Levy interview in FC Business magazine

[nickspurs]

Surprised this hasn't been posted already. Pleasing that stadium priority is to stay put at least. Reported in Sporting Life here (couldn't get the original interview):

Daniel Levy would consider an offer to buy Tottenham only if the deal was right for shareholders and fans - but nothing of that nature has yet been tabled.
The Spurs chairman is continually looking at ways for his club to progress - on and off the pitch - which has led to speculation of a takeover as their value rises.
In a rare interview, with FC Business magazine, Levy discussed ambitions of Spurs reaching the Champions League and how he wants them playing in front of bigger audiences at home.
Achieving that would see the club's value soar, but Levy would entertain selling only if it was right for everyone associated with Spurs.
"From the moment we came into this club, there has been constant takeover speculation," he said.
"People know we run the club well and that it is not some private fiefdom, but the reality is no one has made us an offer that would even tempt us.
"We have more than 20,000 shareholders - and if it was in the interests of everyone, including the fans, we'd have to think about it.
"We live in a free enterprise world. What is wrong with individuals building up a value that one day - whether in six months or 60 years - can be realised?"
Spurs are hoping to make an announcement on their stadium plans in June, with Levy reiterating he would prefer to increase their capacity at White Hart Lane rather than relocate.
Sorting that out is one of the things highlighted when Levy was asked what he hopes to remembered for.
"That's a difficult one," he said.
"I guess I would like to have solved the stadium issue and have us in the Champions League.
"There is no time scale for the latter, because you've got four spots and a lot of potential contenders. I don't accept that we will have failed if we don't make it next season."
Expectations for next season, however, have increased following the impact of new manager Juande Ramos since his arrival at White Hart Lane in October.
The manner of recruiting the Spaniard was criticised at the time, but there has been no arguing with the results as Spurs ended their nine-year trophy drought with the Carling Cup.
Levy describes Ramos as "obsessed with winning".
"If you believe you can be successful, you've got more chance than if you don't," he said.
"It's very important to have a leader who really believes he can deliver success - because that filters through.
"We did not anticipate winning a cup so early. But Juande is highly intelligent, a real motivator - and it's all about the team, not him. I didn't realise the extent to which he's obsessed with winning."
Levy also discussed transfer policy and looked towards Arsenal as an example of shrewd investment.
"It's not about how much you spend on players - it's how you spend it," he added.
"Arsenal are the best example of being incredibly skilful in acquiring younger players or doing certain transfers that have not cost a lot of money.
"Over the years, they've spent considerably less money than us on a net basis - but look at the success they've had."
Spurs bought Darren Bent in a £16.5million deal from Charlton last summer, but the striker has struggled to make an impact - with Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane hitting the 40-goal mark as a partnership.
"Sometimes in transfers you have to take opportunities when they present themselves. It was never a case, as some people are suggesting, of spending the money on a striker without being able to bring in anyone else," Levy points out.
"One of the reasons we decided to bring him [Bent] in was that we believed one of our other strikers [Jermain Defoe] may be going.
"Okay, it didn't happen at the time. But we took the view we wanted a target man - and there are not that many.
"We knew were paying a full price but we were competing with a lot of other clubs and took a long-term view."
http://www.sportinglife.com/footbal...4/04/SOCCER_Tottenham_Levy.html&TEAMHD=soccer

 

[DC_Boy]

it's interesting that he confirms what a lot of people have though about that maybe JD was 'pencilled in' to leave in the summer

though it's worth pointing out the mention of a 'target man' - clearly JD isn't one of those and we needed one to replace Mido - hence it still made sense to get another striker in - unfortunatley we paid too much for Bent - but I'd still rather have him than not -

 

[yanno]

"One of the reasons we decided to bring him [Bent] in was that we believed one of our other strikers [Jermain Defoe] may be going.
"Okay, it didn't happen at the time. But we took the view we wanted a target man - and there are not that many.
"We knew were paying a full price but we were competing with a lot of other clubs and took a long-term view."

The implication here is that Levy, Commoli and Jol believed Bent was a target man when they signed him. I really hope this has been quoted out of context, because although Darren Bent is pretty good in the air, he's certainly not a target man.

Bent isn't nearly good enough at holding up the ball, linking play and spotting difficult passes to play the "fulcrum" role that Berbatov plays for us (and Kanoute played for Ramos' Sevilla team).

 

[llamafarmer]

"Sometimes in transfers you have to take opportunities when they present themselves. It was never a case, as some people are suggesting, of spending the money on a striker without being able to bring in anyone else," Levy points out.
"One of the reasons we decided to bring him [Bent] in was that we believed one of our other strikers [Jermain Defoe] may be going.
"Okay, it didn't happen at the time. But we took the view we wanted a target man - and there are not that many.

That's worrying. It's the writer, not Levy who attributes Defoe as the possible leaver and then Levy goes on to call Bent a target man. Let's just say I hope the author is correct in his assumption!

 

[DC_Boy]

I guess it's all about definitions - Bent is clearly more of a target man than Defoe - because he can lead the line better than JD and has more physical presence and at Charlton you could use him as a lone striker by using his pace and physical attributes - but obviously he's not a classical target man a la Berbs

 

[llamafarmer]

I guess it's all about definitions - Bent is clearly more of a target man than Defoe - because he can lead the line better than JD and has more physical presence and at Charlton you could use him as a lone striker by using his pace and physical attributes - but obviously he's not a classical target man a la Berbs

What I mean is, I'm worried this:

"One of the reasons we decided to bring him [Bent] in was that we believed one of our other strikers [Jermain Defoe] may be going.

Could be a reference to Berba, rather than Defoe

 

[yanno]

What I mean is, I'm worried this:

"One of the reasons we decided to bring him [Bent] in was that we believed one of our other strikers [Jermain Defoe] may be going.

Could be a reference to Berba, rather than Defoe

llamafarmer - you're correct. We don't know what information leads the journalist to state that Levy thought Defoe was the striker who would be leaving (rather than Berba).

However, Levy clearly seems to state that Bent is a target man - "we took the view we wanted a target man" - and no way is Bent a target man. Indeed, at Ipswich, he played off a target man: Kuqi.

 

[llamafarmer]

However, Levy clearly seems to state that Bent is a target man - "we took the view we wanted a target man" - and no way is Bent a target man. Indeed, at Ipswich, he played off a target man: Kuqi.

You could also interpret that as we needed the replacement for our target man to be a target man and that they thought Bent was one.

I'll stop fearing the worst now though :up:

 

[pal90]

Back on the other subject of the interview - i.e. a possible sale of the club - there was an article in the last (2 weeks ago) Private Eye about the possibility of Joe Lewis / ENIC being forced to sell Tottenham in the not too distant future, or at least finding it difficult not to sell. Seems ENIC was in to Bear Sterns in a big way and has been stung to the tune of £ 800m - 1.2 bn by the collapse. Wiped out a third of his pile, that did.

My feeling is that Levy is looking around for possible purchasers with a little more urgency than the interview suggests.

 

[yanno]

Back on the other subject of the interview - i.e. a possible sale of the club - there was an article in the last (2 weeks ago) Private Eye about the possibility of Joe Lewis / ENIC being forced to sell Tottenham in the not too distant future, or at least finding it difficult not to sell. Seems ENIC was in to Bear Sterns in a big way and has been stung to the tune of £ 800m - 1.2 bn by the collapse. Wiped out a third of his pile, that did.

My feeling is that Levy is looking around for possible purchasers with a little more urgency than the interview suggests.

ENIC wasn't a shareholder in Bear Stearns. Joe Lewis was.

See this thread:

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=28748&highlight=lewis

 

[nickspurs]

I don't think that there's any more urgency than before. Joe Lewis can afford to drop a chunk on Bear Stearns. He's a speculator at the end of the day.

Don't think it changes the sale option. Levy would be mad to sell it before the stadium was lock down and CL football was achieved. All those goals are aligned with my humble wishes!

If someone wants to buy the shareholders out for a handsome price then so be it.

 

[Kendall]

Tottenham/ENIC has nothing to do with Bear Stears.

ENIC is a self-sufficient investment company. Joe Lewis was gambling with his own personal capital, it will have no effect whatsoever.

 

[justfookinhitit]

Also, Merrill Lynch have upped their original offer by fivefold, which does something to lessen the losses Lewis was originally looking at. It sure doesn't mean he breaks even, but he doesn't have quite so big a hole in his wallet.

 

[nickspurs]

JP Morgan :up:

 

[SpurSince57]

llamafarmer - you're correct. We don't know what information leads the journalist to state that Levy thought Defoe was the striker who would be leaving (rather than Berba).

However, Levy clearly seems to state that Bent is a target man - "we took the view we wanted a target man" - and no way is Bent a target man. Indeed, at Ipswich, he played off a target man: Kuqi.

I'm sure that someone posted that Hughton let it slip that Defoe was expected to leave in the summer. As we'd almost certainly have got a couple of million more for him then, the extra profit, plus what we made on Mido, would have brought Bent's price down to under £10m, including the add-ons.

 

[yanno]

I'm sure that someone posted that Hughton let it slip that Defoe was expected to leave in the summer. As we'd almost certainly have got a couple of million more for him then, the extra profit, plus what we made on Mido, would have brought Bent's price down to under £10m, including the add-ons.

Absolutely. Indeed, a worst case scenario could have seen both Defoe and Berbatov leaving last summer. Which is why I've always been convinced that Bent was bought early in the window to prevent us getting back into the "it's deadline day, we need a striker, and Rasiak is the best available option" situation.

Of course what happened is that JD & Berba stayed and we had four strikers, of whom only one - Berba - could play the "fulcrum" linking role.

However, the confusion in the interview is the strong suggestion that Levy thought Bent was a "target man". Which he 100% isn't.

 

[sloth]

Bent is a target man. And a very good one.

I wonder which chairmen Levy was referring to (by implication) when he spoke about a private fiefdom? Any of several I suppose.

And by the same light there was lots of criticism of Jol in there.

 

[nidge]

Bent is a target man. And a very good one.

I wonder which chairmen Levy was referring to (by implication) when he spoke about a private fiefdom? Any of several I suppose.

And by the same light there was lots of criticism of Jol in there.

Indeed I do believe it was Jol constantly telling everyone at the club that the squad wasn't good enough to seriously challenge the top 4 during the summer that first put concerns into the boards head about Jol ability to steer us into the top 4. Ironically it would appear that Jol was spot on and it taken a change of manager who is 'obsessed with winning' and a massive reputation for Levy to listen.

"I guess I would like to have solved the stadium issue and have us in the Champions League.
"There is no time scale for the latter, because you've got four spots and a lot of potential contenders. I don't accept that we will have failed if we don't make it next season."

You see how different is that sort of statement from what we were hearing at the beginning of the season and just after the Ramos thing exploded in our faces. Talk was we had to achieve CL this season and yet now Levy has much of realistic view on it. So how come he has had such a big turn around?

 

[N10toN17]

Spot on nidge, Ramos comes with the reputation and with a winning track record and he's now done it with us. I'm fairly confident Ramos thinks our first team is not up to the job of breaking the top four and Levy and the board will listen to him and major changes are likely in the summer.

However it's fairly clear that Jol didn't think they could cut it either, unfortunately for him the board didn't agree with him and more importantly wouldn't back him, stating the squad was good enough when it most definately wasn't.

So in a nutshell the board have done a u turn and have alligned themselves into a sensible position and will listen to Ramos something that wasn't afforded to Jol.

 

[yanno]

Bent is a target man. And a very good one.

Bent does his best work using his pace to run in behind an opposition back four. He's not very good at holding the ball up and linking play, or playing with his back to goal in general. And his vision and passing ability are several classes worse than Berba's so he can't play the linking "fulcrum" role.

So, sloth, I disagree with your statement and don't believe Bent is a target man. I do think if we play to his strengths and have players like the Hud delivering early through balls, then Darren Bent will score a lot of goals for us.