Daniel Levy - Former Chairman

[billyiddo]

I had guessed that's what you meant

 

[mudshark]

I think that our biggest issue has been moving unwanted players on. Levy's tough negotiating technique works well when there is demand for a player but you could see it being less successful when you are hawking someone there is little interest in. This is one of the reasons why I think that we have been missing having a DoF.

True. I remember how much smoother things immediately seemed to go on that front when Baldini arrived on the scene. Getting stuff like that over the line is never just about the deal; it's important how you come across on a personal level as well, and I think that, for whatever reason, people don't tend to warm to Levy.

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

Hope the rumours of the Lille director of football are true, think it would be a huge appointment.

 

[nayimfromthehalfwayline]

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...tottenham-stadium-club-new-dawn-a4316696.html

The moment that caused the biggest concern came when the alarm bells stopped ringing. Beset by increasing costs and lengthening delays, Tottenham’s £1billion stadium suffered a fresh setback when the fire warning system suffered two critical faults: the software needed to be completely rewritten on a programme already so advanced that the existing workforce had no idea how to install it.

This was September 2018, a month after the original target date for Spurs to return home. Group operations and finance director Matthew Collecott claimed it was the “worst day of the whole project”.


Chairman Daniel Levy received daily messages at around 5am as those tasked with the responsibility provided updates of how many sprinklers and smoke systems had been installed in pursuit of the safety certificate needed to open and yet then, as today, he remains more circumspect about the issue which contributed significantly to a prolonged stay across town at Wembley.

“It would have been disappointing if we hadn’t got in last season and we were disappointed not to get in the previous summer, but I think it was just a timing issue,” he told Standard Sport. “The biggest issue was could we get all the financing together?

“Football clubs have the impression they are these huge businesses. The reality is we create a lot of noise globally but turnover-wise, we are relatively small.

“To take on a capital project of this nature, that’s why so few stadiums ever get built, certainly ones of this scale. It was the enormity of the challenge and I think when we started we didn’t realise what we were taking on.”

That process, outlined in a new book Destination Tottenham released on Sunday, began in 2001 when Levy became chairman and affirmed a need to redevelop White Hart Lane. Two years later, the club began negotiating deals to acquire the land — a process he believes totalled around 80 different property transactions, including one incident in which a warehouse under Tottenham’s ownership was broken into and turned into a drugs factory.

“We discovered it had been bolted shut from the inside and when we finally got in we found three acres of cannabis growing in there,” explains Levy. “We obviously had to call the police. The next thing we knew we were victims of a revenge attack when the water pipes on the properties we owned down the High Road were cut, which flooded them all.”


A perceived lack of support from Haringey Council prompted Spurs to submit what they described as a ‘Plan B’ application for the Olympic Stadium, an offer subsequently withdrawn when the rioting in Tottenham during 2011 sharpened minds.

After the dispute with Archway Sheet Metal Works was settled in March 2015, the club’s plans could finally kick into gear with renowned architects Populous, but the Brexit referendum a year later complicated things further.

“We never got a fixed-price contract because it wasn’t possible,” said Levy. “Brexit hurt us as well because a lot of the stuff for the fit-out, a lot of that was imported, so the cost went up [at least] 15 per cent. The veil around the stadium is a £32m aluminium contract to a German company. Brexit happened and that added 20 per cent onto it.


“But this wasn’t just an import or south of England programme. Most of the metal and concrete was from yards in Sunderland and areas like that. All the steel relating to the pitch was from up north. At one point, we had over 4,000 people working on site 24/7. The logistics of running a project of this scale on a fairly tight site was a massive challenge.”

As it was, Spurs eventually moved back in for their last five Premier League home fixtures of last season and the climax of a Champions League run which took them all the way to the final.

It is the dawn of a new era but also in some senses the end of the beginning. Levy wrestled with the decision to replace Mauricio Pochettino with Jose Mourinho last month as the club now look to add the one missing piece from years of exponential progress on and off the field: silverware.


To do so, Spurs must avoid the same financial constraints which hamstrung north London rivals Arsenal as they repaid costs from their Emirates Stadium build more than a decade ago.

Tottenham have guarded against that by refinancing more than £600m of loans which were originally due to be paid back by April 2022, instead converting around £525m into bonds which will mature over a 30-year period.

Levy insists that nothing much has changed in terms of Tottenham’s position in the marketplace, especially with a fixed sum ringfenced for transfers each season as part of the refinancing agreements.

“The problem is it is also about squad size, English versus non-English, because we have the homegrown rule in the Premier League,” he said. “There are lots of circumstances why sometimes you don’t do a transaction. It wasn’t a case that we didn’t have money. We have to get rid of this obsession in England of spending money. It just doesn’t happen overseas.

“There is an amount we have allocated to spend each year in terms of net investment in the team. If you compare us to certain other clubs, they will have more money to spend. It doesn’t frighten us.”

Other sources of revenue are yet to be fully tapped. A deal for the stadium’s naming rights remains incomplete.


“We are only going to do a naming rights deal if we get the right brand, in the right sector, on the right money,” said Levy. “If we can’t meet those three criteria, we won’t do it. At the moment, we haven’t found a company that meets all three criteria. We are not really close to anything on that at the moment.”

And the possibility of an NFL franchise moving into the stadium remains possible, with sell-out crowds for matches in the capital and Shahid Khan’s aborted attempt to buy Wembley proof that that an appetite for regular games in London is undeniable.

“It is up to the 32 NFL owners to decide whether they want to relocate a team to the UK,” added Levy. “They have made no decision on whether that is going to happen now or in the future. All I know is we have a fully compliant NFL stadium within our own stadium.

“We would love them to play more games in London and the two played at our stadium were incredibly successful. We very much hope, if not a team, that we will have more games. Our door is very much open.”

It took a while to get that door open, but Levy is at least now content, alarm bells silent for more satisfying reasons

 

[DeanoAustin]

It shows how non-sensical the obsession with the short term is. This time last year, people were talking about “chaos”, “crisis” and “shambles” around the stadium. Everyone was getting anxious and jumpy.

A few months later and we are in the best stadium in the world where we will be for decades to come. The knee jerking is forgotten. Admittedly, Poch getting us CL football helps but the hysteria last year was nonsense and has been shown to be so.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Danny boy, you can't keep doing things on the cheap - it lost you the best manager and person you'd ever hired, and it will lead to this tryst with Mourinho going down in flames.

Everything I'm hearing in that interview tells me his instinct for being a miser is going to overrule the logical next step, which is to back his man, who will 100% ask for players in January and in the summer.

And his new manager will not be as forgiving as Poch when they are either replaced with bargain bin garbage or don't arrive at all for 18 months - both Levy MOs. So, not promising in terms of making this strange Mourinho experiment work.

Levy losing his bottle and shirking investment in the team at critical moments cost us in 2011-2012, and cost us Poch. I pray it doesn't cost us more.

 

[parklane1]

Here we go the usual suspects are winding themselves up.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Here we go the usual suspects are winding themselves up.

It would be different, if things were different.

If it's the same for 20 years...well, only so many ways to describe that.

 

[Legohamster]

None of that is an issue if Levy delivers what ever he promised Jose when he took over

 

[Finney Is Back]

i find this statement a bit worrying:
"Levy insists that nothing much has changed in terms of Tottenham’s position in the marketplace, especially with a fixed sum ringfenced for transfers each season as part of the refinancing agreements."

What is the point in taking on all of that risk and all of that debt if it hasn't changed our position in the marketplace? Or perhaps is it just the huge overspend on the stadium that has led to this?

 

[MKSpur]

It wasn’t a case that we didn’t have money. We have to get rid of this obsession in England of spending money. It just doesn’t happen overseas.

So is he implying the window where we didn’t spend wasn’t intentional? Not sure if this is trying to say Poch was being too fussy or we couldn’t jettison the players we needed to open up the squad place.
I’d really love to read one day about the type do things that obstruct transfers, for sure there could be times when clubs change the deal at the last minute or players choose other clubs.

I’m not sure we are obsessed with spending money per se, more obsessed with refreshing the squad to at least maintain parity with our rivals who are spending money. I also expect ear marked funds to be rolled into the next window if they are not used.

 

[Legohamster]

So is he implying the window where we didn’t spend wasn’t intentional? Not sure if this is trying to say Poch was being too fussy or we couldn’t jettison the players we needed to open up the squad place.
I’d really love to read one day about the type do things that obstruct transfers, for sure there could be times when clubs change the deal at the last minute or players choose other clubs.

I’m not sure we are obsessed with spending money per se, more obsessed with refreshing the squad to at least maintain parity with our rivals who are spending money. I also expect ear marked funds to be rolled into the next window if they are not used.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge we had money, mopo/team refused to spend.

 

[thfcsteff]

I thought it was pretty common knowledge we had money, mopo/team refused to spend.

Is it possible that the reason "Mopo refused to spend" was because the very thing he'd asked for since the season before -blue chip he wanted when he wanted them or no chip thank you- was again being compromised? Do you genuinely believe that had Levy said he had one of Poch's primary targets ready and available to sign, Poch would've said, "No thanks mate, rather not." Look, I have no problem apologizing if there is proof that happened and I am wrong, but I think making the statement you did without context rewrites the whole scenario.

 

[braineclipse]

i find this statement a bit worrying:
"Levy insists that nothing much has changed in terms of Tottenham’s position in the marketplace, especially with a fixed sum ringfenced for transfers each season as part of the refinancing agreements."

What is the point in taking on all of that risk and all of that debt if it hasn't changed our position in the marketplace? Or perhaps is it just the huge overspend on the stadium that has led to this?

Several factors I'm sure. I didn't expect the completion of the new stadium to immediately change our position in the marketplace. Did you?

 

[braineclipse]

Is it possible that the reason "Mopo refused to spend" was because the very thing he'd asked for since the season before -blue chip he wanted when he wanted them or no chip thank you- was again being compromised? Do you genuinely believe that had Levy said he had one of Poch's primary targets ready and available to sign, Poch would've said, "No thanks mate, rather not." Look, I have no problem apologizing if there is proof that happened and I am wrong, but I think making the statement you did without context rewrites the whole scenario.

Where we find ourselves in the football hierarchy I don't think we can just have a very short list of primary targets and nothing else.

 

[thfcsteff]

Where we find ourselves in the football hierarchy I don't think we can just have a very short list of primary targets and nothing else.

What you also cannot do -when you banked what, 100 mill from a run to the CL Final, completed stadium and have the best opportunity in decades to get top drawer targets into the club for a variety of reasons- is dither for a summer. We were (quite possibly artificially in some aspects) very, very high in that hierarchy on June 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on. I admit I am speculating -and also heard that Poch turned down some players/changed his mind- but evidence has shown for two decades that Daniel loves a bargain and transfer window game. I have spoken to a couple of managers about it (both of who said their clubs shuddered at the thought of dealing with him).

Lest anyone think I am anti-Levy, not a chance. He has done great things for us. But he will have to alter his working DNA if he wants Mourinho to remain right side up. A DoF is vital IMO.

 

[harr1984]

Several factors I'm sure. I didn't expect the completion of the new stadium to immediately change our position in the marketplace. Did you?

He mentioned the impact on cost because of Brexit. That’s not going to of helped things....

 

[DubaiSpur]

Where we find ourselves in the football hierarchy I don't think we can just have a very short list of primary targets and nothing else.

At the start of the summer, we were 2nd in the football hierarchy - just behind the winners of the Champions League.

Well, not particularly, but you get my point - one @thfcsteff has already made, too. We had strategic space to really go for it last summer, in the same way that Liverpool went for it after they lost the CL final in 2018. The very next day - 24 hours after the CL final - Fabinho was signed. And, a short while later, Alisson became the most expensive goalkeeper of all time when he signed for 72 million quid - this, to replace poor Lorius Karius, who was shipped out ruthlessly to make way for the winner Liverpool needed.

For us? We dingdonged around with Ndombele for a month trying to squeeze pennies out of the deal. We dingdonged around for over *two* months before thinking up some contrived deal to sign Lo Celso on loan in a way that minimized our expenditures and screwed PSG out of some fees they were due. We dingdonged around until fudging *deadline day* trying to sign a raw 19-year old from Fulham, for Christ's sake, just to save on the damn costs.

And all this, after signing absolutely nobody for 18 months - the results of which are still biting us in the arse in ways that many of us predicted (and spoke about, on this forum and elsewhere) while it was still happening. While Pool headed into their summer in 2018 having already splashed out 75m quid for VVD in January, and 54m quid for Naby Keita.

Poch never wanted the moon. He wanted some backing, which we were very, very late in giving him, if at all - and which ultimately resulted in us parting ways.

But the same demands for early signings and expensive ones will come from Jose Mourinho - a man accustomed to winning over penny-pinching for every single goddamn cent for fifty months on end.

And if Levy tries his usual delay, delay games again, Mourinho will walk. And I think we can all agree that he won't do it with anywhere near the respect that Poch had for the club, and for Levy, on his way out.

Levy will get it full barrels from Mourinho, his friends in the press at home and around the world, and everyone in football with an opinion to share, because that's the scale of Mourinho. Again, I don't think Levy quite understands who he's appointed, and how much his methods need to change to make this a success.

 

[Legohamster]

Is it possible that the reason "Mopo refused to spend" was because the very thing he'd asked for since the season before -blue chip he wanted when he wanted them or no chip thank you- was again being compromised? Do you genuinely believe that had Levy said he had one of Poch's primary targets ready and available to sign, Poch would've said, "No thanks mate, rather not." Look, I have no problem apologizing if there is proof that happened and I am wrong, but I think making the statement you did without context rewrites the whole scenario.

Given the state of the squad even back then we are back to the argument that I don’t believe

1. There was no one out there that could improve it

2. All of them didn’t want to come to spurs.

Grealish was on that list, if that’s the level of player we were looking at the bar was mediocre.

There must have been some serious scouting issues.

One of Mopos faults (few) is being too stubborn when it comes to players - look at selections etc - so it’s not a hard leap to assume he’s the same when it comes to transfers.

No one will ever know the players he was offered - so it’s hard to say either way

 

[billyiddo]

Is it possible that the reason "Mopo refused to spend" was because the very thing he'd asked for since the season before -blue chip he wanted when he wanted them or no chip thank you- was again being compromised? Do you genuinely believe that had Levy said he had one of Poch's primary targets ready and available to sign, Poch would've said, "No thanks mate, rather not." Look, I have no problem apologizing if there is proof that happened and I am wrong, but I think making the statement you did without context rewrites the whole scenario.

I think it's pretty clear that this is most likely closest to the truth