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Daniel Levy - Former Chairman

Strange reading "embarrassing" being used in any posts about professional football, most people involved in it have no shame and the concept is beyond them. It's mainly the fans who feel that as they are emotionally committed to the club.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Maybe I’m remembering it incorrectly, but I don’t recall there being a huge amount of criticism or hostility until around 2021, when the stadium reopened after Covid, a few months after Mason took over and fans gradually started returning. By that stage, ENIC had already been in charge for more than 20 years. I’d say that’s a fair amount of time to give any chairman and ownership group.

Before Covid, I don’t remember ENIC and Levy receiving anything like the level of criticism they did in the years that followed. In fact, from the Redknapp era through to the Pochettino years, the club and fanbase were largely united.

I don’t condone abuse, but I do understand criticism. Levy became the lightning rod because he was the one constant throughout numerous managerial changes and constant turnover in the playing squad.
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I think that's a fair assessment.....but even 2021 was 5 years ago. Enough for an abusive partner to take its toll.
 
MartyFunkhouser said:
I think you are purposely missing some of the facts around it, yes we went for him on the basis of his clause, if we hadn't its unlikely we would have at all, so yeh it was opportunist, but the fact he didn't come in the end was pressure and personal life, the guy has literally said it himself several times, so that just can't be ignored.

As for being embarrassed, like I say, why? Because the club that actually owned the club kept their player under some duress? Come on now



Again, Eze literally made the statement, the approach from Arsenal came before ours, we are a serious club, but we ain't Arsenal, like we were not Chelsea when the Willian deal fell through, but equally we are a bigger club that RB and we took Simons, so I am ok with the whole food chain of football and how it works, some find it embarrassing because its our rivals, I couldn't really care, we have pulled rank on clubs and others have pulled rank on us.

Lets also be clear about what we know about the club, the Lewis family has the power, thats without any doubt, they could have provided guidance on funds to make both deals more attractive at any time, if us fans felt the pinch when them deals were happening, don't tell me the powers that be didn't not know and what did they do? Of course they were happy with Levy acting like he did, because by and large he did it within the constraints of the finances and budgets afforded to him. Its easy to come out after and say "well we are smashing the glass ceiling on the wages and what we spend for quality" but then where were they then? Thats where the revision and swallowing of BS happens IMO.

I am willing to give this structure a chance, but on the basis they have changed their tune because it is the same owners there have always been and this season the slept walked into oblivion by making no decisions till the end when it nearly backfired on them, that wasn't on DL and it wasn't a good looking start.

We are not the first club to miss out on targets, we won't be the last. Its the game
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Again, I’m not talking about merely getting gazumped, I’m talking about too clever by half tactics firstly with examples over years and then in quick succession that have demonstrably held us back. If you don’t think there was anything odd about those deals then fine…I just think with the football ecosystem as we know it now, we were clearly very close to both, and we failed to get them over the line. And to be clear, I am not embarrassed. I think the owners were. We wanted to start to compete for top players, that the top clubs want. And in both cases, in public and frankly ridiculous circumstances, we fail to do the deals. I maintain, to think those deals were normal is to he desensitised to the DL playbook, and accepting that as Tottenham we shouldn’t be able to get them. Put it this way, a top club either gets that close because they know they’ll get the deal done, or they don’t go that far.

I think the owners were perfectly happy with how Levy ran the club up to 2019. 50m to 4bn valuation or whatever it is. I think they gave him free rein. And then they probably started to wonder why other clubs started to make waves, and started to see the game changing around them, and probably had an inkling that the way things had been done needed to change. As I said a few posts back, I’m curious as to who exactly is giving the Lewis kids the football advice now. But I think their analysis of the situation and what we need to do is correct. I do believe Levy was holding us back, both in overall lack of football strategy and in an inability to get the big deals done. And I’m interested to see how far the Lewis kids and VV can take us because their public statements suggest they know what needs to change to act like a top club.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
I haven’t seen that
What I have seen and I agree with, is levy would have acted much quicker
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I honestly don’t know the answer. The caveat is that we were still in the Champions League. I imagine Levy gave Ange more time than he normally would have because of our involvement in the Europa League, and he may well have learned a lesson from sacking a manager while still in the latter stages of a cup competition, as he did with Jose.

It’s not a huge leap of logic to suggest he might have afforded Frank similar patience because of the Champions League.

If we hadn’t been in Europe, I’d agree that he would most likely have pulled the trigger weeks earlier. Personally, I think Frank should have gone after the West Ham defeat.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
Yes, because their emotional needs were being met. Yet the same man, probably operating in exactly the same way as he always had, was in charge. Go figure.
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We had a manager in Redknapp who played attractive, free-flowing football while still maintaining a solid defensive balance, and as a result the team flourished for most of his tenure, right up until the final few months.

Then Pochettino came in and united the fanbase. Once again, the team was moving in the right direction on the pitch. When results are good and the football is enjoyable, there’s naturally less reason for supporters to direct criticism at the chairman.

That doesn’t mean Levy wasn’t making mistakes during that period, though. In my view, there were still opportunities to take both the team and the club to the next level that were missed, particularly when it came to recruitment and squad building.
 
Just found an old quote from Levy that I remember him making.

"I'm always clear that we are merely the custodians of the club -- it was here long before any of us and will be here long after us all. It is simply our turn to look after it, grow it and support it."

When you read of all the lawsuits against Triller the owners of Eight Sports makes the alleged sale of his share of the club to them a little bemusing but of course £££££££ wins in the end.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I honestly don’t know the answer. The caveat is that we were still in the Champions League. I imagine Levy gave Ange more time than he normally would have because of our involvement in the Europa League, and he may well have learned a lesson from sacking a manager while still in the latter stages of a cup competition, as he did with Jose.

It’s not a huge leap of logic to suggest he might have afforded Frank similar patience because of the Champions League.

If we hadn’t been in Europe, I’d agree that he would most likely have pulled the trigger weeks earlier. Personally, I think Frank should have gone after the West Ham defeat.
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I can’t see levy having stuck with Frank after the debacle of the games towards the end of the year last year
He sacked Nuno for similar levels of performance … But he did have a DOF who had a new guy lined up
But we will never know
I 100% agree that the West Ham game was a other turning point and issue that merited some action
But we know the leadership are weak as tinkle at the moment
 
MartyFunkhouser said:
Did they? Who?

I haven't seen anything that suggests that, so keen to hear what you know?
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Not to respond for him but there have been lots of reports over the years of rival chairman disliking doing business with us. Even Simon Jordan who calls him a friend has mentioned that he preferred not doing business with Levy because of how difficult he was. Fergie said the same, Analus also and there have been many mentions over the years and I don't believe these people were talking purely about the price but more so his negotiating stance.

Yes being hard headed about the price you want for a player can be beneficial to the headline figure, but if that then means that sale takes all summer to happen (Berbatov, Kane, Modric) it gives little time for the replacement's also extended negotiations and for that player to bed into the squad. It also limited our ability to sell our unwanted players because everyone knew our pricing was quite unreasonable.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Numerous posters have voiced dissatisfaction of VV, Lange and the owners. I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but the underlying message seems to be “it would be so much better if we just brought Levy back”.
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I think its more "nothing seems to have changed" personally, which currently it hasn't.

Pointing out we still have the same owners for me is key, because they are the same, that seems to be a major denial or blind spot for some more so IMO
 
Bishop said:
Not to respond for him but there have been lots of reports over the years of rival chairman disliking doing business with us. Even Simon Jordan who calls him a friend has mentioned that he preferred not doing business with Levy because of how difficult he was. Fergie said the same, Analus also and there have been many mentions over the years and I don't believe these people were talking purely about the price but more so his negotiating stance.

Yes being hard headed about the price you want for a player can be beneficial to the headline figure, but if that then means that sale takes all summer to happen (Berbatov, Kane, Modric) it gives little time for the replacement's also extended negotiations and for that player to bed into the squad. It also limited our ability to sell our unwanted players because everyone knew our pricing was quite unreasonable.
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Yeh, no denial for me on that, but was ref business world so I suspected he meant away from football, which he did as he DM me (thanks @glorygloryeze)

I don't deny the second paragraph either, but in the context of the owners removing him, they could have back then also, I suspect despite the moments in the market he failed previously they didn't remove him then because he was making them too much money.........I don't for one second believe they removed him last summer for it either TBH.....
 
MartyFunkhouser said:
I think its more "nothing seems to have changed" personally, which currently it hasn't.

Pointing out we still have the same owners for me is key, because they are the same, that seems to be a major denial or blind spot for some more so IMO
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But the criticism of them seems more vocal because Levy is no longer around. Posters that afforded Levy 25 years seem uncomfortable allowing VV and Lange more than 1 season.

For the record, I also want new owners. That most likely means VV and Lange will go which I’m not necessarily against, I just find the discrepancy quite amusing when it comes to fans tolerance levels and patience.
 
Jurgen the German said:
But the criticism of them seems more vocal because Levy is no longer around. Posters that afforded Levy 25 years seem uncomfortable allowing VV and Lange more than 1 season.

For the record, I also want new owners. That most likely means VV and Lange will go which I’m not necessarily against, I just find the discrepancy quite amusing when it comes to fans tolerance levels and patience.
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Last season was the worst season we have had in 25 years though so people are naturally going to question whats what, DL or no DL people would be doing that, surely?? I mean people are having the same arguments about the nuance of Ange and Franks seasons.

Depends what how you view patience, DL build a club in and upwards trajectory from where it was and oversaw the longest period of sustained growth in terms of league positions, Europe and done it building a monumental infrastructure which isn't seen anywhere else in football and did it without it being his own money.......I think in some cases DL earned the patience I gave him, I won't lie with that, I felt he earnt in even if it was massively frustrating at times. And yeh VV and Lange deserve patience of their own, doesn't mean last season can't be called what it was either, both can be true........
 
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