Well done Daniel Levy

[Bus-Conductor]

Problem with that is there wasn't one player bought that AVB objected to. We may not have got some of his first choices, but then some of them just weren't possible. The fact is he asked for Paulinho, Capoue and Soldado and got all three. If his list had of been more realistic we could have gotten a couple more aswell.

I said didn't want or were new to the league. I'm sure he got some he asked for and I don't think they were all a roaring success either. I appreciate that AVB was possibly unrealistic with his aspirations in terms of signings, but I also think there may not have been complete realism communicated from Levy either. I think if we sell Modric for 30m, then asking for Moutinho for 22-24 isn't outrageous. Asking for Hulk for silly money is.

The trouble is, even football people can be persuasive whilst getting it wrong. Pochettino persuaded Southampton to part with 15m for a player who any of us could have told them was a fruit cake - and they ended up writing off his entire 15m transfer fee. We get Redknapp deciding Suarez is too like VDV. Liverpool's committee thinking Ballotelli will fit their system etc etc.

I also think the acquisition process - a process that by all accounts involved people like Pleat, Sherwood, Ferdinand, Levy etc was nowhere near as cohesive as what we have now. I think this is why AVB was keen to get Baldini in and to an extent trusted his judgement, perhaps more than was prudent.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Bayern in for Levy.

 

[Spursidol]

I said didn't want or were new to the league. I'm sure he got some he asked for and I don't think they were all a roaring success either. I appreciate that AVB was possibly unrealistic with his aspirations in terms of signings, but I also think there may not have been complete realism communicated from Levy either. I think if we sell Modric for 30m, then asking for Moutinho for 22-24 isn't outrageous. Asking for Hulk for silly money is.

The trouble is, even football people can be persuasive whilst getting it wrong. Pochettino persuaded Southampton to part with 15m for a player who any of us could have told them was a fruit cake - and they ended up writing off his entire 15m transfer fee. We get Redknapp deciding Suarez is too like VDV. Liverpool's committee thinking Ballotelli will fit their system etc etc.

I also think the acquisition process - a process that by all accounts involved people like Pleat, Sherwood, Ferdinand, Levy etc was nowhere near as cohesive as what we have now. I think this is why AVB was keen to get Baldini in and to an extent trusted his judgement, perhaps more than was prudent.

Asking for a player is one thing but it takes the selling club's agreement and indeed the player's agreement for that to happen.

Lots of stories went around at the time that DL/Porto did (eventually) get to an agreement (which there's no point in going round again) but certainly Moutniho didn't show any great enthusiasm for the move - he certainly didn't ask for a move for example.

As another issue, Spurs have rightly tried to buy and develop players - which translates as buying a good player at a decent price and coaching him to be better, and in turn that might mean selling for £30m and buying 2 x £15m players so as to improve the squad and with Eriksen arriving for £11m and Dele for a song that's clearly achievable - so asking for Moutinho specifically wasn't necessarily the most sensible player he could have asked for, I'd even call it a 'lazy choice' to demand DL buy players from his former employee particularly as AVB himself said 'Porto is a difficult club to deal with' and Moutinho was clearly poor value - over priced at £24m.

All players being bought are risky, but if you buy an expensive player and you get it wrong its a BIG financial loss, buying several cheaper players and one is not so successful is a lesser financial risk. Moutinho hasn't been 'a roaring success' since moving from Porto so it may well be 'bullet dodged' as better players would have been available, but as I said AVB seemed to be 'lazy' just wanted players he knew rather than buying players and coaching them to be better.

As a general comment, AVB's reluctance to develop players (and we can argue over how much AVB contributed to Bale) is in stark contrast to Poch's development of players.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Asking for a player is one thing but it takes the selling club's agreement and indeed the player's agreement for that to happen.

Lots of stories went around at the time that DL/Porto did (eventually) get to an agreement (which there's no point in going round again) but certainly Moutniho didn't show any great enthusiasm for the move - he certainly didn't ask for a move for example.

As another issue, Spurs have rightly tried to buy and develop players - which translates as buying a good player at a decent price and coaching him to be better, and in turn that might mean selling for £30m and buying 2 x £15m players so as to improve the squad and with Eriksen arriving for £11m and Dele for a song that's clearly achievable - so asking for Moutinho specifically wasn't necessarily the most sensible player he could have asked for, I'd even call it a 'lazy choice' to demand DL buy players from his former employee particularly as AVB himself said 'Porto is a difficult club to deal with' and Moutinho was clearly poor value - over priced at £24m.

All players being bought are risky, but if you buy an expensive player and you get it wrong its a BIG financial loss, buying several cheaper players and one is not so successful is a lesser financial risk. Moutinho hasn't been 'a roaring success' since moving from Porto so it may well be 'bullet dodged' as better players would have been available, but as I said AVB seemed to be 'lazy' just wanted players he knew rather than buying players and coaching them to be better.

As a general comment, AVB's reluctance to develop players (and we can argue over how much AVB contributed to Bale) is in stark contrast to Poch's development of players.

You know I agree with the rationale, economics and practicality of developing our own players and/or buying young less proven players and developing, I've been one of the staunchest advocates of this policy.

And I was realistic at the time about AVB's demands. But you are wrong about Moutinho in terms of value and quality. In the grand scheme of things he was not over priced, and he has been a superb player in Portugal and for Monaco - I've watched him many times - one of the reasons, despite Monaco changing policy completely to a more frugal one, that they have continued to do so well in the french league (and knock teams like Arsenal out of the CL)

As I said at the time, I can understand if Levy had said categorically to AVB that he was out of our budget and not possible, but that was not what happened, we were "trying" (depending on what we all believe but we were certainly going through the motions) to sign him, so clearly the idea wasn't outrageous. Porto might be hard to deal with but not that hard, not Shaktar hard or Lyon hard. Porto effectively existed to service Europe with third party merchandise. They were the ultimate selling club.


As much as I am a staunch believer in a shrewd transfer policy, wouldn't care if we never signed a finished 25m player again, I am not opposed to it either, and as 20+m players go, especially when you think of the ludicrous prices paid for players (Henderson went for 20m at the same time for example) Moutinho was fairly priced and considering we'd just sold Modric for 34m didn't represent bad value.

 

[Hot Spur]

Lets say at the end of this year we sell Kane, and buy 6 players who Pochettino doesn't want or certainly are new to this league etc, lets get Sherwood back while we're at it, and have him telling Poch how to do his job, and Adebayor as well and see if we still see improvement.

You can't compare the environment and backing that Poch has been given, probably in part because of the mistakes made around AVB time and the recognition that mistakes were made, to the environment AVB was working in, and despite this he still clocked up points and had has in touch with the top four. There was no disaster, no failure, or if there was, it certainly wasn't all AVB's failings.

You're wasting your time mate, the haters will hate, they only see what they want to see. There are none as blind as those who don't want to see.

 

[Trix]

You're wasting your time mate, the haters will hate, they only see what they want to see. There are none as blind as those who don't want to see.

What about those that believe stuff written by Neil Ashton?

 

[mendesstormer]

I was going to start a thread praising Levy (I know, I know), but I can see it's pretty much been done to death here already. So I will just say this: he's done a fantastic job, judging from the position we are in right now. What's most impressive is that THFC looks strong in all key aspects of the club: from 1st team to squad to manager to training ground to financial stability to new stadium (soon). You can't ask for more than that from any chairman. I've been highly critical of him in the past - particularly re appointments of Jaques Santini, dismissal of Martin Jol and the Tim Sherwood 'experiment' - but now everything is in place, pretty much. And you can't say he got lucky with Poch. He identified a manager who many fans weren't that impressed by, and had the sense to see that he was worth backing in a way that hadn't been done with previous incumbents. That, above all, deserves my respect as a long-standing fan.

 

[Spursidol]

You know I agree with the rationale, economics and practicality of developing our own players and/or buying young less proven players and developing, I've been one of the staunchest advocates of this policy.

And I was realistic at the time about AVB's demands. But you are wrong about Moutinho in terms of value and quality. In the grand scheme of things he was not over priced, and he has been a superb player in Portugal and for Monaco - I've watched him many times - one of the reasons, despite Monaco changing policy completely to a more frugal one, that they have continued to do so well in the french league (and knock teams like Arsenal out of the CL)

As I said at the time, I can understand if Levy had said categorically to AVB that he was out of our budget and not possible, but that was not what happened, we were "trying" (depending on what we all believe but we were certainly going through the motions) to sign him, so clearly the idea wasn't outrageous. Porto might be hard to deal with but not that hard, not Shaktar hard or Lyon hard. Porto effectively existed to service Europe with third party merchandise. They were the ultimate selling club.


As much as I am a staunch believer in a shrewd transfer policy, wouldn't care if we never signed a finished 25m player again, I am not opposed to it either, and as 20+m players go, especially when you think of the ludicrous prices paid for players (Henderson went for 20m at the same time for example) Moutinho was fairly priced and considering we'd just sold Modric for 34m didn't represent bad value.

I'm not saying Moutinho was a 'bad' player - although I suspect you value him more highly than you by your comparison with the £20m paid for Henderson, a player that I'm still surprised commanded that kind of fee.

As another comparison, I'd have liked Martial - but not at the £50m or was it £65m which ManU have paid. Think we were alleged to have bid £25m or so and at kind of price he would have been a good bet. I guess what I'm getting at is that there will always be clubs willing to pay far more than we would for a decent player, but we don't want to overpay as if ever we want to sell that player we don't want to find we need to sell at a big loss. By comparison I'd guess that Liverpool will find it hard to sell Henderson at £20m+ now and equally ManU will find that problem with Martial - unless both improve a lot and Real or Barcelona are interested.

And I'd suggest that only when Monaco thought they could throw money around could they afford the kind of money Portio wanted for Moutinho. Now they need to operate within financial sanity limits they wouldn't buy at that price - and equally will struggle to sell at that price especially as he's now 29. So as a decent value acquisition, he would not have been for Spurs 3 years ago, much better value elsewhere (even though rumours are we agreed or at least got very close to that value)..

 

[Trix]

I'm not saying Moutinho was a 'bad' player - although I suspect you value him more highly than you by your comparison with the £20m paid for Henderson, a player that I'm still surprised commanded that kind of fee.

As another comparison, I'd have liked Martial - but not at the £50m or was it £65m which ManU have paid. Think we were alleged to have bid £25m or so and at kind of price he would have been a good bet. I guess what I'm getting at is that there will always be clubs willing to pay far more than we would for a decent player, but we don't want to overpay as if ever we want to sell that player we don't want to find we need to sell at a big loss. By comparison I'd guess that Liverpool will find it hard to sell Henderson at £20m+ now and equally ManU will find that problem with Martial - unless both improve a lot and Real or Barcelona are interested.

And I'd suggest that only when Monaco thought they could throw money around could they afford the kind of money Portio wanted for Moutinho. Now they need to operate within financial sanity limits they wouldn't buy at that price - and equally will struggle to sell at that price especially as he's now 29. So as a decent value acquisition, he would not have been for Spurs 3 years ago, much better value elsewhere (even though rumours are we agreed or at least got very close to that value)..

On a slight tangent I'm told Benteke is available for half of what Pool paid for him. Still think they will struggle to move him on when he is currently on £130k a week.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Where have the 'Levy Out' protest group been this season? I haven't seen them at the ground...anyone know?

 

[Good Doctor M]

On a slight tangent I'm told Benteke is available for half of what Pool paid for him. Still think they will struggle to move him on when he is currently on £130k a week.

Benteke trying to press would resemble an episode of Road Runner.

 

[Trix]

Benteke trying to press would resemble an episode of Road Runner.

Oh yeah, totally wrong for us now.

 

[Hot Spur]

What about those that believe stuff written by Neil Ashton?

They're just plain gullible.

 

[SlickMongoose]

Fucking Levy, losing us that game. Levy out.