, but we need to move on from it. It’s used in his defense every time he is criticized, and nobody is beyond criticism regardless of their past achievements. He’s known to be a tough negotiator and whilst that may have saved money in the past on wages or transfer fees I feel that long term this approach has been detrimental for the club.
There are clubs that simply refuse to do business with us, and now we are searching for a new manager this approach will not work with modern managers who know they need to earn the maximum over a short period of time.
This leads to my next point, recruitment. Specifically managerial/coaching appointments. You could argue that Levy has only got this right once in 20 years with Poch. If you remember at the time Louis Van Gaal was our first choice, but he decided on Ltd. The only manager he got right wasn’t his first choice.
I’m not going to dig too deeply into player recruitment, as I’m sure there are scouts or experts he uses or has used during the 20 years. He’s not fully at fault on this point, but I now believe the buy young and cheap and sell high approach is not the model we need going forward, especially in our new stadium.
To summarize, I think we can all agree that Levy’s skills are best suited to the club’s infrastructure. He does have a proven track record (not without costly mistakes) of getting projects finished. I know we can point out things that went wrong, but I think it is fair to give him this credit.
However, from a football point of view, his track record is appalling. One cup in 20 years, managerless and comfortably sitting at the top of the laughingstock table. If had a £1 for every Spurs meme I’ve seen in the last year, I could buy Harry Kane for my 5 a side team. For our club to move forward the solution is simple, Daniel Levy has to relinquish all control of footballing matters. All control.
At least 10 people in my twitter timeline are celebrating becoming a new ST holder today. Each of them have #ENICOUT in their bio and tagged to every one of their recent tweets.
17,377
Well said Enic and levy should not be afforded any credit/kudos.
The point being missed Sao Paolo Spur is that the shiny new edifices erected by ENIC and Levy, consisting primarily of our ‘world class’ new stadium, of which we are merely the ‘anchor tenant’, are only nominally for the benefit of the club. In reality they are world class liabilities of THFC, constructed for the financial benefit that will accrue to ENIC and its principals, in any leveraged buy-out negotiated by them.
This is a remarkable deception being perpetrated by ENIC and its conniving ownership duo, which requires a giant ongoing PR exercise, the purpose of which is to deflect any and all blame for the club’s limitless lack of ambition on the field from it’s principal architects, namely Lewis and Levy, to focus on the much trumpeted ‘generational legacy’ of the entirely debt financed real estate that ENIC have constructed.
So let me reiterate, for the benefit of the uninitiated. The primary purpose of the shiny new real estate construction, debt financed/collateralised against THFC, is for the personal financial benefit that will accrue to ENIC and its ownership axis of Levy and Lewis. THFC is viewed merely as a cash cow to be milked by ENIC Inc and Lewis’s primary front group Tavistock and its investors.
Furthermore, in spite of years of obfuscation of the truth, the following axiomatic operating principle has become blindingly apparent. The financial success of ENIC/personal enrichment of Lewis and Levy and the achievement of success on the field are alien and immiscible concepts and that is how it is undoubtedly viewed by the former.
ENIC are solely interested in investing enough in the team to syphon off the Champion’s League participation money. In their eyes further investment in the team is counter-productive as the additional money to be made from actually winning trophies does not compensate for the cost of paying for the players and salaries in order to do so. Quod erat demonstrandum, one minor trophy in 20 years of ownership.
100% they are!
Sterling is not all that, Southgate now considered a genius, Kane hardly got a kick till late on, the English fans showed precisely why they are disliked by other nations, and the team only won a match , not the competition , just sayin .
I heard it but I didn’t understand it..
Do you know what number you were on the waiting list?
You need to re-write that; it doesn’t make sense.
Today I received an email from the club offering me a season ticket (I’m currently a member). Are they struggling to sell them?.
Mace didn’t do the internal fit out , Levy’s own contractors were hired to save money
You cannot blame the contractor as the contractor will build according to a design specified and agreed upon by the the client ,the consultant (consultants works on behalf of the client to motivate payment certificates as milestones are achieved ) and the contractor. At the end of the day the responsibility falls on the client and his consultants to see that they are being offered or work done by the client is according to their requirements and standards according to that said country.While you are right that there might be an issue with the contractor, in my over 40 years of civil engineering ,having built football stadiums in south africa ,was involved in the construction of Hong Kong International Airport and numerous mines and hydroelectric dams ,I have never come across a project that has failed where it was only the issue by the contractor. For a project to be over budget by over 100% , this is a f up from everyone but the at the end of the day it’s the client job to follow milestones and risks carefully as they have the most to loose. When the contractor who got the job to build the stadium was awarded the contract, in the contract they would have asked for guarantees ( financial surety incase the contractor messes up the job then client activates the guarantees and will get all money lost ,money that will be lost and whatever financial issues that the delay or stuff up caused,most of the time this leads to the contractor going into administration or liquidated as to activate guarantees usually ends up selling the contractors assets),if it was a stuff up by contractor why was not the guarantees activated ? I can bet you it was largely a stuff up on Levy side
I 7nderstand the criticism from an historic viewpoint but he was excellent today.
So if it’s successful it’s all Levy and if it goes tits up it’s everyone else’s fault? Seen this before and now we are just tenants.
I do have one issue with the ‘business’ side of Levy. For years he and his media friends made the ‘we won’t do a Leeds’ his justification for no success on the pitch. We are closer to ‘doing a Leeds’ than anyone given the world-record debt we now find the club in. Is he really that competent?
Harry gets no service with spurs. Watch all his goals from last season. Watching England and watching spurs is the same thing. Boring.
Sterling divides opinion a bit but although he’s not a complete player, used the right way in the right lineup he’s very useful.
Ta. RDBT
I thought Harry looked decidedly leggy today.
Fair comment(s) there, Eastie.
Pretty fair minded comments from you there, I think, Eastie.
Agreed, Eastie. I know the builders made some mistakes but didn’t Levy keep changing the specifications and driving everybody bonkers!
I think we would have beaten Sweden but the Ukraine is my preferred opponent. If we get to the semis, I’m not too bothered but I would prefer the Czechs to Denmark.
Yes, Muller scores and it might have been curtains; in such moments are matches decided and it does seem as if the Gods or momentum are on our side. Unless there is a standout team (who don’t always win anyway), I believe the team that emerges triumphant in these tournaments is probably the one carrying that extra bit of luck.
I’d certainly say that he has been better value for money than either Sven or Capello. He may be somewhat conservative in his approach to games but he seems to have solidified a defence that was a definite achilles heel against the better sides. Yes, I would prefer to win with a more expansive game but perhaps this pragmatic, less exciting way is more likely to bring us success. I also think that he has been pretty good at bringing youngsters into the squad.
I thought it was a tense but quite absorbing game with a great atmosphere. First half honours in the end pretty even after the Germans had had much the better of the exchanges in the first 13 minutes; second half, I actually thought they were a little bit better than us until we scored (I thought, generally, they moved the ball around a bit better than us but we were pretty solid defensively).
All the media – including ex players – are singing his praises!
Is Levy really that great at delivering ‘infrastructure’? I’m not so sure he’s doing anything that a well appointed firm of consultants and development specialists couldn’t do. Then we could leave things like that to them and have a decent chairman running the football club rather than this clown.
I’m very happy that we beat them but as you say, Muller scores that and I reckon we’re out. However. look at 96 with Anderton hitting the post, Gazza failing to get his toe on that tap in which 9 times out of 10 he scores.
Now it’s the German’s turn to wonder about the ‘what if’s’ for the first time in over 50 years and not ours. We got bit of luck and perhaps we made it for ourselves a bit too?
I think it was a team performance, Stirling’s been getting the goals so is getting the plaudits. However, Kane and Grealish made that goal and Sterling is in the mood to poach at the moment.
I feel Sterling’s issue is his one on one finishes, however poaching chances created from other players input, allied with his pace and acceleration seems to be working well at the moment.
I am both supportive and patriotic and couldn’t be happier that we beat the germans. But that doesn’t make me blind to the fact that if you look at it, Sterlings performance was at best average.
Lets not forget he also damn near threw it away after gifting Muller the sort of chance he tucks away 99 times out of 100.
The BBC have gone mental about him, yes he has scored 3 goals but I maintain that he has cost us more than that in poor decision making, no end product and greedy play.
Nuno Santo ex Wolves manager is the next Tottenham Spurs team you heard here 1st remember Mendes won again.
Ukraine just won. Had them with Kane to score England to win in a double. The high st odds are so criminally bad only got 7 and half to 1.?!
Sterling was rubbish. He got another tap in.
Germany didn’t even turn up. England are set up to at least get to final, probably win it.
The National team is always a different kettle of fish to club sides. People might not feel particularly enthusiastic about Southgate but England have tried so many managers with little or no difference. Based on the World Cup and getting to the quarters this time in the Euros, he’s actually done just as well as those that went before.
Southgate is seen as an ‘FA man’ in the same way Woy was. He’s also intelligent and quiet but also seen as ‘vanilla’ and politically correct. For me, he’s just doing all of that by the book so he can get on with the job in hand. He skippered teams, played in defensive positions when the game still had many hard-nut forwards.
He’s probably slightly misunderstood but I think he’s a decent guy doing a decent job, a job that is a poisoned chalice…
He’s selfish because he has the midas touch. Why pass it if you got the confidence to finish yourself? In this country we always downplay individual brilliance for the sake of the team for some reason. The result is what counts and Sterling’s selfishness has won us 6 points.
He’s also scored 3 of our 4 goals and singlehandedly won us 6 points. Give the lad a break.
What just 2 matches away from the final? Not that far.
I agree, there have been one or two mouthing off regularly on here despite the good results. It’s a shame some Englishmen can’t be a bit more patriotic and supportive.
The betting market is all over the place, they know no more than we do. The odds are just based on the punters opinions that’s all.
We won a match between two very average sides which was as boring as anything i have seen this season,which is sayng something if you’re a Spurs fan.
Yes Sterling scored,but he is such a selfish player.The times he runs up blid alleys when there are much better options and he almost never passes to Kane.Harry was getting no service for 60 minutes.
Southgate plays his favourites all the time.We had so much attacking talent on the bech and he waited for so long to bring Grealish on.Sancho must wonder why he bothered to join the camp.The sooner Southgate goes the better,although I understand his contract is being extended so more boredom to look forward to.
I seem to have said this a day or two ago, but again I’m not defending Mr.Levy for his ‘criminal’ activity as far as the THFC football, squad & managers are concerned but the stadium delay was not his fault.
Mace, the building contractors, should be blamed for their oversight in not realising the ‘safety critical systems’ aka dodgy wiring was allegedly carried out by a colour blind, cack handed chimpanzee with parkinsons & no safety certificate would ever have been issued until rectified & the additional costs did actually include the ongoing court case against a cpo & an excess amount of work not originally scheduled amongst other things. (‘Double the original cost’ is an entire fabrication by the compulsive liars, er sorry, the UK press, the true figure has never been revealed).
But yes, he really needs to relinquish any & every footballing matter to the new DoF, the recruitment team & manager, when THFC finally appoint one. (Or is that an ‘IF?’)
NO Richard David Bernard Taylor. Sterling may have scored but he fluffs 4 times as many opportunities as he takes by holding onto the ball, being greedy, not spotting a pass or generally blasting it into the defenders legs or row Z.
He is a marginally more productive/less aggressive version of Lamela IMO.
And as for Southgate – well I do actually like him, but if 75 minutes of sideways and backwards had resulted in the Jerries scoring and winning then he would have been crucified.
Most negative England display I have ever seen. Got the job done, but my god if we play like that on Saturday I’ll be fuming.
Yes, you’re right but I think we’ll be in the final.We shall see!
Long way to go yet to sing Gareth’s praise and he has had long enough to sort it all out. let’s wait and see.
Spot on! The Portuguese goose is exhausted and NoNo emptied it of its golden eggs and we have already had enough of Mendes leftovers to do us a lifetime.
Could be another false alarm but Nuno’s odds have dropped and Di Marzio reporting its close.
England finally beat Germany and I think one or two bloggers on here should be apologetic towards Southgate and Sterling. Our defence was a weakness and Southgate has seemingly sorted it! He’s also introduced young players cleverly. Kane looked leggy, even a little elephantine, to say the least, but he got a goal as I thought he would today. THE BIG MOMENT, I feel, was Muller’s miss; it looked a nailed on equalizer, didn’t it? To be fair, I felt they moved the ball around a little bit better than we did but we had the BIG decisive moments.
We need to push on now, though; anything less than the final will be a massive disappointment – and under achievement! I think we’ll be there at Wembley on Sunday, 11th July. I have a definite good vibe about this tournament; I’ve had a hunch about this particular tournament for the last four years and our quite possibly winning it.
Yes the stadium and training ground are great. However, in terms of the stadium it cannot be overlooked that it was a year late and double the cost. For that, Levy gave himself a bonus and took money from fans knowing the stadium wouldn’t be ready.
Umm…its probably because he has a deal with the agent fee’s…Levy through and through….cheap….dof is an image not a cure….
Mendes who brought his clients from Mourinho, Gedson, Doherty, and Vinicius and none of them worked in the past is a friend of Paratici. this Mendes is the one they(Levy and Paratici)relying on to bring the new Tottenham Manager can you believe that and he is the one who tried to bring Gattuso who is one of his clients and also Nuno Santo and some fans are waiting from Levy to bring a manager I say clueless fans wait and see it is gonna be a disaster I say.