Cavehillspur
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- Jan 28, 2011
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Excellent article
A positive article on Pochettino and Levy (by Marcotti)
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NEVILLEB
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- Nov 6, 2006
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Found Levy's comment so I accept that he said it.
"Martin Jol went for an interview at Newcastle while he was employed by us," Levy said. "And there were clearly some issues in the dressing room between Juande and some of the players."
Problems arising between Ramos and the players was also the reason that Spurs saw the departure of Dimitar Berbatov, according to Levy.
"It was the coach who decided to let Dimitar go," he said. "Even though we didn't have a replacement.
"We would have kept Berbatov even though he wanted to leave. But Juande managed the team and his advice was that he didn't want a player that didn't want to be in his squad."
Having worked at a few companies it can be very demoralising to keep changing leadership. You lose faith in the direction of the company.
Having said that I agree with you. It's not the amount if Managers he's brought in. It's the amount of poor choices he's made when hiring and firing them.
BringBack_leGin
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I've asked this question so many times in so many threads, and not once has it been answered, but how is it possible that we are in our best state in half a century, with top 6 finishes (in fact, usually higher) in every season bar 2 in the past 9 seasons (when the previous 15 seasons had been spent always finishing between 7th and 14th) if we are always hiring the wrong managers?
SpurSince57
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I suspect that what Levy's looking for is a magic bullet, the manager who can overcome the gap in financial resources between us and the Sky Five. van Gaal could have been that man, as he achieved something of the kind with Alkmaar a few seasons ago.
SteveH
BSoDL candidate for SW London
- Jul 21, 2003
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There's not one full time manager other than Harry that I would not have chosen. (hope that makes sense) Yet Harry was the most successful. Decisions decisions.....
Choosing a manager today other than one or two at the very top of the tree is fraught with danger and is largely a suck it and see scenario. Also the likes of Mourinho, need huge amount of cash for top top player, which rules us out.
Danny boy of course has made mistakes but "show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you someone who has never achieved much" (dont know who said it but its spot on). I like Daniel as he's not afraid to make big decisions and his Spurs is so much better than the one that preceded it.
Bottom line NevilleB is I rarely play the blame game. Which has sadly become the largest participating pastimes of so many in this country.
Coyboy
The Double of 1961 is still The Double
- Dec 3, 2004
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Slander is a form of defamation, and there is usually no such thing as a stone cold case in defamation as the defences are quite robust and can be easy to establish. What would have been the defamatory comment? That he spoke with Newcastle? If he didn't Jol would have to prove some clear damage to his reputation.
Employee goes to job interview while employed by someone else: Hardly damming stuff.
SpurSince57
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Going to an interview without telling your employer is rather a different matter, though, and Jol could have claimed it was a slur on his professional integrity. Depending on the jury, he could have been awarded a quite handsome sum in damages. If I remember correctly, unless there was another press conference in which Levy brought up the talking to Newcastle, Levy had prefaced it by saying he wanted to draw a line under the whole business and then proceeded to undraw the line by attacking Jol.
My feeling is that there was a whole can of worms going on that we only got hints of, and that Jol may have spoken to Newcastle simply as a way of letting Levy and Comolli know he had other options open to him. He did something similar at Ajax when they wanted to sell some of his best players.
Coyboy
The Double of 1961 is still The Double
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Really? He could have claimed it was a 'slur' but I am not sure he would have been best advised to go through with that claim. It's not as if Levy claimed he was doing something particularly shady. Since he left Spurs, he has had jobs at Hamburg, Ajax and Fulham. I'm pretty sure that no other club would take Levy's words said in one albeit rare interview as a reason not to hire him. Besides, when you are employed by one company and you are looking to move on or just 'test the water' you wouldn't tell your employer unless and until you got the job for obvious reasons.
I remember hearing that Jol did go to Newcastle either after his first or second season as he was annoyed he didn't get a better contract or pay rise.
NEVILLEB
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There's the blame game and there's figuring out why something isn't working.
Your quote about people making mistakes is quite ironic given Levy's record for firing managers. If he were judged as harshly as he's judged our managers he'd have been fired when Ramos went wrong.
SteveH
BSoDL candidate for SW London
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But it is "working". We are a very successful club who finished sixth in the toughest league on the planet.
Levy is right sack them when they do not achieve their goals and it is the main reason we have been so consistent over the past few years.
Levy must strive to find that spark/edge aka coach/manager in an attempt to levels the playing field as much as possible. Because we cannot consistently hope to overcome the gap financially between us and the like of City, Chelsea, ManU, Arsenal, Liverpool. The new stadium will help alleviate some of the shortfall hopefully.
Unless we can swap Enic for a 'hill of cash' (which I now doubt), Levy and Lewis are gods in the kingdom of Tottenham.
They own the club and are doing OK.........for gods that is.
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SteveH
BSoDL candidate for SW London
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Ramos's 'job' was to get points and the rest is history, there was no one more gutted than me when failed. But Levy was right to get rid.
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NEVILLEB
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But he wasn't right to hire him.
We were 5th and a stable club.
Levy decided to change things off his own 'instincts'. We ended up losing both our strikers and the club was in the relegation zone.
That's a huge f up and Levy was only saved by Redknapp doing such a good job.
If Levy was Levy's boss he'd have fired himself!
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SteveH
BSoDL candidate for SW London
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As Spock would say 'thats illogical captain'
Nevilleb there is nothing anybody could say or do to change your view on Daniel Levy you are too far gone I'm afraid. I'm like that about Teresa May
but the difference is I know I'm a little obsessed over Ms Mays mannerisms and demeanour. I think I'm mellowing though as I get older 
Agreed.
It's highly unlikely that Jol would have taken any action other than vehemently to deny the accusation.
But Daniel Levy is a cautious man of measured actions - not given to making frivolous public statements or responding in the heat of the moment. Even the smallest risk of attracting unnecessary legal action would have been anathema to him. And, for that reason, it is equally unlikely that he would have publicly made an allegation of that nature unless it had been true.
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BringBack_leGin
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When Ramos came in/ Jol was sackd we were in the bottom 3 with either 4 or 6 points (I can't remember which) from the first ten games.
It was the second season running that we started that disastrously. The previous season we started just as badly but did pull ourselves up and out of it (and actually ended up 5th)
Coyboy
The Double of 1961 is still The Double
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yawn. The first paragraph has been dealt with over the last 6 and a half years.
The second paragraph is an argument in favour of persisting with Jol, or certainly not hiring Ramos who managed to take us further into the bottom three twelve months later.
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NEVILLEB
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As Spock would say 'thats illogical captain'
Nevilleb there is nothing anybody could say or do to change your view on Daniel Levy you are too far gone I'm afraid. I'm like that about Teresa May
Ditto.
There's no facts on earth that will deter you from defending every decision Levy has made.
SteveH
BSoDL candidate for SW London
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Yes there are when I hear them "facts" that is not hersay.
I'm actually indifferent to DL as I dont know him, but I refuse to judge anybody without factual evidence. We all tend to rush to judgement very quickly.
Only in so far as it is the argument of better the devil you know - which isn't necessarily the best policy.
There were sound reasons for replacing Jol with Ramos. There was enough about the Spaniard to think that he could have been the one to help us bridge the gap between us and the top four. Clearly, it didn't work (though it did win us our only trophy of the past 15 years) but I can understand the motive and the thought processes that led to the decision.
Coyboy
The Double of 1961 is still The Double
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Well I wouldn’t characterise our best manager since at least Venables as “the devil we know”.
There weren’t really sound reasons for replacing him with Ramos. There were reasons to admire the way Sevilla played but that was much due to other playing, coaching and managerial personnel and not merely Ramos. More than that, it smacked of choosing the flavour of the month without realising two things; that he didn’t speak English and his achievements pre Sevilla were pretty modest to say the least. The idea that you could drop Ramos into a new country, new league, new team etc and replace him with a hitherto successful manager was at best risky and at worst, as it played out, reckless.
Effectively the decision to dismiss Jol was political, it wasn’t a footballing decision. Putting the pieces together this as yet unknown Newcastle courting and shady characters working behind the scenes, I think we can surmise that neither Levy or Jol behaved impeccably. In fact both are probably quite difficult but given what Jol and Levy had achieved for the club, it would have been nice if they had kissed and made up. Ditto Redknapp actually.
