This is yet another one of those ‘we did our utmost, but alas’ moments for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, but for us the poor lost souls riding the ENIC Ghost Train it is another reminder that the buffet is closed due to staff shortages and the public toilets are beginning to hum – the funeral march once again.
Jonathan Veal of PA Sport is very good because he reports in his articles and doesn’t succumb to the passing on the thoughts of the club’s press officer – which by the way is invariably what the club wants to put out, opposed to the truth and nothing but the truth.
“Certain demands” we are told ended these talks. Whatever might they have been? (No laughing at the back).
The notion that Conte didn’t want to work with youth players, as expressed by other ‘reporters’ this morning, is unhelpful.
The reality of this situation is that Tottenham is not as palatable an offer as some of us seem to think they are. Daniel Levy’s humiliation is nearly complete, but I feel we really ought to keep going until ENIC have no alternative but to review their position and realize what some of us realized a long time ago.
Hearsay. But ranting at Levy on every crap is par for the here. Anything rile you up against Levy.
Apparently you all know the truth. Cause most of you here sings from the same hymn book. The fact he won with the team assemble. He fought with Erikssen rather than change the system. So even with the succes it is not enough. He has champion league money coming. Why walk away. If anything it show how much of a genius he is. Players do not get to say am done, am out. That is a slap in the face to the players that sacrifice.
It is Parker or Potter then old habits die hard, what do I know? Levy is so expert that he become the owner of Spurs and their fans sometimes you have to give the guy his credit he is so expert switching on and off Spurs fans at will and he never stops milking them at will again, please do not become defensive if you are Spurs fan you know it I know it the guy owns you give it up and give him around of applause cheers.
The prospective contenders are drying up due to the incompetence of Levy, what a mess he has made, his position should be questioned once and for all, embarrassing, except for him.
The truth is conte took a average team spent money just like all managers before him and won the league by a canter. Imagine if enic and levy got a top manager like conte in and backed him, getting rid of the dead wood we might just win something instead of just trying to finish in the top 4.
Boom.
Perfect.
This was all so predictable. Conte left Inter because they decided to curb their spending. To imaging he’d opt to sign on for similar circumstances, for a team that perennially operates under those conditions is just laughable
What is the truth?
Really Paul? Don’t do it to yourself. Conte will only work for owners that match his ambitions of winning top titles. The owners at Inter told him their ambitions were changing right after they won the league so he walked. Kudos to him for sticking to his principles. Levy is shi**ing all over our football club. Don’t go blind by letting the sh*t get in your eyes.
It does not matter what the truth is. As long as the narrative makes Levy looks bad. No one is concerned that before the confetti hits the pitch Conte was bailing of Milan.
Success for Spurs under Levy and Enic, resembles the cookie hustling bear, some of you older folk may remember, in Andy Williams TV show, who would received the reply from Andy, “Not now, not tomorrow, not never!”
Jose’s stock was falling and the job offers, once plentiful, were starting to dry up and he fancied a challenge; one he would not have taken up in his managerial prime. And, perhaps, having seen them in previous days once playing so well under Poch, he thought we had better players than we in fact did. I wonder if there was the shock of discovery for the Portuguese when he’d been working with his charges for a while that they were mostly mediocrities!
We’re like a house that has been left in disrepair for too long and is now derelict (like some of the buildings in my beloved Lisbon caused mostly by frozen rents!)
Like Bob Kelly, the Celtic chairman liked to pretend, in later years, that Jock Stein had been allowed to leave the club in 1960 so as to gain managerial experience elsewhere first. Stein, who was doing a brilliant job with the club’s reserves at the time (something of an embarrassment, in fact, to the hapless goings on of the first team) had actually been told by the chairman that he had gone as far as he could possibly hope to at the Glasgow club, presumably, because he wasn’t a CATHOLIC! A friend remembers Stein being in tears over it. Yes, how chairmen, CEO’s etc., like to impart their own spin on events!
All this merriment and laughter is doing me the world of good. Who would have thought that the farcical actions of one bald midget could be so good for you? “Jam Tomorrow” Levy, hopefully, is becoming an object of derision; he certainly deserves it!
Actually, reading it again, that really is quite amusing….and apt! I salute you, James.
Very good analogy, sir! Though, as an artist (a p..s artist!), Levy can at least be said to have an identity, a style all his own!
I’m laughing at the back, Harry! Seeing the funny side of the shambles that is Tottenham Hotspur and its hapless CEO is the necessary antidote for depression and… laughing is very good for your health, in fact much better for your health than winning lots of trophies! But, seriously, a good leavening of gallows humour is required to get one through being a Spurs fan – while remaining sane – and the long days journey into night that has been our experience since Enic took hold of the reins.
Conte I think we can agree is an expert on football. Like an art expert at Sothebys or Christys he has been called in to give his expert opinion on a painting that is going to be in the next sale of fine art.
Conte has given his expert opinion, it’s a fake. Not a bad effort, would fool the general public but when a world renowned authority gets a close up look it’s an obvious fraud.
Conte obviously listened to what the club’s plans were and said ‘no’. I see nothing wrong with that. Unlike some managers out there Conte is bigger than what Spurs can offer. Parker would jump at the opportunity for instance. A more pertinent question is ‘why did Jose take on the job?’ He stated when he got the job that the squad had quality! Only a fool would agree with that comment.
Conte: can I buy a player?
Levy: deals off.
Lets just stick to mason… He wouldn’t mind even if hes10th choice!!
“Certain demands end Antonio Conte negotiations!” As in …
Antonio Conte: …”I winna 5 a liga titles in 7 years Daniele. I wanna winna now!”
Don Levy … “Sorry Antonio that’s not how we do things around here. We only win one minor trophy in 20 years. You are not required to win trophies here”.
Don Levy … “We just want to give the apparency that we are trying to win things, to sell season tickets, without spending any real money”.
Antonio Conte … “Vaffanculo Daniele!”
until levy n co go it will not change
This also makes life very difficult for the manager that actually takes the job. What will he be 3rd, 4th…… 5th choice?
What a cluster f&ck!
I am 100% certain that Joe has never considered your suggestion. Just a feeling I have!
Sao Paolo has a point. If our players are not good enough for anybody as you say, why did Conte entertain the job at at all. A simple no thanks would suffice and the director of football seems to be coming anyway.
Yep, Levy doesn’t trust anyone to recruit footballers. He’s got to take the blame for that too.
Agree. Before starting the season as a middle table team, I’ve said it would take at least three transfer windows to reboot the team. no top manager is going to waste their career on bailing out a sinking ship; we need a manager to oversee a transition from middle table to top four before we talk of cups and title – therefore, we should be looking at managers like howe, potter, and so forth, not bullshitting the fans we are just manager away from being `Real Madrid
At what point does Levy ever get held accountable? Everything he has done for the last 3 years has raised the profile of the club internationally. On the surface that’s great, but he didn’t support a successful manager that could have delivered more in Poch, randomly decided that everyone else was wrong about Mourinho, spend a ton of cash on Bale and Morgan, and then bottled it before the cup final before letting a massively underqualified young man try and get us into Europe. Now he makes two very profile mistakes in trying to appoint two managers that are poles apart, and neither is ready to join the Jam Tomorrow Love Train that is ENIC. Now the Spurs friendly media outputs will blame Conte for that somehow.
Seriously how many times can a senior figure in an organisation screw up before his boss says enough is enough? Even if it is all about property and wealth growth, the damage to the public image of the brand is unrelenting.
At the end of the day someone will come and I bet it’s done in the next 48 hours and he will spin it that this was the man we were after all along
Working with Levy is an issue, but our players are not good enough for anyone, let alone Conte. Bar Kane and Son we have a distinctly average squad. Not replacing Walker, Dembele, Eriksen, Jan and Toby has killed us as a viable contender. Our back ups for these outstanding players became first team regulars and we have bought scraps for the most part. No one will convince me that Ndom is a player to take us forward (2 seasons and he still cannot last 90 minutes) and Lo Celso is always injured. When money has been spent it has been spaffed up the wall by incompetent recruitment. Levy is to blame, I agree, but for a whole host of reasons.
As attractive as Conte was, I never believed for one moment that Levy would manage to sign him. The amount of money the Italian would demand to turn Spurs into a true title contender was just not a figure Levy would even begin to consider. And in this observation lies a big and complex problem.
The fact is that if you are going to compete with Manchester City, and they are the benchmark, you need a comparable squad to theirs. Whilst they have not spent huge figures on individual players as a result of shrewd recruitment, the fact is that once they have identified their player they just slap the cash down on the table and get him. They don’t haggle to save £2 million here and there.
Whilst they may not have spent the biggest transfer fees when you look at what they have spent to build their squad, it is a high level of spending. Their shrewdity is not based on the false economics of buying cheaply to sell high but based on the sound principle of buying well, buying quality which they are prepared to pay for, to achieve the returns on the pitch which also guarantee the returns on the balance sheet.
What Levy has managed to achieve in these negotiations with Conte is the very clear statement that Spurs are unable to compete with Manchester City and therefore cannot be considered serious title challengers or even potential trophy winners. Our best hope is to be fighting in a lottery for fifth place with Everton, Arsenal, West Ham, Leicester and maybe even Leeds all in the hope of a EUEFA Cup spot.
We are now officially a second tier European team.
Levy has also managed to back himself into a cul-de-sac and then into a corner and then to hide under a table.
That he has entered into negotiations with a manager who could seriously mount a challenge not just for trophies but also to change the culture of Spurs and failed so publicly must mean that any other truly serious management candidate of the same calibre will first look at Conte’s assessment that Spurs can’t make it. Could it be said that those who may now take the job do not possess the same footballing nouse and insight that Conte does?
What Levy has achieved is to amplify the dreadful end to the season by heaping upon that steaming pile of disenchantment another great dollop of the brown stuff.
Jack.
I’m as cynical as it gets when it comes to Levy but I don’t think this is about season tickets. Neither do I think it’s about Conte’s reluctance to work with our “talented” youth. Let’s get one thing straight, sure, there are a few players who show some promise but to pretend that this was a deciding factor in hiring one of the worlds best football managers is nonsense. We know Levy thinks we are stupid and a lot of fans will lap that story up. I on the other hand believe different.
Levy is struggling. We sacked Jose in April, it’s now June.
He probably did have a plan and now he’s left red faced with the understanding that he’s burnt so many bridges, hiring staff has become a major challenge.
Daniel, the managers you are trying to employ do not have a problem working with young players if they are good enough. No manager in the history of football ever has. The challenge is clear, they have an issue working with you, Daniel.
Smoke and mirrors yet again. Last season it was Skriniar, before that Dybala. Getting a ready to go ‘winner’ was obviously too much for a club renowned for doing the absolute minimum. Conte rightly wanted players to make him and the team win, something Levy would have scoffed at (see Harry, AVB, Poch and Jose). Coming to play Doherty, Sissoko, Sanchez, Dier, Troy Parrot and Winks was never going to appease Conte. Jose should have done us all a favour and done the same as Conte, we would not have wasted 18 months of our lives seeing our club fall apart whilst others get on with the job of improving.
You would think joe Lewis with his age would think if I pump money into Tottenham before I snuff it I will be remembered forever he’s sitting on a few billion pounds and could do it if he wanted . He’s as bad as levy we got the wrong billionaire
This pantomime was just all about selling season tickets I reckon, very suspicious coincidental timing again.
Unbelievably there are still a handful of numpties out there defending the indefencable, I saw one on the Chris Cowling show last night, deluded. Not only is it no jam for the foreseeable future but it’s no margerine let along butter either. In fact the bread is being removed too!
Previously a private investment trust, English National Investment Company was floated on the London stock exchange in 1997 as ENIC plc and became a holding company for sports, media and leisure businesses.
It’s not in Levy’s DNA to understand the actions needed to get this club winning.
I’m guessing it will be between Parker and Potter. The dof if he is taking the job has been brought in to find freebies that is what he did at juve. Levy who a web search now says is worth a billion doing it the cheap way again while flogging the pipe dream to the fans of not today not tomorrow but someday.
This is the clearest demonstration of ENIC’s ambition to date. But keep drinking the KoolAid kids, we might get Howe!
At least they sold some more shirts and session tickets eh? Glory glory!
Levy is clearly clueless. Conte is such a different manager to his original shortlist, so why go for a manager who likes spending lots of dosh, having control and winning stuff. These are things we never let our coaches do. It never made sense. Pure desperation. Why we haven’t gone for Christophe Galtier I’ll never know. Back to the drawing board. Levy, please go (but he won’t)
Were we ever serious about conte or was this just another levy spin to get fans to renew the season tickets. Going from outsider in the betting to 1/20 the day before its renewal day for fans. Levy at it again.
What does” Enic have no alternative” actually mean? Does this mean that they realise that they will never make a success of the football club which is what the fans want but is demonstrably something Lewis doesn’t give a jot about and that they will put the club up for sale? Or does this mean that Lewis has finally realised that Levy is an utter incompetent, loathed by his own fans and by most of the administrators and chairmen in the PL and in European football and that the club’s image is being destroyed by the narcissistic tendencies of a football failure and that the only conclusion is to either sack him or downgrade his responsibilities to counting the bog rolls in the executive boxes?
We are a laughing stock and there is only one man who is responsible. The jig is up for Levy. Time to go.
imagine telling a serial winner we don’t expect you to win straight away,
imagine not backing the notion of backing him
imagine low balling the wage just to save penny
Daniel levy everyone
Wants fans to pay top dollar for a something that Levy has said winning is not a priority. Gerald Ratner moment if there ever was one
We are screwed. No manager worth their salt wants to come. Levy thought this was just another fire and hire. He didn’t think that everyone would finally suss him out. But guess what…… Levy was wrong. This time it is different. Nobody will believe him anymore. He has been sussed. He has no credibility. I’ve said it before, I think the best we can hope for is Martinez.
You’ve been proven right, H. Conte is a world class manager at the top of his form. If given backing he would produce results, and offer attractive football.
He sussed he wouldn’t be given the backing he needed, and backed out (he isn’t a mercenary – he doesn’t work just for money – he wants to know he can succeed).
He was never going to join us levy should never spoke to him back to the drawing board my money is on ten haag
Laughing stock 🤬