- Aug 24, 2011
- 6,667
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Here's a quote from Levy in October 2018, on the heels of the transfer window that destroyed Poch's project: "The stadium won't directly impact on the transfer policy. There is a certain amount earmarked for transfers and the club can only spend what is available".You do not have the knowledge to make judgements on what was necessary in the long-term interests of the club vis a vis the stadium build. That judgement is not built on evidence. Levy's judgement has been based on the best available evidence.
I would welcome a single source with a quote from Levy saying the stadium build would have no impact on transfers.
I would like to know how you know that Ajax were asking for a huge fee in 2018.
I would like to know how you know Poch wanted these individual players.
All of these things involve relying on rumour, hearsay and prejudice rather than facts and reasonable inferences. IF your worldview is based on speculation then it is no wonder you can find the space to be so confidently critical of someone whose verifiable track record is so strong.
You say that the evidence suggests there was not a binary choice between either spending on the stadium or spending on transfers. Well lets look at what happened once the stadium opened. We spent. Are there any other similar clubs whose spending was curtailed during a recent stadium build? Yes, Arsenal. Those are both verifiable facts. So already the verifiable evidence is consistent with the view the stadium impacted transfers. So far I have not seen a single verifiable fact to support the opposite.
Final point - the performance has not been good this past year but this is not some permanent state of affairs. We were in a CL final a year ago. The long term picture has always been good under Levy and it continues to look positive. The current slump has its roots in decisions made years ago (perhaps) but that logic then suggests our success 3 years from now comes from the excellent spending last summer.
And another from March 2019, when he told the Supporters Trust, "with a debt of £637m, subject to reasonable assumption on interest rates, the net spend on players would not be affected".
And a third from September 2019: “[The refinancing] will have no bearing on how we run the club… and no bearing on those types of short-term movements [such as transfers]... We could easily have spent more money on players [in recent years]".
With respect to Frenkie DeJong, here's a direct quote from the man himself: “The moment wasn’t right. I wasn’t finished at Ajax, as I hadn’t yet played a full season in my own position. I was also injured in that period, so I was thinking, ‘Not yet’. I felt I should stay for another year at Ajax, or perhaps longer. I considered their [Spurs’] offer long and hard. I see Tottenham as a very stable club, and they are only getting better.” DeJong was, of course, one of the most highly rated young midfielders in the world at the time, so you'd have to be delusional to think Ajax would not have wanted a big fee. I'm sick of doing your homework for you, so look it up for yourself if you doubt me.
Levy's line for the entirety of the stadium build process has been the same -- that it would not affect our transfer spending. It is abundantly clear that you have not been paying attention if you were unaware of that fact until now. All of the available evidence, including direct quotes from Levy himself, indicates that there was money to spend throughout the stadium build. No one needs to be "entitled" to anything to suggest that we didn't make effective use of those resources. Look no further than the fact that we're sitting tenth in the table. I'm done with this argument.