Daniel Levy - Chairman

[Diamond Lights]

If only it was as easy as that. Liverpool is a much bigger draw than we are. If we tried to get Konate, he'd probably hold out for... a Liverpool. CL at Leipzig, CL at Pool, ECL with us. We'd have to pay significantly higher wages to entice the player and even then it's not guarantee we'd get him absent a proper manager and a plan for the future.

Now if you were talking about 3-4 years ago when we were finishing 2nd and 3rd and CL regulars, then you'd have a point. Right now, it's complicated.

Not saying Konate was achievable by us. My point is, the clubs we were miles ahead of just a few years ago have overtaken us and in a large part, because of us tinkling against a wall instead of doing what needs to be done.

Sessengon and Lo Celso both signed on last day of the window despite a multitude of news stories we were close. Both players fail to integrate into the team immediately because of the lack of time settling in, especially under a demanding coach like Poch who focuses on fitness.

 

[DubSpur]

Not saying Konate was achievable by us. My point is, the clubs we were miles ahead of just a few years ago have overtaken us and in a large part, because of us tinkling against a wall instead of doing what needs to be done.

Sessengon and Lo Celso both signed on last day of the window despite a multitude of news stories we were close. Both players fail to integrate into the team immediately because of the lack of time settling in, especially under a demanding coach like Poch who focuses on fitness.

No, Sessegnon failed to integrate because he was injured during the summer and not fit till November, but my bad, shouldn't be letting facts get in the way of a Levy bashing.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Mate, call names, if not wrong assumptions would be made

- Yes we all love Spurs, and if you love Spurs you should (my biggest peeve) care enough to be legitimate with your criticism (otherwise it's not helpful)

Let me use your example, I dislike Apple, I think they are an awful company with horrible business practices and don't give a fudge about their customers and I could give examples of factories that have suicide nets to prevent their workers from killing themselves, repeated failure to address flaws and blame on user (e.g. famous line -> you are holding the phone wrong, failing to address issues in monitor screens for years of production)

- Those are legitimate complaints/accusations

However if I came along and said

- they make a bricky phone
- they have a poor ecosystem supporting their devices
- they don't have enough apps

What would be your response, and if you answered any of those and I just said "fudge you, apple fan boy"

That's what is going here, I pointed it out above, people are just "shouting" things at Levy that any Spurs supporter should know simply isn't true

Come up with a list of legitimate issues, that we can all talk about and it's fine but really (and this conclusion was made a long time ago) it seems to come down to some group of people that go after current ownership just want a City/Chelsea model.

But let me be fair and kick it off

- Don't like the fact that Levy switches between extreme managerial styles (Jol -> Ramos -> Harry -> AVB -> Poch -> Jose)
- Don't like that we abandoned DoF model
- Don't like that we haven't been able to sell (more than the issue for buying) players fast enough (Rose, Eriksen, Sissoko, Lamela, CCV, etc.)

I appreciate ENIC for the job they have done, but I don’t have any great warmth or affection for them or for Levy. They have built a new stadium with the club’s money, they haven’t done it out of the kindness of their hearts. I think there’s emotional responses on both sides. Fans feel after 20 years they would like the club to go in a different direction (reform some of the policies) or it’s time for change (new ownership). This is partly borne out of frustration of seeing us get close but not getting over the line. And the flip side, you get fans passionately sticking up for ENIC which I don’t really understand aside from being appreciative of how they run the club, we’re not in danger of doing a Leeds. This now seems to be extended to defending Steve Hitchen in other threads as I guess a pop at Hitchen is seen as a pop at the club or Levy in particular.

I understand we all see things differently and some are perfectly happy with how the club is run and wouldn’t change anything, and tbh, there aren’t many owners in football I would want over ENIC. I do agree some of the talk of Arsenal or Everton being run better than Spurs is OTT. Arsenal are a badly run club. Their wage structure is awful, they are just throwing money at old, overrated players. I know nothing lasts forever and football is cyclical but it’s pretty stunning how far they’ve fallen and no one at their club has had the foresight to change anything to arrest the decline, it’s bad decision after bad decision. But that doesn’t mean I’m 100% happy with how our club is run and that we don’t need to make changes. You have outlined some of your pain points tbf. I take exception when people try to marginalise the importance of fans, personally I think it just annoys people that fans have more power than they give them credit for so they just write it off and say things like “fans have no power”. The club absolutely does look at the optics of how certain decisions are received, the furlough scheme for example. But again, we all see things differently.

I guess ultimately I would like the club to succeed with the existing ownership. They’ve had 20 years to make their mark. I take the point that it wouldn’t be the worst thing to allow them a few more years to operate with the cash cow that is our new stadium. But for arguments sake if we are sat here in 5-10 years with 1-2 more failed managerial appointments and no additional trophies then at that point I wouldn’t be against new ownership. But I do feel some would be genuinely upset if ENIC were to sell up which is the part I don’t understand as I have no affection for them.

 

[Lilbaz]

I appreciate ENIC for the job they have done, but I don’t have any great warmth or affection for them or for Levy. They have built a new stadium with the club’s money, they haven’t done it out of the kindness of their hearts. I think there’s emotional responses on both sides. Fans feel after 20 years they would like the club to go in a different direction (reform some of the policies) or it’s time for change (new ownership). This is partly borne out of frustration of seeing us get close but not getting over the line. And the flip side, you get fans passionately sticking up for ENIC which I don’t really understand aside from being appreciative of how they run the club, we’re not in danger of doing a Leeds. This now seems to be extended to defending Steve Hitchen in other threads as I guess a pop at Hitchen is seen as a pop at the club or Levy in particular.

I understand we all see things differently and some are perfectly happy with how the club is run and wouldn’t change anything, and tbh, there aren’t many owners in football I would want over ENIC. I do agree some of the talk of Arsenal or Everton being run better than Spurs is OTT. Arsenal are a badly run club. Their wage structure is awful, they are just throwing money at old, overrated players. I know nothing lasts forever and football is cyclical but it’s pretty stunning how far they’ve fallen and no one at their club has had the foresight to change anything to arrest the decline, it’s bad decision after bad decision. But that doesn’t mean I’m 100% happy with how our club is run and that we don’t need to make changes. You have outlined some of your pain points tbf. I take exception when people try to marginalise the importance of fans, personally I think it just annoys people that fans have more power than they give them credit for so they just write it off and say things like “fans have no power”. The club absolutely does look at the optics of how certain decisions are received, the furlough scheme for example. But again, we all see things differently.

I guess ultimately I would like the club to succeed with the existing ownership. They’ve had 20 years to make their mark. I take the point that it wouldn’t be the worst thing to allow them a few more years to operate with the cash cow that is our new stadium. But for arguments sake if we are sat here in 5-10 years with 1-2 more failed managerial appointments and no additional trophies then at that point I wouldn’t be against new ownership. But I do feel some would be genuinely upset if ENIC were to sell up which is the part I don’t understand as I have no affection for them.

There's only 3 clubs in the country that are not in danger of doing a leeds. We're a £billion in debt. Don't assume it cannot happen to us. The way players transfers are done these days using installments means if one or two go that could cause a domino effect. The whole of ligue 1 (apart from psg) might go under this year.

Also why is it always leeds? Rangers, chelsea, liverpool, sunderland have all had massive financial problems in the last 20 years.

 

[Raziel]

There's only 3 clubs in the country that are not in danger of doing a leeds. We're a £billion in debt. Don't assume it cannot happen to us. The way players transfers are done these days using installments means if one or two go that could cause a domino effect. The whole of ligue 1 (apart from psg) might go under this year.

Also why is it always leeds? Rangers, chelsea, liverpool, sunderland have all had massive financial problems in the last 20 years.

Pretty much everyone is fudged financially now bar City/Chelsea & PSG

I still think a few clubs will go under in next 12 months

 

[Bedfordspurs]

There's only 3 clubs in the country that are not in danger of doing a leeds. We're a £billion in debt. Don't assume it cannot happen to us. The way players transfers are done these days using installments means if one or two go that could cause a domino effect. The whole of ligue 1 (apart from psg) might go under this year.

Also why is it always leeds? Rangers, chelsea, liverpool, sunderland have all had massive financial problems in the last 20 years.

Leeds mismanaged the finances on a level with no rewards for it

 

[Bishop]

Not helpful or contributing

Some people point out the brick that is thrown at Levy, e.g. in this thread
- Levy has too big an ego to use a DoF (the fudging guy brought the DoF concept to UK)
- Levy needs to learn from Pool re hiring Olympic quality medical staff (something we did over a decade ago)
- Three weeks ago, Everton was a better run club than us
- Three weeks ago, no manager would come take the job, now Conte isn't good enough
- Look at Pool, not dithering, need a CB -> go out and buy it, a few pages earlier when linked with players -> look at fudging Levy, buying players without the new managers buy in.
- X club built a stadium and didn't have same challenges (google search shows x club was given stadium for free by City/Government)

But hey, point that out and you are "pro-Levy" in a "cult of Levy" .. seriously?

There is more than enough legitimate critiques of ENIC/Levy to have a real discussion vs. sounding like a child "wah, wah, not enough spend, look at club x (without the slightest research)" and then claiming anyone with a different opinion is in a cult.

Re your example
- Scum chairman did not anticipate multi-use scenarios for the stadium as well as we did
- They got brick interest rates
- The real estate investment was timed wrong
- They hired an ex-player with zero managerial experience and have given him multiple years
- They spent £70M on fudging Pepe
- They brought in David Luis on huge wages
- They had the Ozil saga for how many years
- They gave a huge contract to a striker that is older than Bale
- They have finished below us now for 6 seasons in a row, failed to qualify for any form of Europe for first time in over two decades (and still haven't fired their manager)
- But someone will point out, "but, they won the FA cup the season before"

Yeah, if Levy did that, I'm quite sure he would get brick

This is such a emotional response. Your connection to the Cult of Levy has you making strawman responses to things I haven't said.

Who said anything about their stadium build? But as it happens they did not go for a multi build because instead they are situated in much more desirable area and property sales was their means of raising the finance. Their build was no more mistimed than ours was.

The point you completely miss is that yes Arsenal are a shambles and you are able to see that because of your distance from them although you're take is rather biased. You don't have that emotional separation from Spurs and ENIC. Their actions conform with your own world view so why would you? That's fine of course.

And as much as it pains me but they have actually won cups in the mean time while we've won nothing. That does balance out against our better league finishes but seeing as we are no longer finishing in the CL spots then finishing one spot above Arsenal is an irrelevance.

My point is very simple if Levy were chairman of Everton I don't believe you would sing his unabashed praise as you do. [emoji2379]

 

[thfcsteff]

Mate, call names, if not wrong assumptions would be made

- Yes we all love Spurs, and if you love Spurs you should (my biggest peeve) care enough to be legitimate with your criticism (otherwise it's not helpful)

Let me use your example, I dislike Apple, I think they are an awful company with horrible business practices and don't give a fudge about their customers and I could give examples of factories that have suicide nets to prevent their workers from killing themselves, repeated failure to address flaws and blame on user (e.g. famous line -> you are holding the phone wrong, failing to address issues in monitor screens for years of production)

- Those are legitimate complaints/accusations

However if I came along and said

- they make a bricky phone
- they have a poor ecosystem supporting their devices
- they don't have enough apps

What would be your response, and if you answered any of those and I just said "fudge you, apple fan boy"

That's what is going here, I pointed it out above, people are just "shouting" things at Levy that any Spurs supporter should know simply isn't true

Come up with a list of legitimate issues, that we can all talk about and it's fine but really (and this conclusion was made a long time ago) it seems to come down to some group of people that go after current ownership just want a City/Chelsea model.

But let me be fair and kick it off

- Don't like the fact that Levy switches between extreme managerial styles (Jol -> Ramos -> Harry -> AVB -> Poch -> Jose)
- Don't like that we abandoned DoF model
- Don't like that we haven't been able to sell (more than the issue for buying) players fast enough (Rose, Eriksen, Sissoko, Lamela, CCV, etc.)

As you and Ricky have said, it is so far from one-sided isn't it. In fact, there are (IMO) only two things which have prevented Levy being hailed as the greatest chairman of the Premiership era. His control issues and his ego at the very, very death. Equally, one could argue that without those we would never have managed to get the stadium we have, the potential revenue we will have via sources other than sugar daddies, and we can also never forget that he was the one who recognized he needed a Poch and took a punt on him.

The biggest question becomes whether he has learnt from the 2018/19 mistakes.

I think when people blow up about wanting "new owners" and whatnot, they need to recognize that the only viable alternative to Lewis (and his cast Levy) are billionaire oligarchs or fuel Barrons, and as such, we want to remember to be careful what we wish for. One thing more than any which would dull the love a lot for me, would be seeing a billionaire rock up and join the financial flouters league.

 

[Crab.C.Nesbitt]

Pretty much everyone is fudged financially now bar City/Chelsea & PSG

I still think a few clubs will go under in next 12 months

Excepthat narrative simply isn’t true when it comes to us. Yes we have about £1b in stadium debt but that is financed by long term low interest loans.

sure like all clubs we have lost significant tv and stadium income over the last 1.5 years due to COVID, nut unlike most clubs we have significant cash reserves from approx six straight years of £50 mill plus operating profit (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t checked the clubs accounts.

thepoint being we should be in a significantly better financial position than most premier league clubs.

 

[Lilbaz]

Excepthat narrative simply isn’t true when it comes to us. Yes we have about £1b in stadium debt but that is financed by long term low interest loans.

sure like all clubs we have lost significant tv and stadium income over the last 1.5 years due to COVID, nut unlike most clubs we have significant cash reserves from approx six straight years of £50 mill plus operating profit (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t checked the clubs accounts.

thepoint being we should be in a significantly better financial position than most premier league clubs.

We also have £175m to pay back the government by next march and have had to borrow a further £250m. This season we are looking at probably £100m loss. We may have had significant cash reserves last june (as we had just borrowed from the government). How much we have now i don't know.

We should be ok. But if we don't get fans in next season we will be in big trouble.

 

[SpurMeUp]

The saving grace is our wages being a little more manageable than some clubs.

On the flip side we have lost out on much more revenue than other clubs with cancelled NFL, boxing, rugby, and of course Spurs games which - likely - generates the highest match day purse in the UK. Looking ahead in January 2020 Levy must have thought we’d take in a huge amount more than we did. We are less exposed because of levy’s controls on wages but we also lost more because of the hit to all events.

Still some would prefer a reckless chairmen over levy


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We also have £175m to pay back the government by next march and have had to borrow a further £250m. This season we are looking at probably £100m loss. We may have had significant cash reserves last june (as we had just borrowed from the government). How much we have now i don't know.

We should be ok. But if we don't get fans in next season we will be in big trouble.

The £250m is to pay back the government loan

 

[Lilbaz]

The £250m is to pay back the government loan

Yes but as far as i'm aware we haven't paid the government loan back yet. So it still needs to be paid.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Yes but as far as i'm aware we haven't paid the government loan back yet. So it still needs to be paid.

Yes but one would negate the other

 

[Gazza]

No one on this board could tell me that they would prefer levy over the owners of Emirates Marketing Project. Not one, all this flim clan of doing it the right way is stupid.

The modern game closely shows that the richest team will usually rise to the top.

Levy is not stupid and done his best with the tools he has had. But he has fell short terribly with support on the pitch but made large strides off it.

And also just because it's not levy it doesn't mean that the new owner will do a Leeds or whatever .... talk about doomsday fear mongering.

Levy and Enic have made the club self sustainable hoping that we remain "competitive", but I bet he would take the money and run if a stupid offer came in. A stupid offer that he and Joe are waiting for. He didn't have the minerals to make this club run as consistent winners but knows how to spin a story.

 

[billyiddo]

No one on this board could tell me that they would prefer levy over the owners of Emirates Marketing Project. Not one, all this flim clan of doing it the right way is stupid.

The modern game closely shows that the richest team will usually rise to the top.

Levy is not stupid and done his best with the tools he has had. But he has fell short terribly with support on the pitch but made large strides off it.

And also just because it's not levy it doesn't mean that the new owner will do a Leeds or whatever .... talk about doomsday fear mongering.

Levy and Enic have made the club self sustainable hoping that we remain "competitive", but I bet he would take the money and run if a stupid offer came in. A stupid offer that he and Joe are waiting for. He didn't have the minerals to make this club run as consistent winners but knows how to spin a story.

I want to see Spurs be successful and wouldn't be against other owners if they run the football side of things better and brought success that way, but I'm not that desperate for trophies that i want us to be an oil states play thing

 

[Lilbaz]

No one on this board could tell me that they would prefer levy over the owners of Emirates Marketing Project. Not one, all this flim clan of doing it the right way is stupid.

The modern game closely shows that the richest team will usually rise to the top.

Levy is not stupid and done his best with the tools he has had. But he has fell short terribly with support on the pitch but made large strides off it.

And also just because it's not levy it doesn't mean that the new owner will do a Leeds or whatever .... talk about doomsday fear mongering.

Levy and Enic have made the club self sustainable hoping that we remain "competitive", but I bet he would take the money and run if a stupid offer came in. A stupid offer that he and Joe are waiting for. He didn't have the minerals to make this club run as consistent winners but knows how to spin a story.

Lol. You realise what the abu dhabi royal family get up to? Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan city's real owner once kicked a man to death. They also buy children from bangladesh (some as young as 2) and starve them in order to be camel jockeys. Many of whom die each year. One was tortured with a cattle prod because he stole dates from the camels because he was so hungry. Their humans rights abuses are numerous. But we can forget all that, if they buy us a trophy.

 

[parklane1]

I think when people blow up about wanting "new owners" and whatnot, they need to recognize that the only viable alternative to Lewis (and his cast Levy) are billionaire oligarchs or fuel Barrons, and as such, we want to remember to be careful what we wish for. One thing more than any which would dull the love a lot for me, would be seeing a billionaire rock up and join the financial flouters league.

Amen brother i could not agree more.

 

[parklane1]

No one on this board could tell me that they would prefer levy over the owners of Emirates Marketing Project. Not one, all this flim clan of doing it the right way is stupid.

Well in my case you would 100% wrong and i am sure i am not the only one who would say the same.

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

No one on this board could tell me that they would prefer levy over the owners of Emirates Marketing Project. Not one, all this flim clan of doing it the right way is stupid.

The modern game closely shows that the richest team will usually rise to the top.

Levy is not stupid and done his best with the tools he has had. But he has fell short terribly with support on the pitch but made large strides off it.

And also just because it's not levy it doesn't mean that the new owner will do a Leeds or whatever .... talk about doomsday fear mongering.

Levy and Enic have made the club self sustainable hoping that we remain "competitive", but I bet he would take the money and run if a stupid offer came in. A stupid offer that he and Joe are waiting for. He didn't have the minerals to make this club run as consistent winners but knows how to spin a story.

Not for me thanks.