How long before you lose patience with Levy?

[JonnySpurs]

SteveH is smashing this thread to bits with his comments.

The title of this thread means nothing really. When am I gonna lose patience? Never, because even if I do, what it is going to matter? Levy is our chairman and he is doing his best for the football club in my opinion. As I've said before, he's definitely made some mistakes but I don't think many people could have done a better job than what he has over the past decade. Anyone who thinks it's an easy job is kidding themselves.

The reality is that we were a perrenial mid-table team that were going basically nowhere. Now we have had our first taste of CL football and we are a perrenial 4th/5th placed team.

We have a world class training facility and a world class stadium on the way......eventually. We've gone through some managers for sure.....

- didn't agree with the way Jol was sacked. It was brutal and disrespectful to him.
- Ramos seemed like a smart appointment but it didn't work out - nobody could have predicted this.
- I loved the appointment of HR but he had to go when he did.
- Appointing AVB also made sense but was ALWAYS risky. Fully agreed with sacking him when he did.
- Appointing Sherwood seems like it was only viable option for right now but ONLY if he has someone like LVG lined up for next season.

The buying and selling of our players has also, imo, been largely unavoidable. Bale and Modric are the best 2 players we've had at the club in recent times and Madrid came calling. You can't stop that train. People also forget that Levy held Chelsea at bay when AVB was trying to buy Luka and we kept hold of him for another season. I dunno about you but I'd have been a lot more pissed off if we'd sold our best players to clubs in the Prem like Arsenal have done recently.

I'm behind Levy, I think he's a good man and I think he cares a lot about our football club.

 

[Riandor]

You make me wet

Well just as i read your reply "Beat it upright" by Korn came on my ipod... fate?!

 

[shelfmonkey]

My beef with Levy is simply his managerial appointments!!

 

[markieboy]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/19/liverpool-brendan-rodgers-tottenham-cardiff

Brendan Rodgers has claimed he had "a close shave" in rejecting the chance to manage Tottenham Hotspur as he launched an outspoken attack on the hierarchies at White Hart Lane and Cardiff City.

The Liverpool manager delivered his scathing assessment in response toAndré Villas-Boas' sacking by Spurs and Malky Mackay again being undermined at Cardiff by the owner, Vincent Tan. Rodgers was approached about replacing Harry Redknapp as Tottenham manager in 2012, only to cool on the vacancy once he studied the club's track record of hiring and firing managers. He was ultimately lured from Swansea City to Liverpool that summer while Villas-Boas succeeded the discarded Redknapp.

Lots of quotes later on in the article, and he says one of the reasons he refused the job was the number of managers that Levy has fired.

Yes I am sure

I think there may well have been other elements at play at that time.
Rodgers also said that Redknapp had asked him to be his second in command if he got offered the England job and its more than possible that Rodgers turned us down straight away out of respect for Harry.
Would look kind of bad on Rodgers if he replaced the guy who offered him a top job,I think the track record thing is a load of bollocks.

 

[SteveH]

I am not sure I understand, sorry.

Not sure I do now lol

 

[SteveH]

Then i will be anti-Levy... it's not like I am going to go marching on the streets of North London. Would I be happier if 9th? Of course not... but fixing a mistake is one thing, going on to make the same mistake again and needing to fix it, again... is a potential issue no?

As for Levy having a boss, maybe said boss should consider whether his appointment is doing his job properly?

Don't get me wrong, I am not championing the Levy out brigade here, I am just more than happy to point out that he has hardly covered himself in glory recently and this from a pro Levy person initially. There should be NO reason not to criticise Levy as long as there is equal praise when something is done right.

Right now Levy is in limbo with Sherwood, where he probably made the right decision in getting rid of AVB but is on hold in terms of making the next move until after the World Cup when managers will be available. Then he has the chance to sort this mess out.

Any management appointment is a gamble. There is view that he has called time on the last few managers at about the right moment. Harry was the strange one but thats in nature of old Harry, nothing is ever simple.

I would not like to have to choose managers ATM. Its turning out to be guesswork at our price and standing level. My hope is for an appointee to wants to be at Spurs for the long haul. With realistic signing expectations, no more Joao Moutinho scenarios.

Rogers, Martinez or whoever are only as good as their squad and their clubs standing and ability to attract and pay top players

If we remove Lukaku, Suarez and Ade from their respective squads they tend to struggle more, Liverpool though did well without "our Lues" at the start of the season but he is for me the league's top player. But in the main good managers have good players, and the more money the clubs have the better player they have.

 

[hodsgod]

I think there may well have been other elements at play at that time.
Rodgers also said that Redknapp had asked him to be his second in command if he got offered the England job and its more than possible that Rodgers turned us down straight away out of respect for Harry.
Would look kind of bad on Rodgers if he replaced the guy who offered him a top job,I think the track record thing is a load of bollocks.

Total rubbish.

The man that took the decision tells you why he took the decision, and you choose not to believe him. Ok we know they don't always tell the truth. However given Levys record it is kind of plausible.

To offer your own theory that it was done out of loyalty to Redknapp, why? Why would he have any loyalty to him? When hs their ever been any loyalty in football?

We didn't know Redknapp had approached Rodgers at the time Rodgers turned down the job either.

I rather believe the man that took the decision, he has itk!

 

[JonnySpurs]

Any management appointment is a gamble. There is view that he has called time on the last few managers at about the right moment. Harry was the strange one but thats in nature of old Harry, nothing is ever simple.

I would not like to have to choose managers ATM. Its turning out to be guesswork at our price and standing level. My hope id for an appointee to want to be at Spurs for the long haul. With realisting signing expectations, no more Joao Moutinho scenarios.

Rogers, Martinez or whoever are only as good as their squad and their clubs standing and ability to attract and pay top players

If we remove Lukaku, Suarez and Ade from their respective squads they tend to struggle more, Liverpool though did well without "our Lues" at the start of the season but he is for me the league's top player. But in the main good managers have good players and the more money the clubs have the better player they have.

So true. Looking at Martinez now you'd think that he would have been a better appointment but I have to admit that I didn't think this way when it all went down. Believe it or not, I actually felt like AVB was the safer option for some reason - how wrong was I!?

Martinez teams play good football and the one thing you can say about Everton is that they don't have any money so it would be impressive to have seen what RM could have done with our money and already good squad.

Picking the right manager is a total shot in the dark these days. Lots of people wanted De Boer over Sherwood but there was NO guarantees he could cut it and the difference would be 18 months to TS but more like 3 years for De Boer and likely more expensive contract and far more messy if it goes wrong.

With TS it's arguably been no lose. He's great, we get top 4 and he can keep the job - wonderful. He's average/poor and we don't make top 4 - easy excuse to move him on and bring in a winner like LVG.

I don't envy Levy one little bit.

 

[Riandor]

Any management appointment is a gamble. There is view that he has called time on the last few managers at about the right moment. Harry was the strange one but thats in nature of old Harry, nothing is ever simple.

I would not like to have to choose managers ATM. Its turning out to be guesswork at our price and standing level. My hope id for an appointee to want to be at Spurs for the long haul. With realisting signing expectations, no more Joao Moutinho scenarios.

Rogers, Martinez or whoever are only as good as their squad and their clubs standing and ability to attract and pay top players

If we remove Lukaku, Suarez and Ade from their respective squads they tend to struggle more, Liverpool though did well without "our Lues" at the start of the season but he is for me the league's top player. But in the main good managers have good players and the more money the clubs have the better player they have.

Of course it's a gamble... but it's not just the manager merry-go-round that defines Levies tenure. Berbatov, Modric, Bale...

Liverpool absolutely stopped their best player from leaving, seemingly irrespective of money and are reaping the rewards by leaping up the table and don't tell me we had to sell Bale, as it wasn't as if Suarez didn't nearly take Liverpool to the courts!!!

We sold the best player in the league and are just about standing still. It is all we do at the moment, stand still. Just when we have the right ingredients we sell them. And no one give me this crap that Bale had to have his move, as look how many applaud Liverpool's stance on Suarez. The media especially are totally 2 faced on this.

Levy deserves respect for running a tight financial ship and that will always come at the cost of player funding, but he also deserves a good slap for fecking about in the transfer market and chopping and changing entire structures.

Either he is the DoF or Baldini is, but as always with Spurs there are too many cooks at too many levels and no one is clear on the clear division of power and responsibility. There are too many ex-managers saying similar things for there not to be truth in this matter.

And we laughed when SAF said Levy "Levy, he's different", but frankly... it isn't always in our favour and recently I am questioning purely from a footballing sense how much HAS been in our favour.

It will always be a balance until more investment comes in etc... but frankly some heads need culling at the top if you ask me and a clear structure implemented so that a DoF (if that is the structure Levy really wants) can get on with the football, given a strict and clear budget and the power to go about the signings without some dragged out negotiations that cost us the start of nearly every season.

 

[XSuicideBunnyX]

Of course it's a gamble... but it's not just the manager merry-go-round that defines Levies tenure. Berbatov, Modric, Bale...

Liverpool absolutely stopped their best player from leaving, seemingly irrespective of money and are reaping the rewards by leaping up the table and don't tell me we had to sell Bale, as it wasn't as if Suarez didn't nearly take Liverpool to the courts!!!

Liverpool also paid us 5 million quid to borrow a rank Robbie Keane for 6 months. Not to say that your point is wrong - I just like saying that we ripped them off so bad.

 

[SteveH]

Of course it's a gamble... but it's not just the manager merry-go-round that defines Levies tenure. Berbatov, Modric, Bale...

Liverpool absolutely stopped their best player from leaving, seemingly irrespective of money and are reaping the rewards by leaping up the table and don't tell me we had to sell Bale, as it wasn't as if Suarez didn't nearly take Liverpool to the courts!!!

We sold the best player in the league and are just about standing still. It is all we do at the moment, stand still. Just when we have the right ingredients we sell them. And no one give me this crap that Bale had to have his move, as look how many applaud Liverpool's stance on Suarez. The media especially are totally 2 faced on this.

Levy deserves respect for running a tight financial ship and that will always come at the cost of player funding, but he also deserves a good slap for fecking about in the transfer market and chopping and changing entire structures.

Either he is the DoF or Baldini is, but as always with Spurs there are too many cooks at too many levels and no one is clear on the clear division of power and responsibility. There are too many ex-managers saying similar things for there not to be truth in this matter.

And we laughed when SAF said Levy "Levy, he's different", but frankly... it isn't always in our favour and recently I am questioning purely from a footballing sense how much HAS been in our favour.

It will always be a balance until more investment comes in etc... but frankly some heads need culling at the top if you ask me and a clear structure implemented so that a DoF (if that is the structure Levy really wants) can get on with the football, given a strict and clear budget and the power to go about the signings without some dragged out negotiations that cost us the start of nearly every season.

All wanted to leave. And we got top dollar, so no problems. We may see more this summer, its football.

Says it all. No need to add to this.

We are not as rich as City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool.

 

[Metalhead]

Liverpool also paid us 5 million quid to borrow a rank Robbie Keane for 6 months. Not to say that your point is wrong - I just like saying that we ripped them off so bad.

That is true although Keano was never quite the same upon his return sadly. Still a very good player for us in his prime though.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Of course it's a gamble... but it's not just the manager merry-go-round that defines Levies tenure. Berbatov, Modric, Bale...

Liverpool absolutely stopped their best player from leaving, seemingly irrespective of money and are reaping the rewards by leaping up the table and don't tell me we had to sell Bale, as it wasn't as if Suarez didn't nearly take Liverpool to the courts!!!

We sold the best player in the league and are just about standing still. It is all we do at the moment, stand still. Just when we have the right ingredients we sell them. And no one give me this crap that Bale had to have his move, as look how many applaud Liverpool's stance on Suarez. The media especially are totally 2 faced on this.

Levy deserves respect for running a tight financial ship and that will always come at the cost of player funding, but he also deserves a good slap for fecking about in the transfer market and chopping and changing entire structures.

Either he is the DoF or Baldini is, but as always with Spurs there are too many cooks at too many levels and no one is clear on the clear division of power and responsibility. There are too many ex-managers saying similar things for there not to be truth in this matter.

And we laughed when SAF said Levy "Levy, he's different", but frankly... it isn't always in our favour and recently I am questioning purely from a footballing sense how much HAS been in our favour.

It will always be a balance until more investment comes in etc... but frankly some heads need culling at the top if you ask me and a clear structure implemented so that a DoF (if that is the structure Levy really wants) can get on with the football, given a strict and clear budget and the power to go about the signings without some dragged out negotiations that cost us the start of nearly every season.

Not sure I blame Levy too much for Bale leaving but other than that your post has given me a rampant erection. So much so that i'm shortly going to pass out through loss of blood. But I don't bl……….

 

[SteveH]

So true. Looking at Martinez now you'd think that he would have been a better appointment but I have to admit that I didn't think this way when it all went down. Believe it or not, I actually felt like AVB was the safer option for some reason - how wrong was I!?

Martinez teams play good football and the one thing you can say about Everton is that they don't have any money so it would be impressive to have seen what RM could have done with our money and already good squad.

Picking the right manager is a total shot in the dark these days. Lots of people wanted De Boer over Sherwood but there was NO guarantees he could cut it and the difference would be 18 months to TS but more like 3 years for De Boer and likely more expensive contract and far more messy if it goes wrong.

With TS it's arguably been no lose. He's great, we get top 4 and he can keep the job - wonderful. He's average/poor and we don't make top 4 - easy excuse to move him on and bring in a winner like LVG.

I don't envy Levy one little bit.

Spot on

Tim's lack of history is quite unique in football. I find it quite uncomfortable because I have no reference points as to what to expect. Not quite as good as Harry but theres no Bale, better than AVB? yes just. AVB slow buildup did my head in, but I not saying Tim is the essex Guardiola. I just can't make my mind up.

LVG will be just passing through so the dutch Harry to some extent. If Louis does well he will us a stepping stone to a PSG, if does badly he will be sacked, there will be no inbetween.

I stopped getting too attached to so called 'good managers' after Juande Ramos - he was my "how wrong was I!" moment.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

All wanted to leave. And we got top dollar, so no problems. We may see more this summer, its football.

Says it all. No need to add to this.

We are not as rich as City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool.

We had a 100m to spend bro. Squandered it on crap.

 

[SteveH]

We had a 100m to spend bro. Squandered it on crap.

£100m When? For Bale?

Berbs at a guess helped pay for the new training ground and some wages along the way.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

£100m When? For Bale?

Berbs at a guess helped pay for the new training ground and some wages along the way.

Yes of course from Bale..

I'll validate my rash point..

Soldado - Tally speaks for itself. Granted he's a clever player, but doesn't score (for us).
Paulinho - I have no idea what he does.
Chadli - Probably the most promising of all our purchases, yet the most slated and/or underrated on here
Eriksen - Meh. High hopes, but let down hard! EWither he's not all that or the rest of them are not on his wavelength.
Chiriches - Pretty solid CB tbh.

Areas we should have bought:
We needed a replacement for Modders ever since he left and I think we still do.
Our fullback are a joke.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Of course it's a gamble... but it's not just the manager merry-go-round that defines Levies tenure. Berbatov, Modric, Bale...

Liverpool absolutely stopped their best player from leaving, seemingly irrespective of money and are reaping the rewards by leaping up the table and don't tell me we had to sell Bale, as it wasn't as if Suarez didn't nearly take Liverpool to the courts!!!

We sold the best player in the league and are just about standing still. It is all we do at the moment, stand still. Just when we have the right ingredients we sell them. And no one give me this crap that Bale had to have his move, as look how many applaud Liverpool's stance on Suarez. The media especially are totally 2 faced on this.

Levy deserves respect for running a tight financial ship and that will always come at the cost of player funding, but he also deserves a good slap for fecking about in the transfer market and chopping and changing entire structures.

Either he is the DoF or Baldini is, but as always with Spurs there are too many cooks at too many levels and no one is clear on the clear division of power and responsibility. There are too many ex-managers saying similar things for there not to be truth in this matter.

And we laughed when SAF said Levy "Levy, he's different", but frankly... it isn't always in our favour and recently I am questioning purely from a footballing sense how much HAS been in our favour.

It will always be a balance until more investment comes in etc... but frankly some heads need culling at the top if you ask me and a clear structure implemented so that a DoF (if that is the structure Levy really wants) can get on with the football, given a strict and clear budget and the power to go about the signings without some dragged out negotiations that cost us the start of nearly every season.

1) Yes, Levy’s tenure is also defined by having brought in these great players so that we may have the pleasure of watching them after years of mediocre, uninspiring shite like Chris Armstrong, Steffen Freund, Chris Perry and for a brief period, Andy Booth.
2) Liverpool received an offer of £40m from Arsenal. We received an offer of £86m (world record fee) from Real Madrid (you know, that club who Cristiano Ronaldo forced a move to). Do you think there wasn’t interest in Bale in the summer of 2010 when he’d begun to show real potential to be world class, or in the summer of 2011 when Bale had just lit up the Champions League? The fact that we managed to keep Bale as long as we did following that hatrick in the Guisseppe Meazza (just over 2.5 seasons) is something for which we should praise Levy.
3) Standing still despite having to find ways around the inability to pay top wages, keep the very best players, and without the earning power of 5 other clubs, is no mean feat. Who out of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City have we, by rights, realistically been able to compete with the last few years? The mere fact that we’ve been within a point or two of Arsenal every season and not that far off Chelsea last season (while finishing above them the previous season) is remarkable.
4) Re: DoF/ too many cooks situation, he abandoned it when, in Harry, he had a manager who refused to work with it. Then, he brought it back AT THE INSISTENCE of the new manager. AVB publically said he was used to that system, he liked that system, and that he’d like to work with Baldini.
5) SAF also said, in his recent auto biography, and I paraphrase, that Levy fights for Spurs to the very death and, whatever you think of him, has the clubs best interests at heart with everything he does.
6) Did those negotiations cost us at the start of this season? I seem to remember winning all our opening matches this season barring Arsenal away, which we always lose pretty much, and Chelsea home which we drew.

 

[SteveH]

Yes of course from Bale..

I'll validate my rash point..

Soldado - Tally speaks for itself. Granted he's a clever player, but doesn't score (for us).
Paulinho - I have no idea what he does.
Chadli - Probably the most promising of all our purchases, yet the most slated and/or underrated on here
Eriksen - Meh. High hopes, but let down hard! EWither he's not all that or the rest of them are not on his wavelength.
Chiriches - Pretty solid CB tbh.

Areas we should have bought:
We needed a replacement for Modders ever since he left and I think we still do.
Our fullback are a joke.

Tend to agree. But give them time DS.

You dont just replace a Modric. Probably the best player of his type I have every seen. I didn't rate him at first. So dont think I'll get a job as a scout.

Dont think our fullbacks are a joke either but having Naughton as our 2nd string is quite funny, NOT

 

[markieboy]

Total rubbish.

The man that took the decision tells you why he took the decision, and you choose not to believe him. Ok we know they don't always tell the truth. However given Levys record it is kind of plausible.

To offer your own theory that it was done out of loyalty to Redknapp, why? Why would he have any loyalty to him? When hs their ever been any loyalty in football?

We didn't know Redknapp had approached Rodgers at the time Rodgers turned down the job either.

I rather believe the man that took the decision, he has itk!

Chill guy.
Do you seriously see any reason why Rodgers would turn us down to stay at Swansea?
The guy is ambitious and full of confidence ..........he would never have turned us down because he thought that we sacked managers too easily and that he wouldn't have the time to instill his beliefs in the team.
There simply had to be another reason.
Harry had approached Rodgers about the England job long before Levy had decided that Harrys time was up here.