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Daniel Levy - Chairman

Muttley said:
What we need is after one season our league finishing position to be an honest reflection of where we are as a club. No more mitigating circumstances like we had with Ange where the grey space dominated the black and white. Hopefully Frank's approach will make that happen and his tactics won't be such a big debate as Ange's were. Then we're have a true clarity of where we are as a club.

If it is 6th or 7th then Levy will need to take it on the chin. I actually think it might be.
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My personal feelings are that we are a team that should finish 6th or 7th most seasons, but with the occasional top 4 burst and a cup win every 3-5 years. I am absolutely fine with that level.

But Daniel Levy and the board sacked a manager because he couldn’t compete across multiple competitions. He couldn’t win a cup and finish in the top 6/8/10/12 whatever the number is. So just finishing 6th or 7th is surely not enough? We need to win something/get close to winning something and finish that high. We need to make the knockout stages of whatever European competition we are in. There is absolutely no chance that our current way of operating can make that happen regularly.

To be clear, I am absolutely backing Thomas Frank. Just like Ange wasn’t the issue, Frank is not the issue. Just like Ange, Frank needs a minimum of three seasons. However, we have delusions of grandeur that our last 30 years just do not back up and I have real concerns will even see two full seasons of Frank.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
Yes I particularly liked that bit. We have a plan to increase our revenues that isn’t through associated third party deals. Do the same yourselves.

Separate from that - I was a bit surprised there was no name check for Vinai. I appreciate the interview was recorded before he officially joined, but it had been announced.
More striking was when Levy spoke about transfers and the technical team who make the decision on who they want to sign. There was a very clear omission in respect of the Mysterious Matter of the Missing Munn.
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This reminds me of those kids detective books I used to read in school. Like The Hardy Boys.
 
tommysvr said:
My personal feelings are that we are a team that should finish 6th or 7th most seasons, but with the occasional top 4 burst and a cup win every 3-5 years. I am absolutely fine with that level.

But Daniel Levy and the board sacked a manager because he couldn’t compete across multiple competitions. He couldn’t win a cup and finish in the top 6/8/10/12 whatever the number is. So just finishing 6th or 7th is surely not enough? We need to win something/get close to winning something and finish that high. We need to make the knockout stages of whatever European competition we are in. There is absolutely no chance that our current way of operating can make that happen regularly.

To be clear, I am absolutely backing Thomas Frank. Just like Ange wasn’t the issue, Frank is not the issue. Just like Ange, Frank needs a minimum of three seasons. However, we have delusions of grandeur that our last 30 years just do not back up and I have real concerns will even see two full seasons of Frank.
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I'm on the fence.

The big pro - We're one signing away this summer from being the 4th highest spender in the PL again. I guess the question becomes whether 6th or 7th is satisfactory when you've caught up with past deficits of squad quality and you're now consistently spending at that level. Eventually, you should gravitate higher than 6th or 7th but clearly not first or second based on this run rate of spending. Also, 5th is CL with the UEFA coefficients.

The big con - it's no longer a top 6 of money clubs with one or two of them having an off season leaving a door open. Saudi Sportswashing Machine are well and truly in the mix nowadays and no clubs have vacated the space. If Utd come back, then it will be as competitive as I've known it.
 
tommysvr said:
My personal feelings are that we are a team that should finish 6th or 7th most seasons, but with the occasional top 4 burst and a cup win every 3-5 years. I am absolutely fine with that level.
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The problem with this, is the reason we haven't won cups is because we prioritise the league (and top 4/5), and play weakened teams in cups. When we didn't prioritise the league, we won the two cups under ENIC. I'd like to see us prioritise everything; the league may suffer a bit for it, but we should still win a cup every now and again. So no weakened team in cup competitions, just a steady rotation in all games with a couple of changes per game, to keep everyone involved, and the standard high.
 
Lemonade Money said:
The problem with this, is the reason we haven't won cups is because we prioritise the league (and top 4/5), and play weakened teams in cups. When we didn't prioritise the league, we won the two cups under ENIC. I'd like to see us prioritise everything; the league may suffer a bit for it, but we should still win a cup every now and again. So no weakened team in cup competitions, just a steady rotation in all games with a couple of changes per game, to keep everyone involved, and the standard high.
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Yep, hence I’m comfortable to drop down the league as a sacrifice for actually winning something.
 
Muttley said:
Not on the board so just a regular employee. Then you start to see parts of your contractual job description being handed to other people at the club.

Munn's lawyers could have a load of fun with this one.

Do we think he refused our settlement agreement and is going down the contract law path?
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I suspect he couldn't believe his luck that Spurs gave him a job in the first place. He now has Spurs on his CV and can probably take one step up from the football backwater he was working in immediately before he somehow lucked into Spurs.
 
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Baleforce said:
Did Munn even exist?

Maybe it was Paratici in a mask all along.
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I did say at the point Munn was hired that I thought he could just be a patsy so that Paratici could continue making the decisions without the title.

Munn was so clearly a weird hire that I struggle to think of another likely reason for him being hired by Spurs. He got a great name in the biggest league in the world in his CV. Spurs got a patsy to do as he was told and get fired once Paratici's ban was over.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I did say at the point Munn was hired that I thought he could just be a patsy so that Paratici could continue making the decisions without the title.

Munn was so clearly a weird hire that I struggle to think of another likely reason for him being hired by Spurs. He got a great name in the biggest league in the world in his CV. Spurs got a patsy to do as he was told and get fired once Paratici's ban was over.
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What do you make of the fact there's been no official announcement on Munn?
(I guess one could say "why would you announce that someone is staying in their job", but well....)
 
Muttley said:
What we need is after one season our league finishing position to be an honest reflection of where we are as a club. No more mitigating circumstances like we had with Ange where the grey space dominated the black and white. Hopefully Frank's approach will make that happen and his tactics won't be such a big debate as Ange's were. Then we're have a true clarity of where we are as a club.

If it is 6th or 7th then Levy will need to take it on the chin. I actually think it might be.
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6th or 7th is quite a challenge....
Liverpool, Emirates Marketing Project, Arsenal and Chelsea are all clearly better than us and better by a significant margin. Man Utd have brought in three very good players and have no European football so can concentrate on one game a week for much of the season.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine were considerably better than us last season (though have question marks about their centre forward). However, if they sell their centre forward I'd expect them to replace him with somebody half decent.

I expect all of those clubs to finish above us next season. That means we need to finish above the likes of Aston Villa and Brighton (who are no weaker than last season) just to get 7th.

There was this big idea from some on here last year that the problem at Spurs was Ange and a new manager coming in would see us transition from 17th to 6th. That is massively unrealistic I think. While our squad was not 17th bad, it wasn't top 6 good either IMO and I don't think we've done enough in the transfer market to bridge the gap, especially considering the long term injuries we've picked up in pre-season.

At present I think we'll finish between 7th and 9th. I suppose if we exit the CL and Cup competitions early then we might be able to sneak 6th and Europa.
 
Muttley said:
I'm on the fence.

The big pro - We're one signing away this summer from being the 4th highest spender in the PL again. I guess the question becomes whether 6th or 7th is satisfactory when you've caught up with past deficits of squad quality and you're now consistently spending at that level. Eventually, you should gravitate higher than 6th or 7th but clearly not first or second based on this run rate of spending. Also, 5th is CL with the UEFA coefficients.

The big con - it's no longer a top 6 of money clubs with one or two of them having an off season leaving a door open. Saudi Sportswashing Machine are well and truly in the mix nowadays and no clubs have vacated the space. If Utd come back, then it will be as competitive as I've known it.
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Its never really been about how much you spend but rather how you spend it, who you spend it on and when you spend in terms of timing. You can spend as we have a relatively large amount but if it has been spent on younger unproven players, punts if you will then that spend is quite speculative. Obviously, as with any speculative action the result you might get can vary significantly.

In essence £200m odd on say Isak and Ederson probably gets you better results in the short and medium turn than £200m on Odobert, Gray, Solanke, Bergvall, Yang and Danso. I don't think we can really claim to have closed the gap when the calibre of player we are still bringing is significantly lower or less experienced and that spend is spread across a number of players.

Now i'm not against the speculative transfer work, i've advocated for it for decades at this point but i'm also not naive to the realities of working this way. There has to be a willingness to also let go and move players on who have some value whilst you are able to extract the maximum for them. Ie. the likes of Johnson, Richy, Maddison etc. We seem to have gotten stuck on the first part of buying some promising players but forgotten the second half where you move them on when they are either working as hoped or when they have achived maximum value.
 
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