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

[fishhhandaricecake]

We do all have one engraved memory, though. Four days before the final, Daniel Levy called us all together to announce that, with the support of a sponsor, we would each receive a luxury aviator watch from the club. At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that he’d had the back of each timepiece engraved with the player’s name and “Champions League Finalist 2019”. “Finalist.” Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone. If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have “Winner” engraved instead.
I have considerable respect and esteem for the man and all he has done for the club as chairman – I got to know him – but there are things he is simply not sensitive to. As magnificent as the watch is, I have never worn it. I would have preferred there to be nothing on it. With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Daniel Levy when he sees our wage bill lowering:

 

[Nerine]

Levy - while polarizing - is no different that any owner/chairman. He has pros and cons.

If you are going to have an honest discussion about his role, his legacy, his future, I think you have to include both.

He has set the club up as one of the most financially stable/sustainable football clubs in world football. That gives Spurs a foundation from which to to build - and you cannot ignore that aspect of club ownership.

At the same time, Levy has meddled in areas of the club where he has little or no expertise, and that has cost the club opportunities to push on from a sporting perspective - and from a supporters perspective, you cannot ignore those moments either.

which is probably why you have a fanbase that is on the whole quite apathetic about his tenure. He does some stuff better than anyone else. He does some stuff a bit worse than our close competitors.

It’s difficult to truly be vitriolic about a bloke that has pretty much singlehandedly transformed the club into a very large one, and regenerated a lot of the local area.

Business and sustainability, literally there is no equal. A+
Footballing matters, D-

Averages out around a C+

Completely treading water. Which, is what I also noted in one of my recent posts in the Ange thread.

Directionally correct, but too rigid to capitalise on opportunities when presented.

The above may as well be our club motto.


“Recte directus, sed nimis rigidus ut occasiones oblatas capiat.”


Won’t look snappy on a shirt, but at least it’s accurate.

 

[animal]

We all thought the same of Ashley and Newcastle but when the pressure mounts, it can become untenable. Levy hasnt ever been under true pressure. Our fanbase is weak.

To be fair Mike Ashley made a number of very public efforts to to sell the club over his tenure. Plus the club were relegated twice during his ownership and he sold the stadium naming rights to Sports Direct, his own company causing a great deal of anger among supporters. Both he and the fans wanted him out, it just took a while.

 

[tototoner]

 

[Ribble]

lol those are rookie numbers.

Diego López was sacked by Cellino as Cagliari manager on 6 April 2014, this being the 36th manager change he went through in the 22 years of his tenure as owner. Cellino earned the nickname Il mangia-allenatori, "The Manager-Eater".[4]

 

[UncleBuck]

18 managers in 25 years is bonkers, that includes four seasons of ‘Arry and 5 of Poch though, take them out of the equation and it’s 16 in 16 years!

 

[Misfit]

I think he’d have been viewed upon extremely favourably in the history books despite his ways if he’d stepped down after delivering the new stadium. It’s very much getting like Wenger at Arsenal now. It’s all going to come to a head at some point. The question is when.

The tide is changing slowly. You’d have never had 75% being Levy out 5 years ago. And those percentages are only going to get worse for him now and those in the out camp already are only going to get increasingly vocal. The frustration has been brewing for years. It could boil over quite quickly.

The stadium was his get out of jail free card. Now it's here, Covid is in the rear-view and we're going along exactly as we did pre-stadium (doing just enough but no more), patience is wearing thin.

 

[SambaSpurs]

Levy - while polarizing - is no different that any owner/chairman. He has pros and cons.

If you are going to have an honest discussion about his role, his legacy, his future, I think you have to include both.

He has set the club up as one of the most financially stable/sustainable football clubs in world football. That gives Spurs a foundation from which to to build - and you cannot ignore that aspect of club ownership.

At the same time, Levy has meddled in areas of the club where he has little or no expertise, and that has cost the club opportunities to push on from a sporting perspective - and from a supporters perspective, you cannot ignore those moments either.

Agree with this - but now that we’re at that European club level, and have been for years, we are pretty much stuck.

For Levy/Enic the height of their ambition is top 4, but on a budget. The last bit being the important part, we will never spend enough on wages to make cup wins a regular outcome and CL football a regular expectation rather than a hope (aka competing with whoever is ‘off’ it out of the big teams that spend on wages). We will need an incredible conversion of promising youngsters to world class players to win a league.

We generate comparable revenue but our owners do not want to step up to our rivals level on wage spend. We were way below them at the last set of financials, and have shipped plenty of high earners out since then. We need them to sell up as soon as possible, I just hope the recent rumours are true and it gets done.

 

[SirHarryHotspur]

18 managers in 25 years is bonkers, that includes four seasons of ‘Arry and 5 of Poch though, take them out of the equation and it’s 16 in 16 years!

Check out Sevilla manager turnover since 2000 Levy not quite up to their standards but they have won Europa League a few times in that period.

Sevilla FC - Current and former staff

This statistics show all staff members, who have ever worked for the club Sevilla FC, sorted by their functions.

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

 

[spursfan77]

Exactly.

People think turning their back to the pitch for 60 seconds is going to influence him.

Empty seats. That’s the only answer.

Unfortunately there will always be someone to take our season ticket seats and they are probably the kind of fans ENIC want anyway. Football tourists coming to a one off game spending hundreds in the club shop and then standing there not complaining because they are happy with the experience (that’s what I found when going to a nfl game. I didn’t care about the result, I was there as a sports tourist to enjoy the day out).

 

[riggi]

Unfortunately there will always be someone to take our season ticket seats and they are probably the kind of fans ENIC want anyway. Football tourists coming to a one off game spending hundreds in the club shop and then standing there not complaining because they are happy with the experience (that’s what I found when going to a nfl game. I didn’t care about the result, I was there as a sports tourist to enjoy the day out).

I agree but If there was a big enough boycott I think it would show.

Things aren’t drastic enough for people to do that though.

 

[SUIYHA]

Up until 2016 - best chairman in the league that didn't own an oilfield and I don't really think that should be up for debate. Mistakes were made at times - as all chairmen make - sometimes he stuck when he should have twisted and vice versa, but he got a hell of a lot more right than his competitors, oversaw multiple rebuilds, overcame multiple setbacks as the footballing landscape changed. The size and stature of the club and the quality of football on the pitch increased massively and consistently over time in a way that was completely unique to a club with our budget. We were competing with clubs with far more resources than us, not just in one-off seasons but to the point where we became grouped with them as one of the "big six" which absolutely nobody else was getting near without oil cheat money.

But since 2016 - its hard to think of anything he's got right. Pochettino's team was allowed to erode away, a series of poor managerial appointments have backfired, player recruitment has been poor, and whilst we are spending more money than we were in the WHL days, we're not seeing it translate to results on the pitch as the club stumbles from one PR gaffe to another every year.

His end game was the Super League. Everything he was doing in the build up was to get that poxy midtable team he took over to be in a position where they would be accepted into that club. When that rug was swept from under him, he had no plan B. Now we just trod along, spending opportunistically, hiring reactionarily, hoping for the best, making it all up as we go along. I hoped he'd gone back to the more strategic Levy he was in the early years when we started investing in youth and hiring a manager in Ange that the club could build its PR around, but whilst we're in midtable it's hard to say that's working.

The Wenger comparison is apt. If he'd gone when the stadium opened he'd have left as a legend. As it is now - the majority of the fan base despise him and his reputation in the industry has taken a battering. Players and managers go past their sell by date, why not chairmen?

 

[spursfan77]

I agree but If there was a big enough boycott I think it would show.

Things aren’t drastic enough for people to do that though.

Lots of people want rid of them but they’re too apathetic or have more important things going on in their lives to give it the energy that would be required to make a real difference.

I could give up my season tickets in protest but someone else would just take them so it’s pretty pointless unless I have to either financially or I get fed up going in the future.

Maybe I’ll just go back to buying nothing else in the stadium. Possibly that’s the best way to do it. If everyone who went didn’t buy anything in there for a few games I’m sure they’d notice.

 

[riggi]

Lots of people want rid of them but they’re too apathetic or have more important things going on in their lives to give it the energy that would be required to make a real difference.

I could give up my season tickets in protest but someone else would just take them so it’s pretty pointless unless I have to either financially or I get fed up going in the future.

Maybe I’ll just go back to buying nothing else in the stadium. Possibly that’s the best way to do it. If everyone who went didn’t buy anything in there for a few games I’m sure they’d notice.

Agreed.

Personally I think everyone should just get a new hobby.

 

[Reprobate]

18 managers in 25 years is bonkers, that includes four seasons of ‘Arry and 5 of Poch though, take them out of the equation and it’s 16 in 16 years!

That is shocking, isn't it.

Let's hope Ange has the last laugh and brings some success to the club, because it's pretty clear yet another new manager isn't the answer.

 

[Freddie]

We all thought the same of Ashley and Newcastle but when the pressure mounts, it can become untenable. Levy hasnt ever been under true pressure. Our fanbase is weak.

Agree. I'm kinda sat on the fence about forcing him out, especially as I'm nervous about who could replace him but I HATE it when people discourage those who want to take action about something by saying "won't achieve anything". Why pour water on someone else's fire just because you're too lazy to do anything! These things definitely have some kind of impact, and can spark bigger movements. Maybe it won't work, maybe it will. But let people try.

 

[Reprobate]

Same as argued above, I don't fancy giving up my ticket because someone else will snap it up and I've achieved nothing except depriving myself of the thing I love.

Unless somehow 10k s/t holders give them up en masse, it's hard to see how the idea of giving up season tickets would ever lead to anything.

However, organising a mass boycott of isolated games sounds potentially more feasible, and more effective I think. Nobody else can replace you in your seat. There are just thousands of empty seats at high profile televised games.

 

[hughy]

Levy - while polarizing - is no different that any owner/chairman. He has pros and cons.

If you are going to have an honest discussion about his role, his legacy, his future, I think you have to include both.

He has set the club up as one of the most financially stable/sustainable football clubs in world football. That gives Spurs a foundation from which to to build - and you cannot ignore that aspect of club ownership.

At the same time, Levy has meddled in areas of the club where he has little or no expertise, and that has cost the club opportunities to push on from a sporting perspective - and from a supporters perspective, you cannot ignore those moments either.

Yep. Every time I get wound up by Levy I remind myself that since he took over in 2001 many clubs who we were competing with at the time have been down as far as League One. Not once have we been in any real danger of relegation, let alone "doing a Leeds".

Do I think it's time for him to step down? 100%. However I will always appreciate the work he has done for this club, and the foundations he's put in place for us to move forward without him.

 

[SpursForever71]

Yea he can go now. I mean has there been any other club that has had the same owner for so long (without even bringing in to it how little we have won?).
He (Enic), have countless times missed opportunites to take the next step and push on when the club was challenging and just needed that 1 last push.
Yes we have the stadium, but it isnt OUR, the football clubs stadium, its main purpose is to make money for Enic.
Things have gone stale, we badly need a new approach and direction, until then it wont matter who the football manager is,