ENIC

[billyiddo]

Selling big players then improving the team after means people would have quickly forgot about it.

Going by our transfers at the time and our lack of functioning transfer department means we'd have likely not improved either way, so even with hindsight I think we were always going to suffer. The issue was we didn't have the set up off the field to kick on

 

[glasgowspur]

And that is the issue. He was (IMO) too concerned with that. it's well known that Poch wanted to cash in on Eriksen once he knew Eriksen would not sign a new deal; Levy refused to sell for anything remotely reasonable. It's also known that he wanted to move Toby on, again, Levy wouldn't do it. Those are just two. We did not trust the manager. He made the point that the Liverpool we played in Madrid was pretty different to the Liverpool Klopp first inherited.

I honestly don't think that with Eriksen levy was thinking in terms of the money.
Levy could not understand why Eriksen would won't to leave and also that if we sold him levy was going to get all the flak.
Eriksen wanted out, that was his plan, he never hid it, from day one he always said he wanted to experience new cultures and would move on.
Levy did not understand it, but I also think he could see the cracks beginning to open up and keeping Eriksen would be key to it not all being landed at levys door.
Turns out to be the opposite, keeping Eriksen hurried it along.

 

[thfcsteff]

I honestly don't think that with Eriksen levy was thinking in terms of the money.
Levy could not understand why Eriksen would won't to leave and also that if we sold him levy was going to get all the flak.
Eriksen wanted out, that was his plan, he never hid it, from day one he always said he wanted to experience new cultures and would move on.
Levy did not understand it, but I also think he could see the cracks beginning to open up and keeping Eriksen would be key to it not all being landed at levys door.
Turns out to be the opposite, keeping Eriksen hurried it along.

There's a story about Levy and Eriksen which went around at the time (who knows if it is apocryphal).
The story goes that Eriksen wanted a much-improved contract.
Levy said he couldn't afford the terms Eriksen wanted.
Eriksen then heard about Levy's finances (in 2016 he got around 2.8 mill, in 2017 he got around 6 mill) getting (I believe?) a 3 mill bonus in 2017/18. The word is that when Eriksen heard about the bonus, he decided he would not negotiate. Poch apparently went and saw Eriksen in Copenhagen in summer 2018 over dinner, and came back knowing he was done with us. At which point we could've sold to Barca, but Levy wanted massive money. We then had a chance to tell to RM, again, Levy wanted massive money.

I think you're absolutely right re: why Levy did it, fused with his desire to squeeze the most out of any deal. Which is madness. Eriksen cost us what, 12 million? We'd have made huge money even selling him for 60-70 mill!!!!

I think Levy's sense of self has got in the way at a few very critical moments. Bad with the good. The greatest business chairman in football, however fatally flawed with on pitch matters (albeit I do think he cared).

 

[Baleforce]

Eriksen was arguably the best player in the world at that time, selling for anything less a world record fee would have been unacceptable.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

There's a story about Levy and Eriksen which went around at the time (who knows if it is apocryphal).
The story goes that Eriksen wanted a much-improved contract.
Levy said he couldn't afford the terms Eriksen wanted.
Eriksen then heard about Levy's finances (in 2016 he got around 2.8 mill, in 2017 he got around 6 mill) getting (I believe?) a 3 mill bonus in 2017/18. The word is that when Eriksen heard about the bonus, he decided he would not negotiate. Poch apparently went and saw Eriksen in Copenhagen in summer 2018 over dinner, and came back knowing he was done with us. At which point we could've sold to Barca, but Levy wanted massive money. We then had a chance to tell to RM, again, Levy wanted massive money.

I think you're absolutely right re: why Levy did it, fused with his desire to squeeze the most out of any deal. Which is madness. Eriksen cost us what, 12 million? We'd have made huge money even selling him for 60-70 mill!!!!

I think Levy's sense of self has got in the way at a few very critical moments. Bad with the good. The greatest business chairman in football, however fatally flawed with on pitch matters (albeit I do think he cared).

This is actually incredible looking back. Because it’s all so needless. And it’s so obvious that if the player wants to go, and the manager wants him to go / is happy for him to go, and the profit on the deal is more than enough, then the club should be able to withstand it and be better for it.

That Levy got in the way is just dumbfounding. So much realisation about the actual ability of people in power is becoming clear to me with this season, as looking back I can see all of these justifications I remember thinking for why Levy was doing it, I assumed there was some financial mechanics at play that meant we benefitted from keeping these players. But it really was just a prideful misjudgement wasn’t it? Sell Modric, and he’s the best player on the team, and we stay stuck as the best of the rest club, and yeah that’s bad. But sell Eriksen, replace him with a player that wants to be here, that compounds the cultural impact that our foundations allow, that will run hard, that will fit in with the team, and we’d continue to press home our strategic advantage. He just couldn’t see it that way and willingly blew up the best times a lot of us had watching Spurs.

I think Walker out and Trippier in is a really good example. I remember when Walker made clear he wanted out, and the next game I think was an NLD. He played Trippier without a second thought, and we were bloody brilliant in that game. It wasn’t because Trippier was like for like, or at that time as good. But he was good, and the trust in him made him perform. But it also reinforced the cultural foundations. It was a message to every player that saw Walker wanting to leave that said ‘it doesn’t matter if he goes, it’s next man up and what we have is bigger than any one player’ and the team just went out there and proved it.

It is insane to me that this is what is happening with the players and coaching stuff, but this idea doesn’t seem be understood by the ultimate decision makers. And the ultimate manifestation of that is this season.