Whilst one can never expect the CEO of a football club to vanish entirely into the background, it has been suggested to me that we may nevertheless be witnessing unprecedented times at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
A source close to the club tells me that Daniel Levy has done much of the preparatory work in terms of setting out what money is available and what salaries are agreeable. The choice of primary targets and discussions will be carried out by Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte themselves.
I take a view that to some fans, this will be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders. After all, Paratici is the Director of Football, and Conte is the head coach. However, to those of us that have been staring at the micromanaged mess that has managed to secure just one trophy in two decades, this is as close to how a real football club ought to be run.
With freedom (within reason) we may finally see what a Spurs side with a few quid in the hip might achieve.
It’s all a bit deja vu
I think it’s going to be a ‘hands off’ from Levy in the present to short term to allow Conte too get the team going well again and back or much closer to where we were during Poch’s best three seasons. Possibly ENIC are looking to secure the stadium naming rights, possibly they’re looking to sell, who knows.
This actually reminds me of what happened when Arry arrived, the team were plummeting and he came in and improved things quickly. Then the following summer he was allowed to bring in all sorts of journeymen and players he’d worked with before, then the injury prone 28 year old but still brilliant VDV. It was a different approach but Levy had no choice at the time as all other options had been exhausted, the negative PR of a club in crisis was seen as too costly.
However, is this ‘ambition’ to win something, to change habits at boardroom level? I very much doubt it, Conte will do well with us and then Levy will hit the reset button again, in about 18 months to 2 years…
So here in the States a similar team to Spurs is the NY Mets. For many years the Mets were owned by property managers who underinvested in the team to detrimental effect. When most of us had given up hope the team would ever be sold, partly because the owner wanted his son to stay onboard as President after the sale, no buyer would accept this. But, desperate for cash amidst pressure from creditors, the team was in fact sold to a large hedge fund manager who poured millions into the club immediately. One year later the Mets are the best team in baseball.
Not much room for expansion I’d of thought.
Micromanagers just don’t suddenly stop micromanaging. Like the story of the scorpion and the frog, it’s in their nature.
As much as I’d love to see Levy delegate transfer business to the real experts, I’ve seen enough micromanagers over the years to know that they can’t stay away for long. Maybe I’m getting too cynical, but I suspect Levy won’t be able to cope with not controlling something and will creep back into process.
I agree but we have a World Class stadium which has taken precedence over investment in the football squad.At less than half the cost of Chelsea surely that is an attractive prospect? I mean little Daniel is such a shrewd business man and land and property developer isn’t he ?🙄🙄
If this is true, I can’t believe it’s taken the facking tw*at 23 years to finally realise its best he kept out of matters he hasn’t got the faintest idea about. What sort of person IS this? Unbelievable really…
I read recently that the official value of THFC has gone up to £1.6bn that is way lower than figures quoted in the press but Racist FC were only valued at around £2.3bn and they went for around $4.5bn so Enic may be on to something.
I do remember years ago reading a report that stated if they sold it would be to owners that has passed all checks as responsible but that one of the conditions of sale was that the CEO would be kept on (and as an aside that this caused the failure of one bid).
Who the hell would spend billions on buying a second tier club with the stipulation that the shrimp was kept on as CEO (as he knows the business so well).
Cobham is a very nice area. Also the borough of Chelsea and Kensington is somewhat different to the borough of Enfield.
Let’s hope this is true. The bald little c@#^ has probably burnt so many bridges in the football world that he realises he’s a hinderance to any negotiations now. Hitchen got the bullet for his disastrous buys pissing Daniel’s money up the wall. Things looking up now 🙂
Chelsea have just been bought for 4.5 billion without a World Class Stadium or World Class training ground. If THFC was for sale at 2.5 billion then one wonders why they were not considered a potential option. Perhaps they were but they didn’t fancy having little Daniel micro managing the ship. One thing is for sure £150 million will look like loose change as the new owners at Chelsea a consortium of billionaires start investing in success on the pitch. The fact is that we have massive debts and have won one trophy in 20 years plus have a squad needing massive investment just to get it to a position where it can compete in multiple competitions. Levy and ENIC have hardly dressed the business well for a sale, I wonder if a Conte will be on the list of coaches that Chelsea may approach at the end of next season if Tuchel does not deliver.
yes the fruit in the orchard is ripe and the sugar is bubbling in the pan. I smell…….jam hope im wrong and it is indeed a seminal moment
Our leopard is really a little pansy. Plays hardball with clubs that are screwed and gets fleeced by the savvy operators like the chap who mugged him over N’Belly. He’s been played by Conte who is a winner and won’t stand for his nonsense. Going to be an interesting few weeks as we see if Lewis makes that awful caaant step away from the sporting operation.
Agreed. If it was, any new owner isn’t going to look at Levy and think he is anything but deadwood. The club has won a League Cup in 20-odd years.
The club ain’t being sold anytime soon mate. Pipe dreams.
Be Sadio Mané for a second. Why? Maybe, after next season on the back of a seismic upturn on the pitch and on the league table, maybe. But now? I think not.
Yessssssssss.. Exactly how the club should be run… Levy focus on the finance and income, and leave the footballing side to the Masters… He must have always done this to some extent, because if it was Levy picking and choosing the players then we’d have been relegated a long time ago.
I understand that Mane wants to leave England but for sure he’d be a great addition at Spurs.
My belief is that Lewis has instructed Levy to sell the club asap. Levy, however, would like to stay on with new ownership as President, managing the financial aspects. Thus he needs to demonstrate that he can step aside and allow football people to make football decisions.
The pieces fit for me. Conte signs a 17-month contract because Levy has told him the club will be sold and Conte will not commit until he knows whom the new owners will be. The 150m injection establishes a higher basis to reduce taxes and provides a distraction for the media whilst negotiations are conducted furtively.
Let’s hope this is true although I find it hard to believe in it’s entirety as it would be completely out of character. Having said that the Perisic deal is certainly not from the Levy playbook. I am quite sure that this was on the instructions of Lewis which Paddio mentions below.
Lewandowski throwing his I want to leave speech makes space for Mane in a less demanding league.
Delegation is a skill and can be learnt.
The business has grown, if the person at the top can’t change they become a hinderance.
I hope uncle Joe forced Levy to do this,
but it’s easier todo after recruiting Kulusevski and Bentancur. The real test is when a dud or two is bought which is inevitable.
The boy’s not going to leave Liverpool to come to Spurs, notwithstanding the fact that he still has one year left on his contract. It seems like, having won it all with the Bin Dippers, he is looking for a new challenge, in Munich apparently.
This seems credible H. For the reason that Levy has finally managed to recruit a Director of Football and a Manager who are not only demonstrably competent, but who are proven winners.
I suspect that the Romero, Bentancur and Kulu cycles are what finally convinced an inveterate micro-manager like Levy to extend trust to the professionals he hired and to delegate.
Conte and Paratici, unlike the abject Hitchin, are not ‘yes men’. They don’t need to be micro-managed and somewhere down the line Levy has seen enough to determine that he can take a back seat in up-front negotiations.
Notwithstanding that all the economic parameters will surely have been set, like you have reported, this is a very positive step in my book and there does, genuinely, appear to be a different vibe emanating from THFC and Lilywhite House these days. Long may it continue!
Just had a thought after my last post … Sadio
Mane ! Worth a punt Y or N ?
Can a leopard really change its spots ?
A narcissistical, egotistical, self centred, micro managing chairman like Daniel Levy wi forever have involvement in every single aspect of our football club. Nothing will happen without his stamp of approval first.
Fakinel.
I see the sun is coming out then…….