The Daniel Levy thread

[Tott66]

Levy is payed handsomely for the job he does but certainly does not always deliver.
Stadium will be 15 + years since Enic took over.
Time for a fresh More transparent approach.
Time for a new chairman.
Levys reputation built by subservient
Sycophants.
Don't want to be overtaken by west ham the next threat after being left for dead by arsenal and Chelsea and that's just London.
We are now again relying on youth and players who have never kicked a ball in this country.
So many occasions opportune moments have been missed to strengthen its history repeating itself time and time again,Daniel is fast becoming the ed miliband of chairman.
A laughing stock Milton keynes anyone.

 

[nicdic]

The whole "we should have back up options" is really a lot of shit when you think about it. We believed that we had a good chance on Berahino, all the ITK said it, IMO the player himself believed it (hence his reaction) so thats who we went for. The idea of having one or 2 other targets in reserve if that fails doesn't work as the selling teams themselves dont want to be left short and need time to buy players themselves. Of course people will say "well get our bussinees done sooner then", well thats not quite as cut and dried as it sounds as to buy early u need to spend even bigger, which we can't do.

Can't or don't want to. Sounds as though we made quite substantial bids for Berahino. Bids that I was uncomfortable with. I think he's decent, but wouldn't say he was worth the kind of numbers we appear to have bid, let alone the numbers it would have actually taken to get him.

 

[Sevens]

Can't or don't want to. Sounds as though we made quite substantial bids for Berahino. Bids that I was uncomfortable with. I think he's decent, but wouldn't say he was worth the kind of numbers we appear to have bid, let alone the numbers it would have actually taken to get him.

The prices of players is so out of control now that I don't even know what is reasonable anymore! I do know Everton got Lennon a steal though.

What I don't understand, as is standard every transfer windows is:

1) If we were keen enough to put in four bids for him, why did we leave it to the last minute? If we were that keen on him as a target surely we should have tried to wrap it up sooner?

2) Know that WBA didn't want to sell surely we needed a back up plan to purchase on deadline day?

Personally I rate Austin over Berahino anyway. Why we didn't make a move for him is beyond me.

 

[Donki]

Can't or don't want to. Sounds as though we made quite substantial bids for Berahino. Bids that I was uncomfortable with. I think he's decent, but wouldn't say he was worth the kind of numbers we appear to have bid, let alone the numbers it would have actually taken to get him.

I agree its a huge amount for a what he is but to be fair it seems the going rate, hes a proven goal scorer with pace and English and seemed to be the player Poch wanted.

 

[talkshowhost86]

The whole back up thing is tricky too. It's all well and good us saying we should have had back ups, but it may well have been the case, and seemed it with Berahino, that he was the one that we wanted, and there weren't really other options. In many ways I think that that is an encouraging thing. It's also good that we weren't bent over backwards for him. We were clearly serious and offered big money, but I expect no one on here would have valued Berahino at £25m and up before the window, and no one would have wanted us to pay it.

The whole "we should have back up options" is really a lot of shit when you think about it. We believed that we had a good chance on Berahino, all the ITK said it, IMO the player himself believed it (hence his reaction) so thats who we went for. The idea of having one or 2 other targets in reserve if that fails doesn't work as the selling teams themselves dont want to be left short and need time to buy players themselves. Of course people will say "well get our bussinees done sooner then", well thats not quite as cut and dried as it sounds as to buy early u need to spend even bigger, which we can't do.

As I said in my original post it's obviously not easy because most players won't be prepared to just sit tight and wait as your second choice. I also think you're right that we thought we had Berahino sorted and by the sounds of it we bid more than a fair amount for him so I really don't think Levy can be criticised for that too much. Perhaps the only thing we could have done differently was make our bigger bids a bit earlier which might have given us more time to find an alternative. But with West Brom making every bid public, that might have backfired as well with other clubs being clear on how much money we had.

On the defensive midfield side of things though I really do think we've messed up there. It's clear we wanted someone in that position based on the pure number of midfielders we were strongly linked with, and yet it doesn't look like we ever really put our backs into getting any of them. I don't know if we were confident of getting someone and it fell through but either way it does look like we mismanaged that situation and to be left with Dier as our only defensive midfield option is really poor whichever way you look at it.

I think Levy does need to realise that last day brinksmanship doesn't work unless you've got the money to back it up. United failed with their other targets, but were able to simply spunk 36m on their 3rd/4th option on the last day. We can't do that, so I think we need to try and sort things out quicker, even if that means perhaps not always going for our top target.

 

[nicdic]

Once again Levy has failed to back a manager.

Poch clearly had a midfield target in mind for 2 summer transfer windows now, that is clear to see, and he hasn't been given sufficient options.

What bugs me is the way we as Spurs fans now 'accept' we are not going to be Top 4.

Levy made Top 4 the benchmark in which he sacked managers, Harry sacked for not getting CL, AVB, Tim all sacked for not getting top 4.

The five players we did sign, I'm guessing because the manager wanted them say hi btw. Or is it only backing a manager when he signs the extra players you want? I can't keep up!

We should always have accepted that we aren't going to be top 4. We have no right to it, and by all accounts finishing in the top four is always going to be a massive over achievement for us. If finishing fourth was the benchmark by which managers were sacked then Redknapp wouldn't have been (he finished fourth in his last season), and Pochettino & AVB would have (both finished 5th). In reality, managers (Redknapp & Sherwood) were sacked primarily for non-football reasons. They made enemies in the club and were not good to have around. It's a handy excuse for them to use, that if you don't get CL football you get the chop, because it absolves them of all responsibility and instead makes it seem unreasonable of Levy.

Levy/Baldini sold our best players, and brought replacement which have not worked out, why should we now suffer for that?
I'm sorry but Levy simply has to make amends for selling our best players and not proving adequate replacements.

Yes he took some risk and it didn't work out, so what, he needs to make amends.

We've sold players that we weren't able to keep, and have got good fees for them, and yeah, sometimes the replacements haven't worked out. Lots of transfers don't work out. That's football. It happens. We're not the only club who have seen this. This window we've done major business to try and redress this, getting rid of some of those replacements that didn't work, and bringing in players we hope who will fit and perform well. Suffering? We're four games into a new season where we actually haven't played badly at all. There are 34 games left to go, give it a chance. Or can you only do that when we buy the players you want?

We've only spent what we make from sales, hell even this summer we've trimmed our wage bill! Why when every other club is spending are we not?
We all know the stadium will mostly be funded by sponsors, I find it hard to support Levy.

Why do you care about net spend so much?

Poch will get the blame when we are not pushing top 4 come the end of the season and we will be in turmoil again... we will lose our key players like Lloris, Eriksen, Kane etc and when Levy sells them on deadline day we will all say 'Well done Levy for getting such a good fee for a wantaway player' no sorry im not accepting that.

These players WANT to be here, but they want to be successful and failing to back the manager isn't going to bring success.

Fuck you Levy.

Poch won't get any blame from anyone with more than two brain cells for not pushing the top 4. I've not seen anyone say we'll be pushing for the top four, so why would he be judged on that?

How many of those top players did we sell on deadline day this season?

If you hate Levy this much, pick another chairman and support their team. Abramovich, Mansour, and Glazier seem to be guys you'd enjoy.

 

[nicdic]

As I said in my original post it's obviously not easy because most players won't be prepared to just sit tight and wait as your second choice. I also think you're right that we thought we had Berahino sorted and by the sounds of it we bid more than a fair amount for him so I really don't think Levy can be criticised for that too much. Perhaps the only thing we could have done differently was make our bigger bids a bit earlier which might have given us more time to find an alternative. But with West Brom making every bid public, that might have backfired as well with other clubs being clear on how much money we had.

On the defensive midfield side of things though I really do think we've messed up there. It's clear we wanted someone in that position based on the pure number of midfielders we were strongly linked with, and yet it doesn't look like we ever really put our backs into getting any of them. I don't know if we were confident of getting someone and it fell through but either way it does look like we mismanaged that situation and to be left with Dier as our only defensive midfield option is really poor whichever way you look at it.

I think Levy does need to realise that last day brinksmanship doesn't work unless you've got the money to back it up. United failed with their other targets, but were able to simply spunk 36m on their 3rd/4th option on the last day. We can't do that, so I think we need to try and sort things out quicker, even if that means perhaps not always going for our top target.

I'm completely fine that we can't do what United did, because it was stupid.

Who knows with midfielder. ITK is ITK, and media reports are media reports. The guys we were linked with were always a stretch, and so maybe again, we only wanted to bring a player in if they were of sufficient quality, and the options that were definitely gettable didn't seem attractive or fit the bill.

 

[talkshowhost86]

I'm completely fine that we can't do what United did, because it was stupid.

Who knows with midfielder. ITK is ITK, and media reports are media reports. The guys we were linked with were always a stretch, and so maybe again, we only wanted to bring a player in if they were of sufficient quality, and the options that were definitely gettable didn't seem attractive or fit the bill.

I'm also fine that we don't try and do what United do....except we do seemingly try that approach but without the money to back it up.

I just find it hard to believe that with this new scouting network we've set up that we couldn't find someone who wasn't a 20m player who is a better option than Dier in central midfield.

As you say we don't know the ins and outs of it and therefore it's hard to know where to place the blame. But the fact is that it has left us in a pretty poor situation in regards to midfielders, so someone somewhere at the club needs to look at why that's the case.

 

[nicdic]

I just find it hard to believe that with this new scouting network we've set up that we couldn't find someone who wasn't a 20m player who is a better option than Dier in central midfield.

As you say we don't know the ins and outs of it and therefore it's hard to know where to place the blame. But the fact is that it has left us in a pretty poor situation in regards to midfielders, so someone somewhere at the club needs to look at why that's the case.

If we believe the reports we did. Kramer, Bender, Illarramendi, Witsel, Wanyama, etc. It's just that having explored those options, none were gettable. And perhaps we deemed the players who were gettable, to be not of the sufficient quality.

Also, this new scouting team was put in place during last season. This is probably their first window. It takes time I would think to scout players properly and come up with confident positions on them. I think to jump on the scouting team this window is incredibly short sighted. Plus, N'Jie, Trippier, and Wimmer are all slightly left field signings, and even Son to a degree, coming in in a position we didn't (or at least I didn't) think we needed someone could prove incredibly astute.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

The 2 positions mentioned are in very high demand at the moment as we seen with Man U, just look how much a 19 yo went for, Schneiderlin too. Alot of other teams were looking for similar players to us, we were in first for both these players but couldnt reach a deal for the money the clubs were looking for. I will admit that I thought we could have maybe took a risk on a lesser known out and out stiker but for some reason we didn't. We have however strenghened our first team attacking line enormously in that we now have real pace. Lets see how we go with what we got, apart from the obvious lack of cover at CF I think we have a better balance in the first team than we did.

While those positions may be in high demand, I really don't see any other club in the league with only one recognised centre forward. We've messed up. If the thinking in pre season was that we was going to use Chadli or Lamela there then they should have played most of the games in that position to get used to it. Anyway it is what it is now so here's hoping Kane doesn't get an injury and picks up his goalscoring form.

 

[Blockbuster]

If you hate Levy this much, pick another chairman and support their team. Abramovich, Mansour, and Glazier seem to be guys you'd enjoy.

I supported this club before Levy and will continue to do so after Levy.
Think that's a silly thing to say.

it's clear you are firmly in the Levy can do no wrong camp and that's cool.

Since sacking Harry we've not pushed forward. are we meant to be happy with a top 6 finish?

We have 2 trophies & 2 top 4 finishes in 20 years, in recent years since 2008 we've came close to really achieving something special, forgive me for wanting those times back.

We have came close since Harry, but we failed to capitalise on our situation by not spending that's my issue.

 

[nicdic]

While those positions may be in high demand, I really don't see any other club in the league with only one recognised centre forward. We've messed up. If the thinking in pre season was that we was going to use Chadli or Lamela there then they should have played most of the games in that position to get used to it. Anyway it is what it is now so here's hoping Kane doesn't get an injury and picks up his goalscoring form.

United have one recognised striker in Rooney, a youth player in Wilson, and a guy who has predominately played on the wing in Martial.

 

[Bobbins]

Heard a classic meathead on Talksport last night, came out with the classic line:

"Daniel Levy, I tell ya mate, dat man is destwoyin' mah club, e's kill in' it, 'e needs ta go."

Durham was actually pretty reasonable, and pointed out that Levy was building a new stadium, and that the club's league finishes in the last five years had been better and more consistent than anything since the 60's, and therefore probably wasn't 'destroying' Spurs, and that £25m was massively over the odds for Berahino, but the guy wasn't interested.

"Nah nah nah mate, I ain't 'avin' it, yeah der might be a new stadium an dat but we ain't got no bloody stwiker 'av' we? Kill in' the club mate, der ain't gona be a Spurs once e's finished wiv it. Get 'im an' ENIC aaat!"

Like the kind of guy you accidentally get chatting to in the pub then find an excuse to go home early.

Shite transfer window. He's not burning the fucking club to the ground though.

 

[Donki]

While those positions may be in high demand, I really don't see any other club in the league with only one recognised centre forward. We've messed up. If the thinking in pre season was that we was going to use Chadli or Lamela there then they should have played most of the games in that position to get used to it. Anyway it is what it is now so here's hoping Kane doesn't get an injury and picks up his goalscoring form.

I agree with you that we should have brought in cover, there were certainly mistakes made there but we must of been pretty sure on Berahino for this to have happened, the player thae Poch clearly wanted.

 

[Trebmint2013]

I don't think comparing our transfer policy with City, Chelsea or Manu helps really. Yeah yeah city and chelsea did last day deals but none were for glaring obvious holes in the squad. Manu / LVG is a basket case at the moment throwing cash about.
Bottom line is Berahino was available at a price we all knew. Poch wanted him and was clearly his main target. We were so confident we even let our only other striker go, okay he wasnt suited to the EPL, but it was fine as we'd got the replacement sorted. However Levy and his own special brand of last day brinkmanship somehow not only scuppered it, while offering the required £25m he also did it in a way that meant we had no alternative to face at least 5 months of the season with a single striker who's not had a rest and frankly looks tired and jaded. That simply is a failure to do his job.
As for all of our signings, and this is without trying to sound negative. They're all good players, but if they'd signed for Stoke or West Ham I wouldn't have been wow how did they get them to sign.
Oh well it is what it is, and its not a disaster, and I do think the youth will come through. Dier looks a really good buy this season. But as for Danny Levy he played it badly, and now every time a hard tackle goes in on Kane I'll be wondering if our season done

 

[joelstinton14]

We may never do better than 5th/6th with Levy in control but that's because financially we simply can't compete. Look at the sort of fees the top four were throwing about this Summer....it's absolutely ridiculous and the only way that we could compete is if we were sold to the oil men or equivalent.

The fact is that unless we get in a billionaire playboy to run the club, we won't be able to compete with the big boys. So in that sense yes Levy is holding us back...but it's perhaps unrealistic to expect otherwise.

Other than that, he's generally got us to being in as high a position as we can expect, and on a pretty consistent basis. I suppose it then boils down to what your definition of 'holding us back' is. I think a lot of people's definitions may be a bit oversimplistic/unrealistic.

This.

When we qualified for the Champions League, Twice (bastard bloody chelsea), i was genuinely really proud that we managed to achieve it without being brought out as a rich man play toy. We done it the hard way. Unlike chelsea and second division Man city who now have Aguero playing for them. And you know what, at the same time, a lot of other fans respected that as well. We were suddenly everyone favourite second team. Even saint fans.

And this what it comes down too. Money and the calibre of player we need to make that next step.

Liverpool and Tottenham are in the same position. Trying to attract those players to make the next step. Just because we have a 40 million over draft, or hundred millions to spend it doesn't mean you should just spend it willy nilly on anyone. Tottenham , and Liverpool showed that in successive seasons. We flunked money that did not improve the team or squad. 4 of the 7 magnificent seven we have brought in have left. Another was being flunked around to get a deal for other players.

Liverpool flunked a 100 million and finished below us.

We don't have the money to buy Thomas Muller. Any half decent player has a ridiculous buy out clause in there contract.

We and liverpool, and in that awkward no man land between the top 4 and the rest. Where not many players will improve what we already have. Even Redknapp was pretty explicit in this mantra.

If you look at Liverpool and Tottenham signings, they are quite similar:

Trippier - Clyne
Wimmer
Son - Firmino
Njie - Ings
Alderwerield

Then they got the likes of Milner, Benteke.

Not having a back up striker, is inexcusable. If we couldn't get one it, we shouldn't have let bobby leave until we did. We should have at least Shaq in match day squads. (understand his loan is only till Nov 1?) . It is a massive colossus oversight. We should also added at least two experienced players in the squad (Ala milner).

But as a whole, i'm not concerned with Levy and where we are/going. We don't have the infrastructure to compete with the big 4 and the big european teams. But we will have soon. We got the best training facilities in the country, and will soon have one of the best stadiums. Go to home games and support the fuck out of your side.

Bus conductor, made a brilliant post in the ITK thread, about young players and their potential. And you know what, we are really well ahead of a lot of clubs in that regard.

 

[nicdic]

I supported this club before Levy and will continue to do so after Levy.
Think that's a silly thing to say.

it's clear you are firmly in the Levy can do no wrong camp and that's cool.

Since sacking Harry we've not pushed forward. are we meant to be happy with a top 6 finish?

We have 2 trophies & 2 top 4 finishes in 20 years, in recent years since 2008 we've came close to really achieving something special, forgive me for wanting those times back.

We have came close since Harry, but we failed to capitalise on our situation by not spending that's my issue.

I think Levy does plenty wrong, I just don't believe he does only wrong like some on here.

We've not pushed on since Harry, but that hasn't been for the lack of trying, and that's not completely down to Levy. Redknapp was the one who managed to throw away a 13pt gap over 4th place and see us miss out on the CL the following season. The year after we had our highest ever points total, narrowly missing out on fourth. Selling Bale and replacing him with the 7 didn't work out and has set us back. But at the time, almost every one on here was excited by the replacements and thought we'd bought incredibly well. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We're trying to compete with teams that have much larger reach than us, and I believe that our approach could work, but it's not guaranteed.

 

[DJS]

If we believe the reports we did. Kramer, Bender, Illarramendi, Witsel, Wanyama, etc. It's just that having explored those options, none were gettable. And perhaps we deemed the players who were gettable, to be not of the sufficient quality.

Also, this new scouting team was put in place during last season. This is probably their first window. It takes time I would think to scout players properly and come up with confident positions on them. I think to jump on the scouting team this window is incredibly short sighted. Plus, N'Jie, Trippier, and Wimmer are all slightly left field signings, and even Son to a degree, coming in in a position we didn't (or at least I didn't) think we needed someone could prove incredibly astute.

What made you think Son wasn't needed nic?

We've been crying out for quality wide attacking options

I hope Young gets chance on right a.s.a.p. as that was a weak area last season.

 

[nicdic]

What made you think Son wasn't needed nic?

We've been crying out for quality wide attacking options

I hope Young gets chance on right a.s.a.p. as that was a weak area last season.

I just thought we were pretty well stocked in the AM3 positions. I still don't really see how we'll use them all. We had:

Chadli
Eriksen
Dembele
Lamela
Townsend
Pritchard
Carroll
Onomah

And to them we've added N'Jie and Son. We have 10 players who it would appear will get most of their game time (if they even get any now) in that AM3. I thought we could upgrade, but didn't expect us to buy two and not move anyone on, particularly given that Pritchard, Carrol, and Onomah were being added to the squad.

 

[Tott66]

Heard a classic meathead on Talksport last night, came out with the classic line:

"Daniel Levy, I tell ya mate, dat man is destwoyin' mah club, e's kill in' it, 'e needs ta go."

Durham was actually pretty reasonable, and pointed out that Levy was building a new stadium, and that the club's league finishes in the last five years had been better and more consistent than anything since the 60's, and therefore probably wasn't 'destroying' Spurs, and that £25m was massively over the odds for Berahino, but the guy wasn't interested.

"Nah nah nah mate, I ain't 'avin' it, yeah der might be a new stadium an dat but we ain't got no bloody stwiker 'av' we? Kill in' the club mate, der ain't gona be a Spurs once e's finished wiv it. Get 'im an' ENIC aaat!"

Like the kind of guy you accidentally get chatting to in the pub then find an excuse to go home early.

Shite transfer window. He's not burning the fucking club to the ground though.

Yes someone in the pub who is a smug ponce