Tottenham Trust meeting Levy

[AngerManagement]

The reality behind Barry staying at Villa had nothing to do with the stance taken by Martin O'Neill or Aston Villa F.C. but everything to do with Xavi Alonso not going to Juventus.
There was a strong rumour that Alonso was being sold to Juventus and that Liverpool had Barry lined up as a back up!
Alonso did not want to leave Liverpool so the deal for Barry fell through.

stands to reason

 

[talkshowhost86]

Apparently the club cancelled due to negative articles in the weekend press by some of the Trust board members (Bernie I believe).

If true that's pathetic :-(

Seems to be the jist of it according to the chatter on FTL.

Paul Smith, who is the trust secretary I believe, has said over there that he can't say why the meeting was cancelled due to 'collective responsibility'.

Now Paul is, I'm sure, a top bloke, and a big Spurs fan, and he runs Spurs Odyssey which is another good Spurs board (not as good as here obviously ) but when the representatives of the Spurs fans say that they can't tell the Spurs fans what's going on you have to think that the whole thing is a shambles.

 

[rez9000]

Apparently the club cancelled due to negative articles in the weekend press by some of the Trust board members (Bernie I believe).

If true that's pathetic :-(

If that's true, then it beggars belief.

Boycotting a newspaper, fair enough. Bit silly, but still fair enough. Boycotting your own fans? Stupid, stupid, stupid!:bang:

 

[spursyido1]

Apparently the club cancelled due to negative articles in the weekend press by some of the Trust board members (Bernie I believe).

If true that's pathetic :-(

It seems that this article may have contributed to it, if its from Mr Kinsley:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/7641352.stm

A few selected quotes from the article...

After winning the Carling Cup at the end of February, Spurs seemed to start their summer holidays early.


"The drop-off in form was phenomenal," Bernie Kingsley of the Tottenham Supporters' Trust told BBC Sport.



"It was as if the players thought, 'we've got our Uefa Cup place, we're safe in the table, we don't have to worry any more'."
And with Champions League football off the menu, big clubs were always likely to show an interest in strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane.


Spurs were 2-0 down at Portsmouth on Sunday when Ramos decided to introduce Bent in place of Pavlyuchenko, instead of pairing them together in attack.


The move was greeted by the travelling support with chants of "you don't know what you're doing".


"It was seen as a rather bizarre decision," said Kingsley.
"When you're trailing in the match you want him to throw everything at Portsmouth, who had shipped 10 goals in their last two games.


"Each week we look at the team sheet and ask what's he doing. But I don't think there's a strong feeling that Ramos should be given the boot at the moment.


"We change managers too often and changing part of the way through a season is not a sensible thing."

The club is totally focused on money," said Kingsley.


"The people who run the club are obsessed by making money and they seem to think that volume, in terms of player transfer activity, adds up to quality. It isn't.


"Football has become obsessed with money and Tottenham are an arch example of that."


Simply put, Ramos needs to start winning some matches.


"People will look at the amount of money that has been spent, see they are bottom of the league and ask what is going on," said Segers.


"It takes some time to get players settled but time is not what you have as a football manager."


Kingsley added: "It's very easy to say there's a lot of the season to go, but we've seen in the past that if you get stranded at the bottom it becomes increasingly hard to recover."


In the immediate term, progression to the Uefa Cup group stages would provide a timely fillip, although Krakow would need only a 1-0 victory on Thursday to send Tottenham tumbling to a disastrous defeat and out of the competition.


On the domestic front, Ramos will feel Premier League matches against Hull, Stoke and Bolton - before the trip to Arsenal on 29 October - represent a decent chance to pick up points, but none of those sides will provide easy opposition.

And in terms of playing staff, Kingsley believes continuity is the key.
"We say we need changes but, paradoxically, one thing we need to see is less changes - we never play the same team or keep the same tactics from one game to the next," he said.


"We can't bring any more players in until January. In the last 12 months we've pretty much turned around the whole team and you can't expect that many players to come in and all work together.


"The manager needs to make some hard decisions, decide on his team and play them. If that puts a few noses out of joint with the stars who have come in, then so be it."

I don't think they'll be too fond of him after this letter obtained by the Telegraph back in October also:

Letter to the board The Sunday Telegraph has obtained a copy of an email sent to Tottenham Hotspur's board from Bernie Kingsley, the editor of Spurs fanzine Cock-a-Doodle-Doo. It reads:

From: Bernie Kingsley.
Sent: 26 October 2007, 07:56.
To: Daniel Levy.
Cc: Damien Comolli.
Subject: Martin Jol.

No doubt your spin machine will soon be telling us of all the messages of support from supporters for your decision to sack Martin Jol. This is not one of them.

You and your colleagues have acted dishonourably throughout this sorry episode, and both [Thursday's] decision and the way it leaked out are no exception to that. Martin has made numerous mistakes as a coach but has not deserved to be totally undermined by his employer and treated like this.

This morning I am ashamed to be a Spurs supporter – I will get over that and my support will continue, probably long after all of you are gone, but once again you have allowed our club to be pilloried, laughed at and questioned by the rest of the football world.

£27 million profit is meaningless if you can't run a club properly. The teams you aspire to match, Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea have all proved consistently that the director of football role in this country does not work. Chelsea's greatest success came despite it, not because of it – and that longevity and stability for the manager is the key to success.

Perhaps Everton are an even better comparator – David Moyes has had his ups and downs but they've stuck with him and let him get on with the job properly and are now getting more ups than downs. Just like Tottenham once did with our last really successful manager, Keith Burkinshaw.

You will, of course, dismiss all this as the meanderings of another fan, but I will be far from alone in not forgetting the appalling way you have behaved. Juande Ramos or whoever comes in may well improve results – I obviously hope he does – but the bad taste will linger.

Regards,
Bernie Kingsley

It is slightly upsetting to think that the a potential meeting with the supporters trust would be cancelled (or influenced) by these comments.

It (appears) that the club are slightly defensive to negative press (possibly highlighted by the banning of the Standard) which seems a bit feeble.

I am sure the club are trying to prevent any potential leakages, resulting in information spread that shouldn't be. But really it seems the club is over sensitive about our PR and we have a publicity spin machine on full power.

Every story on the website seems to have some sort of psychological objective. In my perspective the club need to loosen up a bit. In these hard times for supporters, I little honesty wouldn't go unnoticed!

 

[Doctor Who]

*Content removed as poster failed to engage brain, possibly due to pain in knuckles from being repeatedly dragged across pavements or other rough surfaces*

 

[jimbo]

I think this further adds to the impotent reputation the Trust has, and I'm a bastard member of it too.

If the current Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust isn't up to the job then we need a new one that is.

 

[fieryjack]

Yeh, get Trevor Tanner to run it.

 

[Banjo]

Apparently the club cancelled due to negative articles in the weekend press by some of the Trust board members (Bernie I believe).

If true that's pathetic :-(

Quite. The fans have genuine reasons to be disgruntled with the club - which simply has to accept that supporters, including Trust board members, will be critical and questioning. If that critisicm is ill informed the club are now foregoing an opportunity to inform that opinion. If the critisicm has some basis THFC still has a moral, and politic, obligation to face up and speak to the people who - in the end - put large amounts of cash in their pockets. Levy is on, I believe, £940,000 per year.

I feel there are, or ought to be, limits to how much the club can expect to strech people's support, 'brand loyalty' if you will. :shrug:

 

[SpurSince57]

Although as monkey-finger pointed out, most of the agenda of these club-trust meetings over the years has carried a high zzzzz-factor, which isn't to say it isn't important. And the club always bullshits its way through.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

As I've said, I think Levy needs better advice from our PR team. Surely Donna Cullen or whoever is telling him how this is all looking?

If not, then he should get shot of them. Fuck it, I'd fly back to the UK and give them a days training in PR101. It's not rocket science. How long does it take to write "Talking to fans = Good" on a whiteboard?

I'd even through in a free seminar catchily titled "Sometimes you have to speak with the media. Even if they are smelly alcoholics with ulterior motives. Play their laziest off against each other and give them exclusive quotes and chats in exchange for occasional positive spins/coverage. One bottle of wine sent on their birthday could change the way millions of people view the club."

Some people, ignorant people, think that's just too long a title, so - if it helps - I've given it an even catchier acronym: SYHTSWTMEITASAWUMPTLOAEOAGTEQATIEFOPSOBOWOTBCCTWMOPVTC.

 

[General Levy]

What about Gareth Barry though? That was identical to the Robbie Keane situation. Both were long serving players at a UEFA Cup team. Both were Club Captains. Both were valued around the same amount of money. B oth are similar age, at the peak of their career. And both were wanted by Liverpool. And i think Keane, like Barry, is a player who is very professional and would still give 100% for his Club even if he didn't get a move. I could understand us selling Berbatov but i think we could have kept Keane if we really wanted too. And, although he would have been upset for a while, i think Robbie would have got on with the job in much the same way as Barry has done.

£20million for Keane was an amazing deal for our club. IMO him playing alongside Berbatov made him look better than he actually is.

See how many league goals he scores this season and if it is in double figures I will donate £20 to sc.

 

[thebenjamin]

£20million for Keane was an amazing deal for our club. IMO him playing alongside Berbatov made him look better than he actually is.

See how many league goals he scores this season and if it is in double figures I will donate £20 to sc.

Keane has got double figures in the Premiership in each of the last six seasons (the only player to do so), so it would be a bit of a turn up if he didn't.

I too heard the stories about Keane causing trouble in Spain to force his move. For me there was a simple way out of the situation which was to tell Keane he could go the second his replacement was signed, but not before. If he had a problem with such a completely reasonable standpoint he could run around flapping his arms as much as he wanted. If we didn't sign him (Arshavin), then Keane stayed. If he disrupts things you fine and suspend him until he decides he wants to fulfil his contract and play footballl for a living. The reality is Levy put getting a 'good price' far ahead of the fortunes of the team, and the second he saw the colour of their money he couldn't get Keane out the door fast enough.

You say selling Keane was an 'amazing deal'. Well it's looking amazing alright, amazingly bad. But hey, it's ok, Liverpool donated some dough to the Tottenham Hotspur Championship Football Foundation. :bowdown:

On the Trust meeting, is anyone really surprised? Why would Levy subject himself to any needless discomfort? Surely nobody's still under the impression the poisoned dwarf has any regard for us, the only thing he wants is our money. The second someone meets his asking price, he's off, as has been the situation for years. The problem is, as usual, he's asking too much money.

 

[Bromavinci]

It seems very much a case of baton down the hatches and I blame Levy. Alot of good points in this thread and understandably its not painting too rosy a picture of our illustrious leader. I have never paid too much heed to him before but now I am starting to get the picture of a little man, maybe bullied at school, with a monster of a chip sitting firmly on his deltoids. He doesnt strike me as someone who will acquiesce to anyone, let alone a bunch of half wit football fans...

 

[SpurSince57]

Keane has got double figures in the Premiership in each of the last six seasons (the only player to do so), so it would be a bit of a turn up if he didn't.

I too heard the stories about Keane causing trouble in Spain to force his move. For me there was a simple way out of the situation which was to tell Keane he could go the second his replacement was signed, but not before. If he had a problem with such a completely reasonable standpoint he could run around flapping his arms as much as he wanted. If we didn't sign him (Arshavin), then Keane stayed. If he disrupts things you fine and suspend him until he decides he wants to fulfil his contract and play footballl for a living. The reality is Levy put getting a 'good price' far ahead of the fortunes of the team, and the second he saw the colour of their money he couldn't get Keane out the door fast enough.

You say selling Keane was an 'amazing deal'. Well it's looking amazing alright, amazingly bad. But hey, it's ok, Liverpool donated some dough to the Tottenham Hotspur Championship Football Foundation. :bowdown:

On the Trust meeting, is anyone really surprised? Why would Levy subject himself to any needless discomfort? Surely nobody's still under the impression the poisoned dwarf has any regard for us, the only thing he wants is our money. The second someone meets his asking price, he's off, as has been the situation for years. The problem is, as usual, he's asking too much money.

Yes. So why didn't we do that?

No, it's not the reality. It's your opinion stated as fact. No-one outside the club knows what the reality is.

 

[thebenjamin]

Yes. So why didn't we do that?

No, it's not the reality. It's your opinion stated as fact. No-one outside the club knows what the reality is.

So we did wait for his replacement before letting him go? Eek

When's the new lad making his debut?

 

[mil1lion]

£20million for Keane was an amazing deal for our club. IMO him playing alongside Berbatov made him look better than he actually is.

See how many league goals he scores this season and if it is in double figures I will donate £20 to sc.

Oh, dont get me wrong, i think the price we got for Keane was great. But the problem is, we didn't truly replace him. Or didn't replace his goals. He was our top scorer the last 2 years and yet we didn't replace him. Getting £20m for him is all well and good, but it means nothing to the fans if we have a gap up front where he used to be. Now, if we had sold Keane for £20m and signed say Negredo for £10m then i would have been happy. But we didn't really get anyone. I mean, is Campbell not effectively similar to Pekhart, who we loaned out, in terms of being a young unproven striker? And Pavyluchenko is surely the replacement for Berbatov. Not to mention the sale of Defoe too.

For me its simple. At the start of pre-season we had Keane, Berbatov, Bent and Pekhart. We knew Berbatov was more than likely going to leave. We loaned out Pekhart which makes sense. Yet we sold Keane. We could have easily signed a striker before that, and should have, plain and simple. You either sign a suitable player before you sell someone in the forst team, or you dont sell that player at all. Whether his head was turned or not. And whether the money offered is good. We dont need money. So theres no excuse for selling a player like Keane without a replacement. In other words, a cheque with £20m written on it cant play up front, and it cant score 20 odd goals.

 

[SpurSince57]

Then the only logical explanation is that the disruption he was causing was so serious that we had no option but to ship him out ASAP, despite the obvious risk that entailed. Nothing else makes sense.

 

[thebenjamin]

Then the only logical explanation is that the disruption he was causing was so serious that we had no option but to ship him out ASAP, despite the obvious risk that entailed. Nothing else makes sense.

That is what (imo) happened. Which is absolutely scandalous.

If you can't say to a key emplolyee who has recently signed a 4 year contract that you won't give him permission to depart until a replacement is found then you are either A) Weak to the point of scarcely believable incompetence or B) More interested in keeping the balance sheet nice and tidy for the impending sale, than the fortunes of the football side of the business.

I wonder which one.

 

[mil1lion]

It doesn't make sense. And it appears that, by selling Keane, it led to Zenit St Petersberg putting the price of Arshavin up even higher. They valued him as highly as Keane, so by us selling Keane for £20m, they demanded just as much for Arshavin. So Liverpool didn't help at all by bidding so much for Keane. And i think that Keane would have caught wind of our interest in Arshavin, and thats why he kicked up a fuss. He knew there wasn't much chance of him signing for a top Club if he didn't get his move to Liverpool. So he was desperate to join them before they lost interest. And he knew that Arshavin would likely push him back down to the bench. So i dont blame Keane for wanting out. And i dont even blame the board for wanting Arshavin to replace him. But they should have handled the persuit of Arshavin a lot lot better. Obviously i dont know the exact details of the persuit. What i do know is that Arshavin said that Ramos phoned him and told him that he was wanted as a replacement for Robbie Keane. If Keane knew we were looking at a potential replacement for him then i cant blame him for kicking up a fuss. If thats the case then we should keep our transfer targets behind closed doors a lot better.

 

[talkshowhost86]

The trust has now suspended registration for membership which is all a bit suspicious. They're also being very cagey about telling anyone what was said at the meeting last night.

Seems very cloak and dagger for an organisation that's supposed to represent the fans.