So, another Transfer Window saga is almost over. This time it’s a fruitful one. There’s little doubt that this was one of the most interesting TWs in recent times for Spurs. And it sends a clear message to anyone who follows football. That message is; Tottenham is serious in its intent.
Levy and the THFC Board have long been criticized by many supporters for keeping his hands in his pocket. Many considered that his long-term plan involved making money rather than building a team that can bring trophy success on the park. And he certainly was not a risk taker.
Levy’s detractors are mainly those supporters who do not have the patience or the vision to understand what he hopes to achieve. They demand instant success on the pitch and silverware for the trophy cabinet. Life rarely works that way…. and football never does.
Obviously everyone associated with THFC, especially the Chairman, want success, too. But to achieve long-term success there has to be a solid foundation on which to base all of the club’s operations. Levy has long been committed to making his vision a reality and has worked steadily toward that end. We have all witnessed the amazing development of our facilities in recent years. He is wise enough to know that he cannot please every supporter because, well, because everyone is different. But he is focused and motivated enough to maintain his efforts to make his vision a reality. The product that is THFC today is a vastly different product than it was fifteen years ago …. and in a good way.
The perception by some seems to suggest that the THFC members of the management Board are either stupid or out of touch with reality. And I don’t think anyone considers Levy to be stupid. Without doubt he understands that to make money in business (and football has become big business) a football club needs to achieve success on the park. That’s what Levy wants, too.
It takes a great deal of time, and many things have to come together, for a club to reach the heights of its aspirations. Few have the financial resources to try. Few achieve it. And there are so many very good reasons why they fail. Not long ago Tottenham looked, and played like, potential champions. But it wasn’t to be. That chapter, and opportunity, has now passed and Tottenham have had to start rebuilding again. All clubs go through the same process every few years.
Levy progresses the club in his own time and in his own way. He’s the boss. That’s how it works. He won’t progress the club in the way I want, or in the way anybody else wants. He has a plan and he is intent on following it. Comparing the club now to how it was fifteen years ago suggests he is going in the right direction.
Levy has taken a huge risk by bringing Gareth Bale back to The Lane in view of his age, lack of recent game time, and tendency to suffer injuries. He has taken another risk by appointing Jose as the club manager. For despite his trophy success with his previous clubs he remains an enigma. His ability to manage and support his players when the going gets tough poses a few questions. Tottenham have the players. It’s up to Jose to make them winners. In the past Jose has not been one for the long term in his managerial career. Levy is planning for the long term.
All transfers are risks but the risks posed by bringing Bale and Jose to The Lane are at the upper end of the scale. Maybe Levy is a risk taker after all. He has made some sound signings, and he has opened his wallet and negotiated some clever deals in the most economically troubled times the world has seen since he became Chairman.
But Levy is not just the Chairman of THFC; he is a supporter. Come the day when he leaves his current position behind I would still expect to see him at the ground on match days.
THFC is a strong club with world class facilities. It is a club which is respected wherever the game is played. All Spurs supporters can be proud of this. And the vision that leads Daniel Levy onwards is alive and well. Levy should get credit for this. My overall sense as I write this is that, for THFC, the good times are coming.
HT – I’ll take a few of your quotes from different posts, and answer them:
“What advantage is that, if not talking about the relative wealth of these clubs?”
I think you are mistaking how wealthy an owner is, and how wealthy a club is. Jut because Leicester’s owners are wealthy doesn’t mean they are pouring all of their personal wealth into the club. The 2 are unrelated. So yes, Leicester may indeed be operating on much smaller funds despite the owner being wealthier overall. Which makes their achievements all the more impressive, proportionally.
On the point about players bad mouthing Levy: I quoted Modric (who did see his big transfer to Chelsea fall through, so Levy DID break his promise on that occasion), who I’m sure holds fond memories of the club, but not necessarily Levy. As you correctly mentioned, maybe we should make a distinction between the 2, but the original article by Geof was about Levy.
I also believe that most players tend to be politically correct when speaking publicly, so even the positive has to be taken with a grain of salt. There is a difference, to me between say a Rafa VdV, who really, genuinely seemed to enjoy his time at Spurs, and say a Paulinho, who probably wouldn’t publicly criticise the club for no reason, who will say the right things, but holds no special bond to the club. How much did he really enjoy his time at Spurs? Who knows. That’s how I see it anyways.
You seem to imply that I said that Spurs were badly run. I never did say that. I said that trophies were lacking. You mention United as a benchmark, but never did I say that Man U were particularly well run either. As you have yourself pointed out, look at what’s happened at Liverpool recently. We should be benchmarking Levy with the best performing clubs, not the worst students. I mean he is paid more than any of his counterparts, so surely he has to earn that salary?
I could also point out that Man U’s last trophy dates from 2017, and that they have won 3 different trophies in the last 5 years. I am all for pointing out their relative under performance compared to their spend, but we’d still be walking on thin ice talking up our performance compared to theirs in that time.
You also like to compare ENIC’s ownership to the late 80’s/early 90’s when the club was almost bankrupt. Yes, we’re better off than then, but you have also arguably picked the worst possible period to compare our current situation to, to suit your point. I can do the same and say that compared to 1961, we’re probably worse off, certainly when it comes to results. It goes both ways!
TQ2Spurs – You wrote “you lay the blame for the lack of spending during Poch’s reign firmly at Levy’s door, do you have any concrete evidence for this?”
When the manager of THFC calls himself a “head coach” in a press conference because he feels he has no say in transfers, who would you blame for the lack of activity?
Towards the end, it’s very clear that the relationship between Levy and MP soured. I was never in those meetings, so it’s obviously hard to be 100% certain one way or another.
I can certainly accept that on some occasions, Levy was willing to spend money, but MP refused the player.
I also know that on other occasions, Levy bought players his managers didn’t want (NKoudou, Stambouli, NJie and others) just because they represented a good deal, regardless of whether those players ere going to improve the squad…
Is that what you call backing a manager?
If Levy’s solution to improving the squad is gamble after gamble and quantity over quality, (see: the Bale money), I can certainly understand MP’s stance. However, had Levy actually let MP decide how he wanted to spend the Bale money (like Liverpool did when the let Klopp decide how to replace Coutinho), then I’d have no complaints.
We also know that if you look at net transfer spend throughout the ENIC era, Levy has always spent less than most PL clubs, despite Spurs being richer than most PL clubs. And that is irrespective of the manager. There is only one common denominator throughout the Redknapp, AVB, MP eras and that’s Levy. Yet all of those managers have had things to say about not being backed. So where would you lay the blame, presented with this information?
Mourinho seems to be the first manager in a very long time that Levy is willing to trust. Good for Spurs, good for Jose, and good for Levy. But how long have we had to wait to get to this point?
BS…..you’ve just made my argument for me – “I was never in those meetings, so it’s obviously hard to be 100% certain one way or another.”
That was my point, all of the claims you are making about Levy are pretty much based on your own opinions/assessments of the various scenarios, you haven’t offered any concrete evidence.
You also wrote – “When the manager of THFC calls himself a “head coach” in a press conference because he feels he has no say in transfers, who would you blame for the lack of activity?”
Again where is the evidence that his cryptic comment referred to having no say in transfers? It’s just what many people read into it, that doesn’t make it fact.
As a point of interest in this debate…..it is being reported that Moussa Dembele was Jose’s top striker target but when it became clear a deal couldn’t be done with Lyon he settled on Carlos Vinicius as second choice and Levy got the deal done. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that Poch wouldn’t compromise in this way and as a result we ended up with no cover for Kane at all.
It is also reported that Levy offered to negotiate to bring in Tielemans and/or Asencio but Poch turned down the opportunity. If true that doesn’t suggest he had no say in transfers but, like your arguement, it’s probably all based on heresay and rumours.
Loving the points of view here guys. Great arguments both ways.
Off Topic PY I was 15 when I discovered Van Halen. See “Eruption” blew my mind at the time.
We all want exactly the same things but not necessarily in exactly the same way. Gotta love football.
BS, I welcomed you back on here for a good reason……. But I can’t debate this subject with you when you haven’t got the slightest idea of what I’m talking about and why… You always throw my own quotes back at me without having understood a word I have said. Dismissing all that I do say as though I’m an idiot…..
You can’t come up with anything new on this subject or anything of any real substance… It’s a pointless argument……..
I quit!
Back to life… back to reality.
Spurs EL squad:
Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris, Joe Hart
Defenders: Matt Doherty, Sergio Reguilon, Toby Alderweireld, Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier, Serge Aurier, Ben Davies, Cameron Carter-Vickers
Midfielders: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Heung-Min Son, Harry Winks, Gareth Bale, Erik Lamela, Moussa Sissoko, Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura, Tanguy Ndombele, Jack Clarke
Forwards: Harry Kane, Carlos Vinicius
TQ2Spurs – VS is nothing else but a forum of personal opinion.
If the threshold you set for posting on VS is being 100% sure of everything written here, there would be absolutely zero posts.
In fact, the point you brought up about MP refusing Tielemans and Asensio is also nothing but a rumour.
VS is a place where fans post opinions based on their perception of events. It feels very redundant having to even write something that obvious.
You can kill every conversation stone dead simply by saying “that’s just your opinion”. While true, that’s hardly going to make VS more enjoyable.
HT – I find that last post of yours very dismissive. Just because someone doesn’t agree with you, sees things differently, or in some cases, can even prove you wrong from time to time doesn’t necessarily mean it is without substance.
It may not suit your narrative that Levy can do no wrong, but look around and you’ll see that I am far from the only Spurs fan unimpressed with Levy. There are reasons for this, no matter how much you want to keep your blinders on.
The good thing about VS is you can leave it for a few months, come back and absolutely nothing has changed.
I think that’s a good thing…
It’s not that at all BS… It’s that you haven’t understood any of the points I’ve made. It’s frustrating for me to debate something when you twist all my words into something I am not even saying….. Maybe my words are lost in translation…..
It is a pointless debate when you either you can’t understand me or say that what I’ve said is not relevant…
Even your last line to me there ignores the fact that I wrote that Levy has made mistakes… It’s clear as daylight that I said that but you ignore it!
…… And now I’m getting a headache!
It takes two to communicate. And according to yu, if your posts aren’t understood, it must surely be the other person’s fault.
Maybe your communication isn’t as clear as you think it is – perspective.
What it comes down to is that you are willing to either forgive or forget Levy’s errors and continue to have unwavering trust in him. I believe he should be held accountable for his mistakes (too many over the years for my taste, despite the good he has done), and that he’s going to have to do a lot more than open a stadium to change my mind.
I think the two points of view are probably not reconcilable.
BS….I did point out in my post regarding Tielemans and Asencio that it was likely all based on rumours.
I find it a little ironical that you say “VS is nothing else but a forum of personal opinion” when you like to present yours in a way that suggests it carries more weight than everyone else’s, at the end of the day it’s just your slant on the same rumours and speculation we all hear or read about and very little to do with fact.
I’d love to understand where/when I said my posts carried more weight than anyone else’s. I’ll wait.
I like to justify my opinions based on my findings, but they are no more or less than valid than any other person’s – I have never argued otherwise.
Personally, I dislike it when people hold an opinion without having fully researched the matter, but that is a problem I have with society which is far broader than VS. I do like to think that I at least do some research to back up an opinion, unlike some of the posts here.
I was surprised to see CCV and Jack Clarke in the EL squad but presume this is down to the number of non-homegrown allowed?
We will hopefully get an opportunity to run the rule over Joe Rodon in the game tonight, good to see it is on free to air TV via ITV1.
And yet when I put some factual historical context into the debate and some genuine Modric quotes up for show… I’m told that the former has nothing to do with anything. And then even Modric’s own words on his time at Spurs are twisted or completely ignored…
I made very simple observation on when I see Ex-Spurs players when commentating on their ex club and being pundits, often showing some Spurs bias and fondness for the club, and that is then made out to be some sort of untruth from me. When it is simply an observation. Nothing more, nothing less.
You made a blanket statement implying all ex players had nothing but praise for their time at Spurs.
I pointed out that this was untrue. No more, no less.
Yes TQ. I’m surprised to see CCV in the squad. Especially as along with Rose he wasn’t given a squad number for this season. And the fact that even if we were to buy Rodon, he wouldn’t himself qualify as homegrown in the EL squad and would come too late to register for it anyway…
We do of course have Tanganga as a CB but is still young enough to qualify for the EL B-squad and so doesn’t have to be named as a player, until 24 hours before a EL match kick-off.
But yes that 22 man squad has the minimum quota of 7 ‘home-grown’ players.
Actually, I think it has to be 8 homegrown ??? It’ll be sorted!
I see that Reguilon was injured last night playing for Spain v Portugal….. Let’s hope it’s not a bad one… And let’s hope that Davies doesn’t get a knock tonight…… Harry might need to protect Ben from some of his own England team mates!