braineclipse
Willie Hall
I highlighted those players because I was responding to your comments about a spending spree and thought they were the players you were referencing.There's a lot for a chairman to do with the stadium and new commercial arrangements - non-football and some non-sports. Even without hindsight this would have been incredible few years where everyone in management would be tested. Levy chose to do too much and well we all hoped it would be alright but it proved otherwise.
On footballing matters we are the only club that didn't refresh effective talents - highlighting those that you list is too narrow a view, its the whole approach that includes not letting go of players who want out (eriksen), deadwood and consolidating funds instead of spreading out. In particular during that time when we would be testing the CL and with a first elevent in excellent condition, it was the best time to have gone on with a proven signing instead of speculative buys (ndombele) or ones for the future (sessegnon).
The breakdown of the working relationship between Poch and Levy, and the fixes around that - Levy is Poch's boss so is accountable for making it work. Even if it meant sacking Poch to ensure that the squad capabilities is not compromised due to "management issues".
Two points of observation:
-Not hiring a DoF during the stadium completion period.
-Spending a lot on players unproven in the PL.
Neither worked out as we wanted. Some agreed with those decisions at the time, some didn't.
We simply don't know to what extent those were Levy's decisions and to what extent that was Pochettino getting his way. Rumours at the time was that Pochettino wanted those specific players, we'll never know. Some reports that Pochettino didn't want a DoF (referenced earlier in the thread), we'll never actually know.
There's a very real possibility that Levy did what many of his critics want - delegate to the people with more knowledge about football. Give a successful manager more power. Despite that the blame is, by some, put on Levy for making those decisions. I think that's unfair.
The biggest footballing decisions Levy makes are appointments of managers (/head coaches) and directors of football (or similar). Like most he gets some wrong, he gets some right. I think his hit rate is good enough based on what can be realistically expected.