Levy surely has to ‘speculate to accumulate’ which admittedly goes against all of his natural instincts. However, the monumental task that lies ahead to reinstate the club as Champions League regulars is going to take real conviction at board level. If indeed that’s what they actually want for the club.
This starts with the Kane ‘situation’. Sell him, and you’ve got to replace him in some kind of way. What’s he worth? Whatever a buyer is willing to pay, is the short answer.
Let’s pluck a figure out of the air, let’s say £100 million. That alone will not fund a striker with anything like Kane’s goal return, nor will it also go on to fund the other signings we need.
If however, Levy could convince Kane to stay on, then the path to regular Champions League participation should be infinitely quicker and less expensive. By placating Kane, bringing in the right manager, and fully backing him, Levy could get his ducks lined in a relatively short time.
The stadium sponsors, revenue streams, emerging markets and all that other stuff he’s obsessed with will be greatly influenced by us being in the world’s elite club competition. He knows that Woolwich did their deal with Emirates when they were fully ensconced in the Champions League and looked like they were staying in it forever more.
Levy is many things, but looking at ways of getting hold of other people’s money to fund things isn’t something he’s ever been sloppy about. How does he do his sales pitch with us in the Dopey Conference playing teams made up of Belarusian sheet metal workers?
Basically, Levy needs to step it up because unless he does the whole stadium thing begins to slowly fizzle out. Interested parties might think of the place as more of a white elephant than this go-to destination… An elite facility needs something elite going on inside it, we are a football club and that thing happens to be the football team.
Levy has nowhere left to hide, and he’d be best served by listening to what would keep Kane at the club. The reports of him being ‘furious’ with Kane going public are quite frankly laughable, the laugh is now squarely on Daniel and nobody else. Don’t listen to people like Paul Robinson and their denial of what a mess the club is in. We are in a real mess.
Kane has to stay and stay as a happy camper. The alternative isn’t something that looks very good at all, either from a football, financial or commercial perspective.
Levy has to step it up.
Take Kane and his goals and assists out and we are pretty much relegation material and I agree quite dreadful to watch
Fascinating to have the same people for the entire aeason agreeing and piling on, but each time a give my honest opinion, you block me from your site. I see the same guys with little and no imagination reguratiing the same thing ever day for a year. HH I once wrote that i like your intrique and honesty, but I also said, chastizing players like Alli and Winks and putting Jose above the clouds was a losing situation. What he should have done is get rid of them, instead he kept them as beating sticks and they still there and he is gone. Our talisman is yet to score in 3 or 4 finals, but none of it is his fault.
What makes you think that Harry would have stayed if Jose hadn’t been sacked? It’s widely reported that he had to be persuaded to give it another season this year which suggests he had little confidence that Jose would deliver the success he craves.
As for him being the right manager I think it is a very questionable point. Despite being paid an eye watering salary we saw very little examples of his self confessed coaching skills and all we got in the end was the implosion that was characteristic of his last days of RM Chelsea and Man Utd.
I can’t speak for the whole of the fan base but I think the majority are quite pleased that his time has come to an end despite the clubs difficulty in finding his successor
Levy and ENIC are the worst type of predatory financial folks, all the time spinning the presence that they were fans. They aren’t and, more worryingly, they didn’t buy a football club to build and sell for profit. They bought an entire area and are able to wait this little football-related storm out to realize their returns.
It’s a monumental period for Levy, he simply has to get a lot of things right for this club to move forward, either with Kane or without.
The choice of manager is the first huge issue, followed by the releasing of at least 6-8 squad members, and then acquiring young or experienced, ambitious talent that have the right attitudes and character to improve and possess a hunger for success.
The new coach/manager has a strategy in place that can encompass all aspects, with a new mentality and determination to achieve as high a level as possible, and this is not beyond the realms of possibilities for this club.
However this would mean a change in the structure of the way the club is currently run, which has seen consecutive managers fail to reach the boards expectations, therefore in order to achieve this, ultimately it will take planning, with the manager having the total control of the players he wants to manage and moving on those that don’t fit.
Well something like that, but I won’t hold my breath.
Precisely.
Should have an answer to that within the next week or so hopefully.
He was also happy under Poch, he spent most of the next day at his house consoling him! He did very well under Jose but that’s not the point, the point is that we need a manager that can galvanise this rabble into a top four outfit.
That task will be made even harder if Kane leaves and if whoever it is isn’t backed, properly.
I’m not saying that any of the above will happen (knowing Levy), but it makes more sense than sticking to the low-balling nonsense and simply cashing in on Kane. It will take an awful long time to get back in the top 4 going that route. Then again Levy’s probably done his sums on Dopey League revenues anyway…
this
Penny ‘wise’ pound foolish is our Daniel..
I mean both commercial and financial, sell Kane (for say 100m) and what do you get in todays market that transforms this utter mess into a serious winning machine?
Yep, he’s a pillock.
I agree Marbs, I was just pointing out what any normal person or organisation might think of doing in this situation. Levy/ENIC and Spurs are not normal, they are bordering on dysfunctional…
I stand corrected…perhaps it was a panic to sign so many players to soften the blow before Bale’s transfer out was announced
Where’s the fun in a toy or video game where all you do is lose and get ridiculed, he is an odd chap isn’t he. Think it’s time for Joe Lewis to give Levy something else to play with, perhaps a coloruing book and some crayons would be a better fit.
Agree….we were a painful team to watch this past season. The brilliance of Kane was filled by the paranoid fear that we would inevitably throw away leads
The saddest thing is, if Man City came in on the last day of transfer business with a massive offer for Kane , Levy would take it and consider it a success regardless of the fact that the money would not be available for rebuilding the squad before the Window closes
What players will make a decision on their future when the club has no manager?
Lewis is probably investing in new technologies that allow him to take his wealth with him straight to Hell
Interesting, I was having a drink in a pub near the ground after watching a Spurs game v Blackburn game(David Bentley scored the only goal, for Blackburn) and a group of Norwegian Spurs fans asked me to take their photo.
Exactly that. They seem to follow a player rather than a team.
When we had Lee Young Pyo I used to sit next to some South Koreans in the old North Stand, they came to every game until he moved on.
He’d get you a cracking return on that one billion from property development which is his speciality. What I can’t understand is that Levy wouldn’t take advice on land development from Joe Public but he is Joe Public on purely on field football matters. Is it simply that Spurs are his two billion pounds toy and he is going to play with it how he likes?
I have a feeling that a lot of South Korean supporters are Sonny fans more than Spurs fans, probably followed him when he was at Bayer Leverkusen. I’d guess he makes a lot of money outside football and will only play where he is happy.
Martinez is very lucky to have an extremely talented bunch of players at his disposal,however he is yet to win anything with them.I would perhaps change my opiniion of him if he won the Euros,but he is a bit like Poch with us before it all went south.
We all know getting good players in early is exactly what is needed for a proper pre-season and get fitness levels up.But that is not how Levy works.As for pleading poverty when did he ever do anything else,except when selling.
Maybe wishful thinking BUT….it ain’t over till the old dame with a problematic body weight starts exercising the vocal cords.
Kane already made it clear he was happy under Mourinho’s managership. So bringing in the right manager has been and gone. Levy almost got it right but didn’t account for the no nonsense approach that Mourinho brings and the laziness of the likes of Dele and the incompetence of the likes of Aurier et al.
Kane has also realised he ain’t winning zilch with these as team mates. Sadly it’s pastures new for one of our own.
From what I understand, Inter are in dire financial trouble & are threatening to sell at least one player &/or impose a player pay cut to ease it, which Conte is not in agreement with & he wants assurances?
All of the above would be great, but don’t hold your breath. The most serious obstacle to the club’s success is the chairman.
Hope it’s true & does happen.
Exactly!
Not a great season but ONLY 5 pts off 4th place & 7 pts off 3rd place.
I believe, with the right manager (I WANT Antonio Conte) & the whole squad fighting for the same cause, THFC could be top 4 irrespective of what other clubs do, or who they sign, etc.
& as for Harry, IF we get a manager in like Conte, I think he’ll stay at least for one more season as Mr Levy isn’t stupid, he’d ask & not let HK leave for anything less than his true value, mid-contract don’t forget, so it’d be like the Luka Modric scenario all over again.
I hope, I pray & I’ll get an Obeah man to perform a ritual.
100% with you on this.
I was discussing this with a friend, both agreed that the only way out of the mire is for Uncle Joe to inject £200m for a squad rebuild. Give that plus player sales to the new manager OR new scouting setup.
If that’s the case, Conte has lost his marbles clearly. It might work if there was a Chairman to back him. Give it a year max…..
A good read but with little chance of fruition. The club is a toxic mess and Kane knows it will take several seasons, even with the right manager and serious strengthening of the team, to catapult us back into regular top four contention. We all hope that Levy finally comes to his senses and realises the error of his ways, but a leopard never changes his spots and this particular leopard has more spots than most.
To have even half a chance of persuading Kane to stay, there needs to be a cleansing of the Augean stables, in other words, a new board, credible and proven management, a new recruitment team,( come back Paul Mitchell), with the right analytical tools, scouting team, the manager to be backed whenever possible with his own picks rather than Levy’s modus operandi of a monkey throwing darts at the French league and new players to be in place before the season starts.
In order to do this, as East Stand correctly identified, Enic need to wake up and smell the roses. This means Lewis putting his had in his tightly sewn up pocket, and making a substantial interest free loan to the club for transfer purposes because we are so far behind our oppos1tion, it is frightening. Sadly , I do not see any of this happening and Kane does not have any more time to waste on Levy’s vanity project, rather like most of us.
You could give Levy a Man City style £1bn+ warchest and he’d still be wheeler dealing on transfer deadline day for a second rate backup striker and Championship quality CB. He’s clueless when it comes to footballing matters and that will never change. Either hire someone who knows what they’re doing to sort this mess out or get out of our club.
Utd will stick with Ole regardless.
Depending where you read, we met with Conte 3 weeks ago and have offered £17m a season which he is set to accept.
I don’t think we are a million miles away at all. We just need to revamp the defence and we are pretty much there.
We have no problems scoring goals, its the other end.
Keeping Son is far more important from a commercial perspective, I think Son is much more marketable than Kane. We have a different attitude to our national team and heroes.
Barry from Scunthorpe wouldn’t schlepp out to Taiwan if Harry was playing in that league. But South Korean fans will come to watch Son. This makes us as a “brand” far more appealing in the asian market (coupled with our main shirt sponsor).
Sadly I also don’t think there will be much impact financially/commercially if Kane leaves. Bale was our megastar, put on billboards in New York, anyone remember any significant impact when he left?
I also don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea that big sponsors will only go for elite clubs.
The Stadium will still attract big name sponsors and advertisers because the football is almost a by product. At the moment it is the best stadium in the world which will attract significant interest from any company wanting to advertise within that marketplace.
Imagine how many people globally will tune in to watch the NFL games there….If we have a company in place for the naming rights, they will get significant bang for their buck from those games alone, that’s without taking into account concerts, boxing and whatever else Levy wants to use it for.
Unfortunately I think what happens on the pitch will have little impact on Tottenham as a brand and as a venue.
The clever thing to do is start buying players now before a deal for Kane is announced. Plead poverty, push down the prices.
If players start coming in early like Max Arrons and more follow then I might believe Levy has made his mind up and doesn’t want to be fleeced of the Kane money.
That is exactly what happened with Bale – the 6 were brought in before he was sold…its not “Panic” buying, its just bad selection.
we got very lucky with teams not being able to score too. No matter how much we tried to help them. First half of games were decent I guess.
If Levy is to sell Kane for a windfall, it can’t happen until very late in the window. Any early deal for big money is just going to drive up the price of all potential targets and we’ll end up with a panicky bulk-buy similar to the proceeds from the Bale money again.
Levy is a complete ‘King Cnut. He has messed this up so badly i find it difficult to believe. We have gone from champs league regulars and finalists to about to lose our best players in 2 seasons! How different would things have been if they had actually spent £100 million on a pair of decent centre backs? I bet that would have paid for itself.
points wise we weren’t that far off but it’s the worst I’ve seen us play for a very long time
I disagree – we were off the pace, off the boil and lacked direction. Up until Christmas we looked good, but since we have been relegation form
And perhaps Utd if they don’t win tonight….
We weren’t that far off this season given how bad it was, just one handball on Dier v Newcastle then the rules changed and any win which we conceded dropping 20 plus points from winning positions.
It looks good, maybe, from Kane’s point of view
There is nothing we can do to keep Kane in my view. Its not longer about money (even if we were the club that could pay him the most), its about winning stuff now. We are AT BEST capable of winning the EFL or the dopey league thing, top 4 is a stretch next season. The season after (if this season is a good one) we could be talking top 4 MAYBE FA cup and or Europa. Then season 3, depending on doing the right things in season 1&2 we MAY challenge for honours. Kane will be 32/33 by then and would literally be gambling his whole career to win 1 major honour. Or he pushes, goes to city and wins potentially 3-4 in that 3 seasons.
Yes, there are short cuts, but even if Levy changed his spots, and Lewis decided you cant take the money with you, so pumped Oilargch money into Spurs, we need a manager, we need to identify players, we need to shift toxic players and instil a winning mentality. Not to mention get all these oil money players playing together. Even with this we are AT LEAST 1 season away from anything. Kane is not stupid, he can see this. He will go.
Well, Martinez’s name is up again so…..
Levy doesn’t give a toss.
Conte rumours are gathering pace. I get the impression he liked London and rumoured contract may be tempting. However, is this his final push at getting demands met by Inter ownership, plus there’s potential vacancy at Madrid in the offing.
Mr Jam Tomorrow has no choice but to get it right this time. I think he will do what he’s always done and spend like a seventh or eighth placed team. I know he got shafted on the stadium by covid but selling filled rolls at the highest price won’t work for ever with no filling in. Surprised he managed it this long.
Does it come with a free Skriniar or Conte?
Lukaku is on sale for 75m