I love (hate) Daniel Levy, please don’t mention him anywhere else!

[13VanDerBale13]

Ally Gold. Didn’t expect that.

People are finally copping on & from those you least expect it from.
There’s nowhere for Daniel & his supporters to hide.

 

[RELISYS]

Better get a petition started, that will show them.

Why don't the people who want ENIC/Levy out actually do something of substance.

Start a business and call it G.LO, Get Levy Out and register it at company house, that will get some attention. Then get other Spurs fans to invest in it by selling shares.

G.L.O could be a new fashion label, start producing clothing, with G.LO as it's logo and the slogan, Success is not an option and sell them on Amazon, Ebay, Your own website. You might even make enough cash to buy stadium naming rights or sponsorship at the stadium.

 

[Snarfalicious]

Better get a petition started, that will show them.

Why don't the people who want ENIC/Levy out actually do something of substance.

Start a business and call it G.LO, Get Levy Out and register it at company house, that will get some attention. Then get other Spurs fans to invest in it by selling shares.

G.L.O could be a new fashion label, start producing clothing, with G.LO as it's logo and the slogan, Success is not an option and sell them on Amazon, Ebay, Your own website. You might even make enough cash to buy stadium naming rights or sponsorship at the stadium.

Got the perfect mascot, too.

 

[For the love of Spurs]

People are finally copping on & from those you least expect it from.
There’s nowhere for Daniel & his supporters to hide.

I do think there is an element of embarrassment. No one likes to be wrong, I used to think years back before the stadium that despite all ENIC’s mistakes they had a plan with the stadium to make us a top side. I was wrong. It feels like nothing really change until the top changes and we can’t force that change so we are in this endless loop.

 

[dontcallme]

I do think there is an element of embarrassment. No one likes to be wrong, I used to think years back before the stadium that despite all ENIC’s mistakes they had a plan with the stadium to make us a top side. I was wrong. It feels like nothing really change until the top changes and we can’t force that change so we are in this endless loop.

Long boring post upcoming but I'll try to explain the journey under ENIC/Levy and how I went from being supportive to apathetic.

Levy took over in 2001 after a very disappointing first decade in the Prem. We had a poor squad and unpopular manager in George Graham. Our turnover was massively behind the top clubs in the country. The TV deal money wasn't as high as it is now. So we were starting massively behind the top clubs we wanted to compete with.

Levy fired the manager and hired a club legend in Hoddle who up to that point had a good record as a manager. But the same thing happened that had been happening throughout the 90s with poor results, poor signings and no plan for progression. Levy realised the issues went much deeper than the manager and fired Hoddle at the beginning of the season and spent most of the season with a caretaker manager while he worked on a new plan.

He hired a football man in Arnesen to be DOF who gutted out the football side of the club from top to bottom. New manager, head coach, scouts etc were all hired. Yes, Santini was a misstep but the system was about Arnesen taking over. With almost no net spend and a short and long term plan put into place we quickly went from lower mid table club to 5th best in the country.

The "Sky four" had a much bigger turnover than we did and the gap was huge. I think most fans understood that which is why so many of us were very positive towards Levy during this period.

Arnesen did us dirty and left for Chelsea. I believe this was a huge hit to Levy who had put so much faith into this man running the football side of things.

We had a huge amount of catching up to do financially to compete with the big clubs so we needed to do things differently off the pitch in an attempt to compete with them. Comolli was hired whose big strength was attracting top talent to the club that was under the radar or not ready to play for the top clubs. The likes of Bale, Berbatov and Modric were bought during his time here.

But we had Jol as head coach. A very popular man who had take us to successive 5th place finishes. He made it clear that he needed an experienced centre back and midfield general to steady the ship. Instead he was provided with teenagers Kaboul and KP Boateng. This was maybe the first sign of us not providing the manager with what he needed when the request was perfectly reasonable. But things had been progressively good by then so I think Levy got a bit of a pass by many on this.

Ramos was brought in. A head coach who won 2 successive UEFA cups with a smaller club than the best in the country. He appeared to be a perfect fit. Outside of delivering a trophy, it was a disaster and we genuinely had a chance of relegation should we have persisted.

Once again, I think it's understandable that many of us weren't on Levy's back by now. He hired a DOF and allowed him to pick the head coach. The next hire was Harry Redknapp who was the first to take us to that top 4 finish we'd been desperate for. This was a good hire which put him back in the good books for the most part.

I think many fans still ignore the fact that by this stage our turnover while improving was still massively behind the top clubs. I was a big fan of Redknapp but I think his desire for experienced players meant there was a short-termism to his approach and tenure.

So Levy went back to the forward thinking approach by hiring Baldini and a young head coach in AVB. It was all a bit of a mess as the head coach wanted players like Moutinho on huge wages that the club/Levy wasn't ready to pay.

I really think by the time of the Redknapp period, Levy had done a good job. We'd had a run of our best league finishes on a consistent basis and hadn't overspent to do so like many a club such as Villa had done. Again this is a point I feel many of Levy's detractors ignore/dismiss too much.

But I also think this was the period when Levy's time running the football side of things should have ended. We'd had good results but there was no consistent plan in place. The stadium plans were starting to progress and this was going to take a huge amount of Levy's time and focus. It's also the area he's strongest in.

By the time we got to Poch, we had no football man in charge of transfers and it all became a mess. Poch put an excellent first team together but we had no squad. The backup players were either not good enough or just not a fit for how Poch wanted to play.

Poch made it clear the buying strategy had to change and there was lots of talk about him wanting to take a DOF style role. While I agree that Poch's skilset didn't suit this, a transfer/scouting system had to be put in place to provide the head coach with what he needed.

Instead we got the perfect storm of Levy playing DOF, Poch turning down targets and the best period of the club's time in the Prem fizzled out.

Since then Levy has hired two of the world's most successful and expensive managers in Jose and Conte under the ridiculous idea that this alone will bring success. These managers know what top clubs need to achieve at the top. They're not magicians who can make a subpar squad achieve at the top. It's a simple case of hire them and give them what they want within our means or don't hire them.

He hired Paratici to scout and negotiate deals who then got banned from doing so. It's been 5 years since Jose was hired and it's been a pure mess ever since.

We've now put yet another system in place with scouting team etc all buying young talent and bla bla bla.

Even people like myself who have been supportive of Levy and given him leeway on mistakes have had enough. Who knows, we might get lucky and a few of the youngsters we have bought do go onto become superstars. But I no longer believe the top of the hierarchy know or care enough about running a football team to make it a success.

We'll do enough to be safe and likely finish top 6 on a relatively regular basis, might even get a few highs. But 20 years is enough data to show Levy really isn't going to put in the right people to run the football club and bring us success.

As per the post I am replying to about needing to state I was wrong about Levy, I don't feel I need to. I got some bits right and some bits wrong. It's not simply black and white.

Regardless of what many seem to think, a competitive turnover is required. At the beginning of ENIC's time Arsenal's turnover was something like £100m a year higher than ours. Utd and Liverpool even more and Chelsea living of Roman's money. The fact that we've closed that gap is huge for the club.

Running a football club is very different to running other businesses as many successful businessmen have found. So Levy's first 10 years had a few mistakes but overall it was a positive period of growth and improvement on and off the pitch.

I think there was a time when for the football club it was Levy's time to step aside and I am not going to beat myself up for not seeing at the time exactly when this period was.

I think the best way to get the fanbase onside with the idea that it is time for Levy to go is to concentrate on the running of the club from the time of Poch to now. That is over a decade of running the football side of the club poorly.

Those making out the entire ENIC era has been a disaster really do hurt their own cause.

 

[Cavehillspur]

I do think there is an element of embarrassment. No one likes to be wrong, I used to think years back before the stadium that despite all ENIC’s mistakes they had a plan with the stadium to make us a top side. I was wrong. It feels like nothing really change until the top changes and we can’t force that change so we are in this endless loop.

Agreed, Levy always adamant that the stadium will be the game changer for us to compete at the top and it couldn't be further from the truth, weve actually regressed along with the players wagebill. He's pulled the wool over our eyes.

 

[gabsyspur]

If he sacks Ange I’ll join any Levy out protest outside the stadium or training ground

 

[WiganSpur]

If Levy sacks Ange he will 100% do it before February so he doesn’t have to invest.

A strong chairman would back their man with £100m on ready made players in January.

 

[VoteMe4Prez]

He has to back him. That is it. He didn't do it in the summer.

 

[muppetman]

Long boring post upcoming but I'll try to explain the journey under ENIC/Levy and how I went from being supportive to apathetic.

Levy took over in 2001 after a very disappointing first decade in the Prem. We had a poor squad and unpopular manager in George Graham. Our turnover was massively behind the top clubs in the country. The TV deal money wasn't as high as it is now. So we were starting massively behind the top clubs we wanted to compete with.

Levy fired the manager and hired a club legend in Hoddle who up to that point had a good record as a manager. But the same thing happened that had been happening throughout the 90s with poor results, poor signings and no plan for progression. Levy realised the issues went much deeper than the manager and fired Hoddle at the beginning of the season and spent most of the season with a caretaker manager while he worked on a new plan.

He hired a football man in Arnesen to be DOF who gutted out the football side of the club from top to bottom. New manager, head coach, scouts etc were all hired. Yes, Santini was a misstep but the system was about Arnesen taking over. With almost no net spend and a short and long term plan put into place we quickly went from lower mid table club to 5th best in the country.

The "Sky four" had a much bigger turnover than we did and the gap was huge. I think most fans understood that which is why so many of us were very positive towards Levy during this period.

Arnesen did us dirty and left for Chelsea. I believe this was a huge hit to Levy who had put so much faith into this man running the football side of things.

We had a huge amount of catching up to do financially to compete with the big clubs so we needed to do things differently off the pitch in an attempt to compete with them. Comolli was hired whose big strength was attracting top talent to the club that was under the radar or not ready to play for the top clubs. The likes of Bale, Berbatov and Modric were bought during his time here.

But we had Jol as head coach. A very popular man who had take us to successive 5th place finishes. He made it clear that he needed an experienced centre back and midfield general to steady the ship. Instead he was provided with teenagers Kaboul and KP Boateng. This was maybe the first sign of us not providing the manager with what he needed when the request was perfectly reasonable. But things had been progressively good by then so I think Levy got a bit of a pass by many on this.

Ramos was brought in. A head coach who won 2 successive UEFA cups with a smaller club than the best in the country. He appeared to be a perfect fit. Outside of delivering a trophy, it was a disaster and we genuinely had a chance of relegation should we have persisted.

Once again, I think it's understandable that many of us weren't on Levy's back by now. He hired a DOF and allowed him to pick the head coach. The next hire was Harry Redknapp who was the first to take us to that top 4 finish we'd been desperate for. This was a good hire which put him back in the good books for the most part.

I think many fans still ignore the fact that by this stage our turnover while improving was still massively behind the top clubs. I was a big fan of Redknapp but I think his desire for experienced players meant there was a short-termism to his approach and tenure.

So Levy went back to the forward thinking approach by hiring Baldini and a young head coach in AVB. It was all a bit of a mess as the head coach wanted players like Moutinho on huge wages that the club/Levy wasn't ready to pay.

I really think by the time of the Redknapp period, Levy had done a good job. We'd had a run of our best league finishes on a consistent basis and hadn't overspent to do so like many a club such as Villa had done. Again this is a point I feel many of Levy's detractors ignore/dismiss too much.

But I also think this was the period when Levy's time running the football side of things should have ended. We'd had good results but there was no consistent plan in place. The stadium plans were starting to progress and this was going to take a huge amount of Levy's time and focus. It's also the area he's strongest in.

By the time we got to Poch, we had no football man in charge of transfers and it all became a mess. Poch put an excellent first team together but we had no squad. The backup players were either not good enough or just not a fit for how Poch wanted to play.

Poch made it clear the buying strategy had to change and there was lots of talk about him wanting to take a DOF style role. While I agree that Poch's skilset didn't suit this, a transfer/scouting system had to be put in place to provide the head coach with what he needed.

Instead we got the perfect storm of Levy playing DOF, Poch turning down targets and the best period of the club's time in the Prem fizzled out.

Since then Levy has hired two of the world's most successful and expensive managers in Jose and Conte under the ridiculous idea that this alone will bring success. These managers know what top clubs need to achieve at the top. They're not magicians who can make a subpar squad achieve at the top. It's a simple case of hire them and give them what they want within our means or don't hire them.

He hired Paratici to scout and negotiate deals who then got banned from doing so. It's been 5 years since Jose was hired and it's been a pure mess ever since.

We've now put yet another system in place with scouting team etc all buying young talent and bla bla bla.

Even people like myself who have been supportive of Levy and given him leeway on mistakes have had enough. Who knows, we might get lucky and a few of the youngsters we have bought do go onto become superstars. But I no longer believe the top of the hierarchy know or care enough about running a football team to make it a success.

We'll do enough to be safe and likely finish top 6 on a relatively regular basis, might even get a few highs. But 20 years is enough data to show Levy really isn't going to put in the right people to run the football club and bring us success.

As per the post I am replying to about needing to state I was wrong about Levy, I don't feel I need to. I got some bits right and some bits wrong. It's not simply black and white.

Regardless of what many seem to think, a competitive turnover is required. At the beginning of ENIC's time Arsenal's turnover was something like £100m a year higher than ours. Utd and Liverpool even more and Chelsea living of Roman's money. The fact that we've closed that gap is huge for the club.

Running a football club is very different to running other businesses as many successful businessmen have found. So Levy's first 10 years had a few mistakes but overall it was a positive period of growth and improvement on and off the pitch.

I think there was a time when for the football club it was Levy's time to step aside and I am not going to beat myself up for not seeing at the time exactly when this period was.

I think the best way to get the fanbase onside with the idea that it is time for Levy to go is to concentrate on the running of the club from the time of Poch to now. That is over a decade of running the football side of the club poorly.

Those making out the entire ENIC era has been a disaster really do hurt their own cause.

That's an excellent post and is pretty close to where I am now. Levy has probably over his entire tenure done quite a lot more good than bad, but there is no real ambition to go the extra step to win things. I think he has been strung along thinking that Financial Fair Play and it's descendants would mean we would finally come into our own, but this is cloud cuckoo land.

If we want to actually compete then we need someone braver at the top of the organisation, but I just can't see that happening, so we are stuck here.

 

[only1waddle]

If Levy sacks Ange he will 100% do it before February so he doesn’t have to invest.

A strong chairman would back their man with £100m on ready made players in January.

Yep, strengthen the squad as best we can regardless of who the coach is.

 

[thebenjamin]

What's always ground my gears and I'm sure everyone else's is levy approach to transfers; every window we are linked with top players, we procrastinate, refuse to pay the market price, enter negotiations but are always gazumped by clubs who.mean business, we invariably sign the cheap up and coming or over the hill option. That's the worst of it for me. Liverpool, man city, chelsea, just announce signings, ours are long drawn out disappointing affairs and that's all on levy.

We're just waiting for every club in the PL to do a Leeds and then our time will come

 

[carmeldevil]

Wake me up when Levy finally leaves.

 

[Nerine]

I suppose when the entertainment on the pitch subsides, it ramps up off the pitch.

May as well strap in and dig the popcorn out and watch the whole mess unfold.

Sadly.

 

[sundanceyid10]

People are finally copping on & from those you least expect it from.
There’s nowhere for Daniel & his supporters to hide.

Yeah I agree it’s all laid bare now, I’ve said it for ages and the evidence is absolutely overwhelming. It doesn’t matter who the manager is. This club at board level will not have success period. managers here are simply the ones who take the can for not winning. Just many managers and systems have to be run through before the reality of the problem is noticed.

Levy’s time is up if success and winning things are the goal. If Levy remains chairman will be having these same conversations in ten years time.

 

[Dougal]

Wake me up when Levy finally leaves.

Get comfy…

 

[Misfit]

Yep, strengthen the squad as best we can regardless of who the coach is.

That would require having a coherent general philosophy wrt football and being able to identify managers who could come in and operate within it relatively smoothly.

Instead we get the shit smashed at the wall with a tennis racquet approach.

 

[Dougal]

I’m not going tomorrow. Stuck my ticket on Exchange. No takers yet. I couldn’t think of a single good reason to go that wouldn’t have me completely pissed off for a few days. This isn’t on Ange. I can take the defeats, bad performances. Hope is the only thing that has kept me going so long and this club hasn’t got any.

 

[sundanceyid10]

Long boring post upcoming but I'll try to explain the journey under ENIC/Levy and how I went from being supportive to apathetic.

Levy took over in 2001 after a very disappointing first decade in the Prem. We had a poor squad and unpopular manager in George Graham. Our turnover was massively behind the top clubs in the country. The TV deal money wasn't as high as it is now. So we were starting massively behind the top clubs we wanted to compete with.

Levy fired the manager and hired a club legend in Hoddle who up to that point had a good record as a manager. But the same thing happened that had been happening throughout the 90s with poor results, poor signings and no plan for progression. Levy realised the issues went much deeper than the manager and fired Hoddle at the beginning of the season and spent most of the season with a caretaker manager while he worked on a new plan.

He hired a football man in Arnesen to be DOF who gutted out the football side of the club from top to bottom. New manager, head coach, scouts etc were all hired. Yes, Santini was a misstep but the system was about Arnesen taking over. With almost no net spend and a short and long term plan put into place we quickly went from lower mid table club to 5th best in the country.

The "Sky four" had a much bigger turnover than we did and the gap was huge. I think most fans understood that which is why so many of us were very positive towards Levy during this period.

Arnesen did us dirty and left for Chelsea. I believe this was a huge hit to Levy who had put so much faith into this man running the football side of things.

We had a huge amount of catching up to do financially to compete with the big clubs so we needed to do things differently off the pitch in an attempt to compete with them. Comolli was hired whose big strength was attracting top talent to the club that was under the radar or not ready to play for the top clubs. The likes of Bale, Berbatov and Modric were bought during his time here.

But we had Jol as head coach. A very popular man who had take us to successive 5th place finishes. He made it clear that he needed an experienced centre back and midfield general to steady the ship. Instead he was provided with teenagers Kaboul and KP Boateng. This was maybe the first sign of us not providing the manager with what he needed when the request was perfectly reasonable. But things had been progressively good by then so I think Levy got a bit of a pass by many on this.

Ramos was brought in. A head coach who won 2 successive UEFA cups with a smaller club than the best in the country. He appeared to be a perfect fit. Outside of delivering a trophy, it was a disaster and we genuinely had a chance of relegation should we have persisted.

Once again, I think it's understandable that many of us weren't on Levy's back by now. He hired a DOF and allowed him to pick the head coach. The next hire was Harry Redknapp who was the first to take us to that top 4 finish we'd been desperate for. This was a good hire which put him back in the good books for the most part.

I think many fans still ignore the fact that by this stage our turnover while improving was still massively behind the top clubs. I was a big fan of Redknapp but I think his desire for experienced players meant there was a short-termism to his approach and tenure.

So Levy went back to the forward thinking approach by hiring Baldini and a young head coach in AVB. It was all a bit of a mess as the head coach wanted players like Moutinho on huge wages that the club/Levy wasn't ready to pay.

I really think by the time of the Redknapp period, Levy had done a good job. We'd had a run of our best league finishes on a consistent basis and hadn't overspent to do so like many a club such as Villa had done. Again this is a point I feel many of Levy's detractors ignore/dismiss too much.

But I also think this was the period when Levy's time running the football side of things should have ended. We'd had good results but there was no consistent plan in place. The stadium plans were starting to progress and this was going to take a huge amount of Levy's time and focus. It's also the area he's strongest in.

By the time we got to Poch, we had no football man in charge of transfers and it all became a mess. Poch put an excellent first team together but we had no squad. The backup players were either not good enough or just not a fit for how Poch wanted to play.

Poch made it clear the buying strategy had to change and there was lots of talk about him wanting to take a DOF style role. While I agree that Poch's skilset didn't suit this, a transfer/scouting system had to be put in place to provide the head coach with what he needed.

Instead we got the perfect storm of Levy playing DOF, Poch turning down targets and the best period of the club's time in the Prem fizzled out.

Since then Levy has hired two of the world's most successful and expensive managers in Jose and Conte under the ridiculous idea that this alone will bring success. These managers know what top clubs need to achieve at the top. They're not magicians who can make a subpar squad achieve at the top. It's a simple case of hire them and give them what they want within our means or don't hire them.

He hired Paratici to scout and negotiate deals who then got banned from doing so. It's been 5 years since Jose was hired and it's been a pure mess ever since.

We've now put yet another system in place with scouting team etc all buying young talent and bla bla bla.

Even people like myself who have been supportive of Levy and given him leeway on mistakes have had enough. Who knows, we might get lucky and a few of the youngsters we have bought do go onto become superstars. But I no longer believe the top of the hierarchy know or care enough about running a football team to make it a success.

We'll do enough to be safe and likely finish top 6 on a relatively regular basis, might even get a few highs. But 20 years is enough data to show Levy really isn't going to put in the right people to run the football club and bring us success.

As per the post I am replying to about needing to state I was wrong about Levy, I don't feel I need to. I got some bits right and some bits wrong. It's not simply black and white.

Regardless of what many seem to think, a competitive turnover is required. At the beginning of ENIC's time Arsenal's turnover was something like £100m a year higher than ours. Utd and Liverpool even more and Chelsea living of Roman's money. The fact that we've closed that gap is huge for the club.

Running a football club is very different to running other businesses as many successful businessmen have found. So Levy's first 10 years had a few mistakes but overall it was a positive period of growth and improvement on and off the pitch.

I think there was a time when for the football club it was Levy's time to step aside and I am not going to beat myself up for not seeing at the time exactly when this period was.

I think the best way to get the fanbase onside with the idea that it is time for Levy to go is to concentrate on the running of the club from the time of Poch to now. That is over a decade of running the football side of the club poorly.

Those making out the entire ENIC era has been a disaster really do hurt their own cause.

Quality post.

I know Levy won’t get it done. He had Kane for a long period and Bale, two utter world class players and failed to surround them with enough talent. It is unbelievably hard to get players of that level, when you do and you are ultra competitive, you do every last thing to build around them the best you can, as that is a true sporting opportunity.

Kane in particular, the hardest position to find and we get one of our greatest in history, to the point that we are guaranteed 20-30 goals a season. The board has one simple job at that point surround him with quality. Instead we have debacles like Nuno, managers fired just before finals, endless reshuffling, systems. Dreadful recruitment, total ineptitude

Do people really think Levy is going to somehow start winning things when he made such a hash of it with someone like Kane in the team. He is just not a football man, he doesn’t get it at all and he won’t ever do what ultimately would have to be done, he isn’t a winner. He is a safe buisiness man.

We have a world class stadium (i’ll give him credit for that) and Timo Werner on loan ffs, I mean that’s true next level stuff. The squad is full of plain average and has been for ages, there’s no direction. Ange is the latest in a long line to be getting stick, sure he is stubborn but there are huge sporting culture problems at this club way before he showed up.

 

[DenverSpur]

Long boring post upcoming but I'll try to explain the journey under ENIC/Levy and how I went from being supportive to apathetic.

Levy took over in 2001 after a very disappointing first decade in the Prem. We had a poor squad and unpopular manager in George Graham. Our turnover was massively behind the top clubs in the country. The TV deal money wasn't as high as it is now. So we were starting massively behind the top clubs we wanted to compete with.

Levy fired the manager and hired a club legend in Hoddle who up to that point had a good record as a manager. But the same thing happened that had been happening throughout the 90s with poor results, poor signings and no plan for progression. Levy realised the issues went much deeper than the manager and fired Hoddle at the beginning of the season and spent most of the season with a caretaker manager while he worked on a new plan.

He hired a football man in Arnesen to be DOF who gutted out the football side of the club from top to bottom. New manager, head coach, scouts etc were all hired. Yes, Santini was a misstep but the system was about Arnesen taking over. With almost no net spend and a short and long term plan put into place we quickly went from lower mid table club to 5th best in the country.

The "Sky four" had a much bigger turnover than we did and the gap was huge. I think most fans understood that which is why so many of us were very positive towards Levy during this period.

Arnesen did us dirty and left for Chelsea. I believe this was a huge hit to Levy who had put so much faith into this man running the football side of things.

We had a huge amount of catching up to do financially to compete with the big clubs so we needed to do things differently off the pitch in an attempt to compete with them. Comolli was hired whose big strength was attracting top talent to the club that was under the radar or not ready to play for the top clubs. The likes of Bale, Berbatov and Modric were bought during his time here.

But we had Jol as head coach. A very popular man who had take us to successive 5th place finishes. He made it clear that he needed an experienced centre back and midfield general to steady the ship. Instead he was provided with teenagers Kaboul and KP Boateng. This was maybe the first sign of us not providing the manager with what he needed when the request was perfectly reasonable. But things had been progressively good by then so I think Levy got a bit of a pass by many on this.

Ramos was brought in. A head coach who won 2 successive UEFA cups with a smaller club than the best in the country. He appeared to be a perfect fit. Outside of delivering a trophy, it was a disaster and we genuinely had a chance of relegation should we have persisted.

Once again, I think it's understandable that many of us weren't on Levy's back by now. He hired a DOF and allowed him to pick the head coach. The next hire was Harry Redknapp who was the first to take us to that top 4 finish we'd been desperate for. This was a good hire which put him back in the good books for the most part.

I think many fans still ignore the fact that by this stage our turnover while improving was still massively behind the top clubs. I was a big fan of Redknapp but I think his desire for experienced players meant there was a short-termism to his approach and tenure.

So Levy went back to the forward thinking approach by hiring Baldini and a young head coach in AVB. It was all a bit of a mess as the head coach wanted players like Moutinho on huge wages that the club/Levy wasn't ready to pay.

I really think by the time of the Redknapp period, Levy had done a good job. We'd had a run of our best league finishes on a consistent basis and hadn't overspent to do so like many a club such as Villa had done. Again this is a point I feel many of Levy's detractors ignore/dismiss too much.

But I also think this was the period when Levy's time running the football side of things should have ended. We'd had good results but there was no consistent plan in place. The stadium plans were starting to progress and this was going to take a huge amount of Levy's time and focus. It's also the area he's strongest in.

By the time we got to Poch, we had no football man in charge of transfers and it all became a mess. Poch put an excellent first team together but we had no squad. The backup players were either not good enough or just not a fit for how Poch wanted to play.

Poch made it clear the buying strategy had to change and there was lots of talk about him wanting to take a DOF style role. While I agree that Poch's skilset didn't suit this, a transfer/scouting system had to be put in place to provide the head coach with what he needed.

Instead we got the perfect storm of Levy playing DOF, Poch turning down targets and the best period of the club's time in the Prem fizzled out.

Since then Levy has hired two of the world's most successful and expensive managers in Jose and Conte under the ridiculous idea that this alone will bring success. These managers know what top clubs need to achieve at the top. They're not magicians who can make a subpar squad achieve at the top. It's a simple case of hire them and give them what they want within our means or don't hire them.

He hired Paratici to scout and negotiate deals who then got banned from doing so. It's been 5 years since Jose was hired and it's been a pure mess ever since.

We've now put yet another system in place with scouting team etc all buying young talent and bla bla bla.

Even people like myself who have been supportive of Levy and given him leeway on mistakes have had enough. Who knows, we might get lucky and a few of the youngsters we have bought do go onto become superstars. But I no longer believe the top of the hierarchy know or care enough about running a football team to make it a success.

We'll do enough to be safe and likely finish top 6 on a relatively regular basis, might even get a few highs. But 20 years is enough data to show Levy really isn't going to put in the right people to run the football club and bring us success.

As per the post I am replying to about needing to state I was wrong about Levy, I don't feel I need to. I got some bits right and some bits wrong. It's not simply black and white.

Regardless of what many seem to think, a competitive turnover is required. At the beginning of ENIC's time Arsenal's turnover was something like £100m a year higher than ours. Utd and Liverpool even more and Chelsea living of Roman's money. The fact that we've closed that gap is huge for the club.

Running a football club is very different to running other businesses as many successful businessmen have found. So Levy's first 10 years had a few mistakes but overall it was a positive period of growth and improvement on and off the pitch.

I think there was a time when for the football club it was Levy's time to step aside and I am not going to beat myself up for not seeing at the time exactly when this period was.

I think the best way to get the fanbase onside with the idea that it is time for Levy to go is to concentrate on the running of the club from the time of Poch to now. That is over a decade of running the football side of the club poorly.

Those making out the entire ENIC era has been a disaster really do hurt their own cause.

Excellent well balanced post. Not sure that’s allowed when discussing Levy