Daniel Levy - Former Chairman

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

There is an absolutely FASCINATING clip I’ve just seen on talk sport where Simon Jordan is sharing that Levy texted him implying that Spurs have had their pants pulled down over the JPVH deal. Saying that it is one of the largest fees paid for a soon to be out of contract player, etc etc.

And I think that about sums it all up. Levy could not change. He could not see his way to understanding that if the manager wants a player, and it’s consistent with a strategy and way of playing, THAT is the value. It’s exactly why he needed to go.

(small caveat, as long as we don’t somehow end up in financial ruin with our new strategy, I don’t think we will, but I’m trusting the club knows what they are doing and aren’t taking undue risks)

The issue with Levy is it went beyond ‘is this too risky’ and too far into ‘I want to get the best deal’. He just couldn’t compute that a player might be more valuable if aligned with a football strategy that was going to make the manager more likely to be successful.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

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[DubaiSpur]

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As I've said before, Levy ran us like he ran his Mr. Byrite discount clothing store, the only other life experience he had prior to Spurs. Always had to get the best deal, even if it meant haggling for months and not getting the player the manager really wanted at the end of it.

That worked more often than not when the league had other skinflint chairmen like him, British petit bourgeoisie businessmen who ran steel mills and store chains and Sports Direct. Simon Jordan types, which is why they're such fast mates.

It stopped working when the league was taken over by true financial giants - hard-nosed American billionaires, Russian oligarchs, sheikhs from the Middle East, literal countries. These people exist in a different stratosphere to Dan.

If they wanted sporting success, they were going to prioritize it. And overpaying a few million here and there meant absolutely nothing to them - hell, sometimes they just saw it as the cost of maintaining good relationships to make future business easier. And they had hundreds of the best analysts, lawyers, data people on Earth working for them (and still do) to guide their decisions.

We were stuck with a one-man show, Dan trying to get the best deal no matter what, tinkling off everyone in the league to the point where few would do business with him. tinkling off his own managers by prioritizing getting the best deal, over getting them players they wanted. And ultimately, being humiliated by things like the MGW and Eze deals, which showed how out of his depth he was in an age where he could be overpowered by richer, more ruthless chairmen.

I hope he reflects on where it all went wrong for him. That means less time texting his mate Simon about a club that no longer wants anything to do with him. There's a reason Simon Jordan no longer runs a club, but instead just natters uselessly on talkSPORT. That same reason applies to you, Dan.