Tottenham’s season is starting to unravel and unravel fast and Daniel Levy has some massive decisions to make in the upcoming weeks and months.
When Jose Mourinho was hired it showed ambition from the Chairman, he went out and employed one of the most high profile managers in the game, one with a proven track record at winning trophies.
Hiring a manager like Mourinho would have gone some way to convincing the likes of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min that they could fulfil their ambitions in North London.
That no longer looks the case and even if silverware is delivered this season in the form of the Carabao Cup, will that be enough to placate Kane and Son? Probably not.
When you consider both players are in their late twenties with time running out will they want to spend another season at Tottenham, outside the Champions League and under a manager that may have lost his midas touch?
Levy is going to have to weigh up the cost of persevering with Mourinho if it is going to cost one or both of his star men.
Mourinho can still turn it around and win the Carabao Cup and Europa League, which would mean qualification for the Champions League and with a couple of winners medals under their belts and Europe’s elite competition to look forward to, Kane and Son may well elect to stay but let’s be honest, winning both trophies does look unlikely right now.
The harsh reality is that Son has not signed a new contract yet and Kane has already made it clear that he will not stay at Spurs for the sake of it and that surely means that the possibility of either player departing in the summer is a very strong one.
Yes, Levy has some decisions to make, some big ones and he has to think like a chess player, a couple of moves ahead because if he does not then he could find himself without his high profile manager, the loss of his two biggest assets, an empty trophy cabinet and a club in the sort of debt that could hamper the club for years to come.
It’s sad, that’s what it is!
Levy will spend it wisely, but not in a “Football Sense “. Levy has been very lucky in getting out of various Sticky Situations, this one is the biggest challenge though.
Its funny that some still think that Levy will change.
For all he has given our club as in literally 60 points or more ,it will be such a shame.
I hope it is smooth for Harry, if enic are not decent about it the spot light will just get brighter.
If stadiums are open next season and we are playing at current standard I’m hoping 60k worth of fans call levy and enic out.
Worth the wait.
I’m going back to bed…
😂😭
Looks hopeless. Levy will not want to sell Kane for less than 150 mil quid but no one is going to pay that this summer for a 28-year old with a history of ankle injuries that impact the player once or twice a year, especially given clubs’ finances after a year and a half of COVID and no paying fans in the stadiums. And Kane’s contract goes through until 2024, so Levy has upper hand unless Kane hands in a transfer request and plays the Bale/Modric/Berbatov move and goes on strike. Son’s contract goes through 2022 and with him postponing contract renewals, he has a bit more leverage versus Levy, and in some ways is at a price point that is doable for a select number of clubs (and Levy still won’t get what he is really worth given COVID) but certainly Levy might be more willing to sell on because of Son’s age (29) and his contract situation. So maybe we get 60-70 mil for Son and if we clear out some more deadwood maybe get another 40-60 with the sale of 3-4 players. So what will 100-130 mil do, especially when some of it will have to go towards repaying the 175 mil borrowed from the government during COVID (never mind the stadium debt) as well as potentially paying out another 30 mill to Mourinho for the rest of his contract if he is sacked? Looks like a long night and the only thing that I can see happening is a complete rebuild with young and inexpensive talent with a young coach (and not Nagelsmann as why would he want to jump ship from Leipzig to Spurs right now). So it’s going to be a tough slog for whomever is brought in by Levy/ENIC. It feels like the start of mid-table mediocrity for quite a few years ahead of us.
Son or Kane are outa here. Most likely Son. Certainly not both. Right?
League Cup is irrelevant to this discussion. Winning the Europa League, and consequently qualifying for CL might, just might, go a little ways towards persuading Kane to put in another season.
But let’s face it, right now, you wouldn’t risk a fiver on either of those things happening.
On one hand I feel embarrassed and sorry for a manager – sorry, Head Coach – of José’s ilk who looks certain to have his illustrious record of winning everywhere undone at our club by our chairman. But the other part of me thinks, you’re an intelligent man. Surely, SURELY you knew the form of Daniel Levy before you started to flog his dead horse for him!
As much as I’d trust Keith Floyd with minding my bottle of 1996 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
No.
If we got €200m for Kane & Son would anybody trust Levy to spend it wisely even if it did go on players?
Levy’s too busy thinking about how to spent that £2m bonus he got when the stadium got finished to care.
According to Levy we have “no compwehension” of how hard it is to get transfers over the line, good luck finding a post Covid buyer who’ll pay what he’ll demand for either Kane or Son and also the process of replacing them? The expression ‘like pulling teeth’ doesn’t even cover it!
There are two issues is how we update the playing squad, and if we use Liverpool of a few years ago the went and got a centre back and goalie to raise the bar. Even Jose mentioned that last year so it’s a glaring hole in the side that we won’t put right. So where we are is no real surprise if you’ve been listening to the gaffer.
Then reinvestment into the squad do we sell to buy, could 4 for 5 50mill+ plus players transform us with the loss of Harry and Son, maybe but Levy won’t trust a manager to oversee this so we will end up with not good enough players and we’ve one we still haven’t got rid of from the Bale money.
It’s tough choices as Enic won’t sell, or even get the asking price they want. And levy thinks he’s a football genius with so many people blowing smoke up his arse (which includes Potch).
I’m no Jose fan but this has been coming and the time we were the only club to not spend a single thing in 2 transfer windows, or just Lucas Moura in 3 has now rippled and we are feeling the effects, stuck with average players like Dier (Who i have no idea why Jose loves) Davies, LLoris, and Winks, no doubt we will go for the cheap option to try and improve our defense.
Cannot see this team winning anything. Carabao cup final could be a horror show if City continue performing as they are doing and as for the Europa -well we haven’t yet played a decent side so I can only see more heartache/disappointment to come. Our PL current form is relegation standard. There is no reason for either Kane or Son to hang about they have surely seen enough and they may not be the only ones. We all know that under investment in players will continue when they leave; it’s become a trend under this regime. I believe Jose knows that churn is an important dynamic in football and our team is in a deteriorating, slow moving but certain downward spiral.
And then see how he reponds when Levy turns it down! Does he do a Modric/Berbatov/Bale and refuse to play? This is all going to get very messy!
It will be “well, they wanted to leave and there was nothing we could do about that…”, quietly omitting the fact that Kane and Son could have been kept at Spurs if the team was sufficiently strengthened over a sustained period of time, not actively neglected.
If they are sold and not replaced by PROPER players (maybe some of those 40M academy players are being readied?), we might as well pack it in and stop pretending to be a club with aspirations. Anyway, Kane won’t be replaced, as there is no player like him, and even if we do replace Son (doubtful), losing him would also mean losing a lot of the commercial pull Spurs have had in Asia.
Also, given the staggering debt and no – or not enough – fans in stadiums, would Mourinho (or a fashionable trophyless young German replacement) get the Kane-Son sale money to improve the squad?
The only possible positive is that weakening the squad even further will shine a light on Levy, and even more fans might come around and realise the amount of leeching and foolishness going on in Tottenham.
The time to finally drive ENIC out and become a proper club feels close.
The summer window going to be maybe one of spurs biggest selling and lowest buying windows ever
I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Harry hands in a transfer request.