Daniel Levy admits it was a 'mistake' to appoint Mourinho and Conte as he praises 'breath of fresh air' Ange Postecoglo

[mawspurs]

Tottenham manager Daniel Levy has admitted that appointing 'trophy managers' Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were two mistakes.

Source:

'I want to win as much as everybody else, but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me,' he said.

'I had gone through a period where we'd almost won. With Mauricio we went through some very good times. We didn't quite get there but we came very close and we had a change in strategy.

'The strategy was let's bring in a trophy manager. We did it twice and look you have to learn from your mistakes. They're great managers but maybe not for this club.

'We want to play in a certain way and if that means it has to take a little bit longer to win maybe it's the right thing for us. That's why bringing Ange [Postecoglou] in was from my point of view the right decision.'

'It was very easy, because Ange I would say is just a normal bloke and it was wonderful to be able to have a conversation with him where we could talk about anything and he was very direct and honest,' he said.

"I like someone who just tells me as it is, no one that plays games, no one that says one thing to me and then one thing to someone else. This club needed to go back to its roots.

'Honestly, there was a lot of pressure on me to bring in somebody that was a big name. I just wanted somebody who understood our DNA, would play attacking football, that would give young players a chance, believe in the academy, would build a relationship with the fans and understand the resources that we have and don't have as a club and be part of a team.

'Ange, I have to say, is a breath of fresh air.'

 

[greaves]

Tottenham manager Daniel Levy has admitted that appointing 'trophy managers' Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were two mistakes.

Source:

'I want to win as much as everybody else, but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me,' he said.

'I had gone through a period where we'd almost won. With Mauricio we went through some very good times. We didn't quite get there but we came very close and we had a change in strategy.

'The strategy was let's bring in a trophy manager. We did it twice and look you have to learn from your mistakes. They're great managers but maybe not for this club.

'We want to play in a certain way and if that means it has to take a little bit longer to win maybe it's the right thing for us. That's why bringing Ange [Postecoglou] in was from my point of view the right decision.'

'It was very easy, because Ange I would say is just a normal bloke and it was wonderful to be able to have a conversation with him where we could talk about anything and he was very direct and honest,' he said.

"I like someone who just tells me as it is, no one that plays games, no one that says one thing to me and then one thing to someone else. This club needed to go back to its roots.

'Honestly, there was a lot of pressure on me to bring in somebody that was a big name. I just wanted somebody who understood our DNA, would play attacking football, that would give young players a chance, believe in the academy, would build a relationship with the fans and understand the resources that we have and don't have as a club and be part of a team.

'Ange, I have to say, is a breath of fresh air.'

He has not been alone in wanting big names. Our best managers, ones playing the best type of football (flair, excitement) have been the non-trophy ones, for want of a better term. He declared the need for a return to our playing style and then announced Nuno. We had a trio of coma coaches.

 

[markt]

I don't understand this we have to take longer route to get there playing entertaining football.. Under the "trophy" managers, both our style and results declined dramatically. We setting up to defend against relegation candidates then moaning when we get a bore draw.

It's not a trade off, it's building a team good enough and ideally playing entertaining football as this helps get more enjoyment from players and fans behind the team, which ultimately can help success.

 

[Japhet]

For all of his failings, appointing Mourinho and Conte were the worst. Thank God he didn't give them carte blanche to bring in a load of has beens and geriatrics. Nuno was just a desperate signing after a chaotic summer.

 

[LeSoupeKitchen]

Teflon Levy. Always manages to blame someone else even when he's trying to admit to his own mistakes.

 

[TonyK]

Bringing in a Win-Now manager is fine if you are prepared to match their ambition and back them properly. But Levy has failed to properly back any of our managers during his 20 year tenure, particularly Poch in the season after the CL final. Jose also wanted Milan Skriniar you may remember but ended up with Joe Rodon. And the signings of Ryan Nielsen and Louis Saha when we were flying high under Harry Redschnapps are another perfect example of Levy's lack of ambition.

 

[Paceyjg]

Bringing in a Win-Now manager is fine if you are prepared to match their ambition and back them properly. But Levy has failed to properly back any of our managers during his 20 year tenure, particularly Poch in the season after the CL final. Jose also wanted Milan Skriniar you may remember but ended up with Joe Rodon. And the signings of Ryan Nielsen and Louis Saha when we were flying high under Harry Redschnapps are another perfect example of Levy's lack of ambition.

Yes Nielsen and Saha signings were the equivalent of climbing a mountain just to have your fingers stamped on as you were about to reach the summit!

 

[jolsnogross]

I was disgusted when he brought in Mourinho. He ruined us for years with that move. But he's right that a majority of fans were big supporters of that. Now suggesting it was outside pressure that affected his thinking with that appointment highlights his lack of leadership and football strategy.

It's such a shame he's untouchable and unaccountable to a proper board with proper oversight. He'd have sacked 'himself' long ago if it was someone else in his shoes.

 

[beuller]

“but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me”

Might be reading that wrong but he’s saying that Kane/Lloris/etc were putting pressure for big names as manager?

Edit: I’m struggling with that. Maybe he asked their opinions but I can’t imagine it being unsolicited.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

“but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me”

Might be reading that wrong but he’s saying that Kane/Lloris/etc were putting pressure for big names as manager?

Edit: I’m struggling with that. Maybe he asked their opinions but I can’t imagine it being unsolicited.

I suspect Kane, Lloris and other senior players were telling Levy that the club needed to sign better players and more of them, rather than always leaving the manager/coach one or two players short of what was needed.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

I was disgusted when he brought in Mourinho. He ruined us for years with that move. But he's right that a majority of fans were big supporters of that. Now suggesting it was outside pressure that affected his thinking with that appointment highlights his lack of leadership and football strategy.

It's such a shame he's untouchable and unaccountable to a proper board with proper oversight. He'd have sacked 'himself' long ago if it was someone else in his shoes.

Levy's football strategy should consist of hiring football people to handle the club's football business. Levy should do nothing more than sign off the transactions that his DOF agrees with other clubs.

 

[DenverSpur]

“but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me”

Might be reading that wrong but he’s saying that Kane/Lloris/etc were putting pressure for big names as manager?

Edit: I’m struggling with that. Maybe he asked their opinions but I can’t imagine it being unsolicited.

In reference to the edit bit; why not? Levy spends a lot of time around the players at the trading ground so it would be surprising if he’d didn’t know their cries. This for me is one of his problems in that he is too close to sone of the players. He needs more detachment from them.

 

[UncleBuck]

Bringing in a Win-Now manager is fine if you are prepared to match their ambition and back them properly. But Levy has failed to properly back any of our managers during his 20 year tenure, particularly Poch in the season after the CL final. Jose also wanted Milan Skriniar you may remember but ended up with Joe Rodon. And the signings of Ryan Nielsen and Louis Saha when we were flying high under Harry Redschnapps are another perfect example of Levy's lack of ambition.

All water under the bridge now and it’s been debated on so many occasions but as a chairman why wouldn’t you go for two of the most decorated mangers if they were available if you thought they could actually win you something?
Great in hindsight but as you say you need to back them and unfortunately going on Levy’s previous of backing managers there was no way he was going to be dictated to by a managers demands.
For all the managerial compensation he’s had to fork out on with our last two managers maybe the penny might have dropped that if he’d just got skriniar and another at the managers request we might have actually won something.
I doubt it though unfortunately, them shoulders are far too slippery.
Personally I think he’d have been better off just keeping his mouth shut as we’ve made a decent start, coming out with all this now before Sunday takes it away from what Ange has been quietly been building.

 

[DogsOfWar]

Worth bearing in mind that whilst his big name manager experiment was failing he had bought in Paratici to oversee the transfers.
So when Ange comes in he has 10 out of 11 new starters (plus a few new subs) to work with.

It's swings and roundabouts if you have a balanced view.

Just as I hated the football and refused to watch it by the end but 6th, 7th, 4th, and 8th in the league is hardly the end of the world.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

17th choice Ange is a breath of fresh air

This guy……

 

[Japhet]

Levy's football strategy should consist of hiring football people to handle the club's football business. Levy should do nothing more than sign off the transactions that his DOF agrees with other clubs.

That would be ideal, and Levy did hire Paratici and generally keep out of the way. He did get involved to get the Porro deal over the line, but I don't see that as a stick to beat him with. With Paratici's ban, he has been more involved than we'd like, but I think Paratici will be staying (or he would have been fired ages ago).

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Teflon Levy. Always manages to blame someone else even when he's trying to admit to his own mistakes.

 

[longtimespur]

Tottenham manager Daniel Levy has admitted that appointing 'trophy managers' Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were two mistakes.

Source:

'I want to win as much as everybody else, but the frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me,' he said.

'I had gone through a period where we'd almost won. With Mauricio we went through some very good times. We didn't quite get there but we came very close and we had a change in strategy.

'The strategy was let's bring in a trophy manager. We did it twice and look you have to learn from your mistakes. They're great managers but maybe not for this club.

'We want to play in a certain way and if that means it has to take a little bit longer to win maybe it's the right thing for us. That's why bringing Ange [Postecoglou] in was from my point of view the right decision.'

'It was very easy, because Ange I would say is just a normal bloke and it was wonderful to be able to have a conversation with him where we could talk about anything and he was very direct and honest,' he said.

"I like someone who just tells me as it is, no one that plays games, no one that says one thing to me and then one thing to someone else. This club needed to go back to its roots.

'Honestly, there was a lot of pressure on me to bring in somebody that was a big name. I just wanted somebody who understood our DNA, would play attacking football, that would give young players a chance, believe in the academy, would build a relationship with the fans and understand the resources that we have and don't have as a club and be part of a team.

'Ange, I have to say, is a breath of fresh air.'

Sounds like someone got in his ears and told him what to say.
ALL the right answers to what loads on here have been saying.
For ME let’s see what happens when we get to the next window still needing another centre back or cover somewhere else in the squad.
That’s when we’ll know if he’s really been listening.