Appointing managers is one aspect yes - it's also the most important aspect. At the end of the day we are a football club and the most important part is on the pitch.
Sorry, but I don't agree that appointing managers is the most important responsibility that a chairman has. The most important responsibility is the overall health and direction of the club.
I commend Levy for his work off the field in terms of keeping books balanced etc but the fact remains that signings should be the choice of the manager and DOF for clubs who have them. Not a committee. The only person who gets sacked is the manager when he only had one vote in who to buy. This has happened for years and Levy's response is to sack the manager. He needs to be held responsible for the clubs performances on the pitch too - he appoints managers and has a massive day on players we bring in.
The chairman is the man who has overall responsibility for the club and its future. Of course he has to have a say in transfers.
If the manager / head coach wants players X,Y and Z but player X costs more than the club can afford in terms of transfer fee and player Y costs more than the club can afford in terms of wages, while there are other legitimate objections to player Z, then the chairman has to retain the right to veto those players.
What have we achieved in Levy's 14 years as chairman? 2 league cup wins and 1 CL campaign? I understand if that's enough success for you but when you look at the players we've had in recent years (and sold I must add) we have failed to kick on to next level.
Not wishing to be pedantic but Levy has been chairman for a little under 13 years and we have only won 1 League Cup in that time!
Of course I, like any other Spurs fan, would have wished for far greater success. We all dream. But we can't escape reality. Spurs doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in a world where three or four clubs were miles ahead of us 13 years ago, far beyond the horizon. We had no chance of competing with them at all when Levy first took over. Before and since, they enjoyed a massive financial advantage over us.
And as if that wasn't enough, two clubs won the oil lottery and started playing the game by a completely new set of rules. If not for them, the chances are that Spurs would have won more than just a solitary League Cup and would have enjoyed considerably more than just the one CL campaign.
To judge Levy's Spurs without taking into account what we've had to compete against makes no sense at all.
Levy always wants to buy 3 decent players instead of 1 class player and as long as he continues in that way we will never be successful - end of story.
Carrick wasn't class?
Berbatov wasn't class?
Bale wasn't class?
Modric wasn't class?
VDV wasn't class?
Vertonghen isn't class?
Lloris isn't class?
Isn't it better to buy 3 class players than 1? We're not a club that can go out and buy the likes of Ozil. Either we cannot afford them or they will not come to us. Or both. We have to be cleverer than that. It means that often we will fail. But, on balance, we've got it more right than wrong.
As far as compensation goes - Graham, Hoddle, Jol, Ramos, Redknapp (had 1 year remaining), AVB have all been employed and sacked by Levy. Surely you don't think these left for nothing? If reports are believed AVB went for 4.5m for your info. I don't know the ins and outs of what compensation each has received but it's cost club millions. And don't forget we paid compensation to Leeds for Graham and Sevilla for Ramos. Come on - as far as football matters are concerned Levy has been poor.
Red top reports. Worthless. The reports that I trust (by Jason Burt and by the Portuguese journalist who is also close to AVB) suggest otherwise.
And yes, there is a cost to hiring and firing managers. And Levy has got it wrong plenty of times. But as I said, the overall health and direction of the club is what really matters. Graham was a Sugar appointment, by the way. Any compensation paid to Leeds was his responsibility.
We are a football club and success is judged by what happens on the pitch not in the bank.
Indeed.
And by any conceivable measure, we are vastly more successful now than we were before Levy took over and we have a far better chance of earning tangible success in the form of silverware.
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