I think Levy now knows that he has screwed up: thus the statement. I understand he has been over with Joe Lewis and maybe the extent to which he dragged the ENIC flag through the mud was a topic of conversation, between sips of pink gin and tonics and spreadsheet reviews that is.
Projects hinge around three components: Time, cost, and scope – change one and the others have to change to accommodate. You want it quicker? Hire more people (increasing the cost), or make it smaller or of lesser quality (reduce the scope).
There is another element though and that’s “out-of-scope” considerations. This would be things like the extent to which people, (consumers, residents, or in this case supporters) can be pressured to absorb the inconvenience, delays, etc., whilst still contributing at the same level. In the case of THFC this leveraging of the fan-base, supported by waiting lists for season tickets, shirts, and merchandise sales and manifested in two years at Wembley, has allowed Levy and ENIC to complete the initial phases of the property development plan…… Basically at our expense!
Levy has found it far easier hide his ineptitude at the overruns on cost and time (due to his scope coming to include the NFL and his inevitable cack-handed interference and micro-management), due to Poch’s success on the field and the money it generated. The uproar otherwise would have been deafening and the credit far less easy to come by!
But Levy got away with it because Poch was the one making the headlines and when Poch ran out of steam we were served other distractions like Mourinho and Gareth Bale. There is always a slip road to divert traffic away from the mainstream highway of the property development. But (and forgive the ongoing metaphor), the bitumen has run out, we’ve run out of the road and now face a stony path ahead!
We are, and always have been, the “out-of-scope” buffer. But the buffer has woken up – Levy has run out of excuses and as the spotlight has turned onto him, it’s showing the dirty secrets. Somehow he has escaped criticism by the media, who have been content to scapegoat Poch and then Jose..but then”’ we the football fanbase, are the “out-of-scope” buffer for the media to employ press release shufflers, instead of real (and more expensive) journalists.
But an uprising has started, and it’s coming from the grassroots, causing Levy to spin whatever he can to divert criticism and blame for the current situation. But when even the amateurs of the mainstream media start to notice, re-arranging the deck chairs will only divert for so long. Levy cries Covid, but everyone has the same conditions. I don’t quite agree with you H about the insurance thing: 91 out of 92 didn’t take up the insurance, Wimbledon we’re the dummies who bought everything the salesman sold them and sort of lucked in having cover when the unforeseeable hit.
But Wimbledon did not make Champions League or even the Ropey – no, 6 other teams did, all of whom did not have cover: my point is that they were on a level playing field, same as us as far as COVID-19 was concerned and………does anyone really think that if we had been insured it would have made any difference to the subsequent events at THFC?
Levy was right about DNA – however, he failed to note that his DNA is not compatible with THFC. He is a rogue chromosome changing our DNA into something less – it only takes a tiny degree of change in our DNA to turn a man into a chimpanzee.
Levy and ENIC are not in our DNA sequence, they are mutagens trying to change our DNA one cell at a time: viruses trying to replicate through the THFC host cell… but you don’t need to be an exobiologist to understand that to THFC, they are the equivalent COVID-19!
