In footballing terms, Levy is just as ineffective and self-serving as Ashley was at Newcastle. Using a football club for his and Lewis’ personal gain is abhorrent, but we are not alone. I despise how Lewis picked us to line his own pockets. The winning teams invest in the footballing squad to raise the profile of the club, not in infrastructure. Yet Levy still has his plaudits, and it is obvious he has no inclination to win.
Before someone shouts that Levy does spend on the squad, it is not how we, the fans, want it invested. It is always a case of buying cheap-buying twice (in some cases thrice) at the expense of putting people in the know (Paul Mitchell) on 16 months of gardening leave.
Kyle Walker was hardly the greatest footballing right back we ever had (probably the best athlete) but in the 4 years since he departed for £50m we have shelled out circa £60m on Aurier, Doherty, and the absolute plum that is Royal to replace him, yet we are so far from comfortable at right-back that we’ll need another £45m to put it right.
And that is Levy’s legacy. There has never been a coherent recruitment plan. Do you for a second think City, United, Chelsea, or even the business like Liverpool making 3 consecutive mistakes in one position?
Buying Saha and Nelson when Harry was aiming for the top 4. Selling Bale and getting in 7, of which only one was a success. Allowing Poch’s squad to fester for 3 transfer windows and ultimately die. Splashing £100m on Ndombele and Lo Celso and then conning the fans when supposedly buying for Jose and now Nuno.
Can Levy be stopped? Our issue is we are such a small collective that there are few outside of Spurs willing to listen, I’d like to know how many within the club agree with The Boy Hotspur or Marbella, there never seems to be too much discontent on match days, or is that being buried by the media. They do not want to harm the Premier League brand and with the likes of Jamie Redknapp telling everyone when he’s at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium how brilliant it is telling everyone that all is good under Levy.
Unless you are invested emotionally in Spurs, like the Geordies are with the toon (and every other fan of a club), you just don’t see the harm being done by the owners when we know things are not as good as they should be. How many of us cared a jot about how Ashley rinsed their club, though? The luckless Geordies will now distance themselves from the atrocious non-footballing matters associated with the Saudi regime because they are so desperate for success. The sporting media won’t kick up too much fuss either, they’ll leave that to Panorama. Sports washing is alive and well, and the media cannot tarnish the brand that they need to promote. How many of us would have stopped supporting Spurs if we had been bought by the Qataris? If the media can help sell Spurs’ state-of-the-art stadium in their programming all is good, after all, the end result is the English Premier League has the world’s best stadium! Trevor Lawrence is going to be the new face of it too!
If I have shares in Barclays, do I care if they win ‘Bank of the Year’? Of course not, just as long as money is made, and I get my dividend. There lies the rub. Levy doesn’t care about winning.
His concerns are getting in sponsors using the EPL and NFL as the platform, not Spurs’ trophy cabinet. I do think he wants Ch Lg football, who wouldn’t, but because the EPL is so lucrative it does not matter if we are not in it. Ch Lg is a bonus that is all, one that I can’t see we will be anywhere near in the foreseeable anyway.
The NFL game sums up the state of affairs. Neither the Dolphins nor the Jaguars are in with a shout of the Superbowl, but the game was a sell-out and a commercial success. This is what my Spurs have become. It’s embarrassing.