Yeah, I don’t expect anyone to be happy with the team’s performances last season. But let’s not forget that we also finished 17th the previous campaign with Levy still in charge, so it’s hard to argue that the decline has been sudden. In my view, things have been gradually heading in the wrong direction since 2019.
There have obviously been ups and downs along the way, but the overall trajectory has been downward for six or seven years now. That’s not a small sample size. Personally, I wasn’t comfortable giving Levy any more time. No one should be granted a lifetime pass, even if they achieved great things during the early and middle stages of their tenure.
Even the top-four finishes that the club appeared to cherish became increasingly infrequent. We managed just one since 2019, in 2022. For years, the club appeared to prioritise securing Champions League qualification over winning trophies. There was even an additional Champions League place available for fifth this season and in previous campaigns, and we still couldn’t take advantage of it.
Out of interest, how much more time would you have been willing to give him?
Sometimes change for changes sake needs to happen, DL had built up a certain level on animosity (obvious on this thread) that hung over the fan relationship with club, and there were legitimate concerns that he had hit a ceiling with his approach.
That said, the 6 or 7 years, sometimes 10, sometime more, re downward trajectory narrative is vastly overstated.
- We literally were 4th, five seasons ago (2022, 3 years post your 2019 statement)
- We were 5th, three seasons ago
- We were in SF of domestic cup twice, in that same five seasons
- We won the Europa League two seasons ago.
This is inherently the issue with serious football discussion and nuance.
- Tottenham went on an extraordinary run of league results from 04/05 season all the way to 23/24 (19 seasons with only 3 times out top 6)
- Despite Chelsea, City and Saudi Sportswashing Machine coming with money doping, and increased competition from better run clubs and rival of clubs like Villa.
- There always was going to be some drop off post our best manager/team combination in modern era and moving on of the current best player in the world, to paint it as some monumental fudge up is just too simplistic a perspective.
- Covid seriously hurt the club exactly at the point when the stadium was supposed to help
There is too much of a lazy narrative to paint the last 6-10 years or entire ENIC/DL period as a failure.
The last 2 years have been an utter clusterfudge, that is the story (if we had got 5th/6th this year, there would be no narrative re years of decline). The real question is why the last 2 years have gone so bad.
- Why have two manager hires failed to get a grasp on the PL (Jose/Conte never even looked like dropping outside top half)
- Recruitment with a serious nuance, why has the squad managed in both Europa/CL but looked horrid in PL (balance, type of player, physicality, is it a profiling mistake?). To say our recruitment is brick (i.e. bad players) is again OTT, balance and gaps for sure.
- Injuries, this gets swept under the rug every time, but no recruitment strategy, no squad depth model can compensate for 14 injured players, none.
- Why has our model gone from 5th highest spend and punching slightly above our weight to 5th highest spend and performing way below (except in Europe).
Re your two questions (even though not aimed at me)
- The club prioritized CL finishes because the financial model required it (perhaps our new/old owners will change this, lets see)
- Keeping Levy with same set of rules/controls (put in place by same owners we currently have) in place made no sense. The only model in which keeping him made sense was with more delegation of authority and him focusing on working with FA/UEFA (just like Dein used to get Scum favours) and the overall commercial side and continued development of Tottenham.
