Levy

[Spurger King]

My opinion on Levy has changed a few times over the last few seasons.

The treatment of Jol was disgraceful, however you want to look at it. Jol may have been sounding out Newcastle for a better deal, but Levy could have handled the situation much better.

He was then, in my humble opinion, made to look like a complete idiot when Berbatov left and we were lumbered with Frazier 'no option to buy' Campbell. United screwed the club over big time. Some will argue that we came out of it well by getting a good price, but considering we STILL haven't replaced him, the benefits of that transfer remain highly dubious.

Those two events left me concerned about Levy's general approach, and his ability to negotiate the troubled waters of the transfer window.

On the other hand he's always come across as genuinely having the club's best interests at heart. When Ramos dragged Spurs to the bottom of the table, Levy didn't hang around, and got exactly the right man for the job. Since then he has mostly supported him in his efforts to build a decent team.

He also made the brave decision to run for the Olympic Stadium, which though unpopular with many fans, would have been a significant step forward for the club. He's also continued with the original NDP plans, as he knows that the club cannot afford to stand still.

Last of all, he's always kept the fans informed about events that are concerning us. When the Modric speculation first reared it's ugly little SSN-faced head, we were all hoping for a statement from the club. The next day Levy came out with a statement that was as clear as day.

We're a well run business, with clear targets, and one of the best Spurs squads I can remember. Levy seesm to have learned from his past mistakes, and right now I'm more than happy with the job he's doing, even if he does look like a Bond villain.

 

[MattyP]

Levy should rightly take praise for standing firm on this issue. Many other chairman would just take the money, taking the view of many that the best thing to do is just move on. However Levy has sent out a strong message that we want to be at the top table from now on and therefore will not be bullied into selling our best players to "bigger clubs" just because the media and those clubs try to pressure us to.

MattyP I fear you have missed the point of this thread, as many competent chairman would have just driven up the price and then sold.

I don't think I've missed the point of this thread at all - maybe my expectations of our Chairman are higher than some, but I don't feel the need to sing his praises simply for not selling a player who has a five year contract or backing up his words with his actions.

I have and will continue to give Levy credit when he has earnt it. I just don't think "just doing your job" is worthy of praise.

Sorry, just my opinion, no agenda, no anti Levy bollocks. Thought that was what a forum was all about. :shrug:

 

[StartingPrice]

My opinion on Levy has changed a few times over the last few seasons.

The treatment of Jol was disgraceful, however you want to look at it. Jol may have been sounding out Newcastle for a better deal, but Levy could have handled the situation much better.

He was then, in my humble opinion, made to look like a complete idiot when Berbatov left and we were lumbered with Frazier 'no option to buy' Campbell. United screwed the club over big time. Some will argue that we came out of it well by getting a good price, but considering we STILL haven't replaced him, the benefits of that transfer remain highly dubious.

Those two events left me concerned about Levy's general approach, and his ability to negotiate the troubled waters of the transfer window.

On the other hand he's always come across as genuinely having the club's best interests at heart. When Ramos dragged Spurs to the bottom of the table, Levy didn't hang around, and got exactly the right man for the job. Since then he has mostly supported him in his efforts to build a decent team.

He also made the brave decision to run for the Olympic Stadium, which though unpopular with many fans, would have been a significant step forward for the club. He's also continued with the original NDP plans, as he knows that the club cannot afford to stand still.

Last of all, he's always kept the fans informed about events that are concerning us. When the Modric speculation first reared it's ugly little SSN-faced head, we were all hoping for a statement from the club. The next day Levy came out with a statement that was as clear as day.

We're a well run business, with clear targets, and one of the best Spurs squads I can remember. Levy seesm to have learned from his past mistakes, and right now I'm more than happy with the job he's doing, even if he does look like a Bond villain.

The problem with berbaGit-Gate was that Levy felt he had Beetroot Face bang-to-rights and the FA wold back him up. They let him down, and Red Nose even got his humiliating, condescending 'Levy is defferent' shot in after (knowing full-well he had been caught, er, red faced and the FA had caved for him - again). Not only, IMO, has that given Levy added resolve, but it has also taught him a hell of a lot. He's came in young, is still young for a Chairman at a big club, and has been on quite a steep learning curve.

I personally think he has been gearing himself up for: Levy Two - the Revenge - ever since BerbaGit-Gate, and I think he'll get it.

 

[AZ1974]

Well done Levy best chairman Spurs have had. The way he met Modric told him he is staying and sent him back to his car in side 30 mins no messing with this guy.

 

[stemark44]

I am Levy's biggest fan but I think he may have opened a can of worms that will have a negative effect on Spurs whenever we try to sign new players.

Levy should have thought about what he was going to say to the press and really should have let the dust settle before speaking to Sky because it just looked to me as if he was coming from a fairly heated meeting with Modric and then his agent ..............and in the aftermath of that,he came across very,very smug.

He didn't really leave any room for Modric to save face with the media and the fans.

We all know that today's players are precious little things who think the sun shines out of their arse and who don't like to be told what to do.

I believe this episode will make the whole buying process a hell of a lot more difficult for us.
I think in future if players sign with us ............They will not sign long contracts unless they have an agreement in it that allows them to leave if a big club comes in for them.............they may well insist on a buy out clause............they will also be wary of signing extensions to their contracts with us.

I would say that today rather than being in a stronger position as a club in the eyes of the football world,we are actually in a weaker one.

 

[Super Tottenham]

I am Levy's biggest fan but I think he may have opened a can of worms that will have a negative effect on Spurs whenever we try to sign new players.

Levy should have thought about what he was going to say to the press and really should have let the dust settle before speaking to Sky because it just looked to me as if he was coming from a fairly heated meeting with Modric and then his agent ..............and in the aftermath of that,he came across very,very smug.

He didn't really leave any room for Modric to save face with the media and the fans.

We all know that today's players are precious little things who think the sun shines out of their arse and who don't like to be told what to do.

I believe this episode will make the whole buying process a hell of a lot more difficult for us.
I think in future if players sign with us ............They will not sign long contracts unless they have an agreement in it that allows them to leave if a big club comes in for them.............they may well insist on a buy out clause............they will also be wary of signing extensions to their contracts with us.

I would say that today rather than being in a stronger position as a club in the eyes of the football world,we are actually in a weaker one.

I think you're making a mountain out of a mole hill.

 

[Spurger King]

I think you're making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I once found a mole hill on a mountain. I didn't have a clue what to make of it.

 

[WhiteStripe]

Levy has today yet again proved why he is and always will be a legend in my eyes. The best chairman there has ever been in football.

I am not surprised that some of the derp brains around here are now whining. Basically, up until today the overwhelming mood has been, oh no Levy is going to go back on his word and we are going to look sill. Levy then sticks to his word and re-iterates his stance, and now people are still not happy. Amazing.

 

[midoNdefoe]

I'm a teacher, not a high flying or senior teacher, but although I think we could be paid more for what we do, there are many teachers who get paid very well indeed. Certainly way above the national average.

Levy's job is not to make passionate and determined statements about keeping players and becoming successful if you are looking at it from the perspective of his role as the chairman of a PLC. His job is to make money for shareholders, after all, if he sold Modric at a massive profit as well as getting 3 good seasons out of him, that is great business, right? But he does make such statements, yes he gets paid very well and we could argue about whether he deserves that or whether people in similar roles deserve to be paid as much, in my opinion his first and only loyalty is to our club and to making it as successful as he can.

I wouldn't swap him for any chairman in the prem.

Seconded. Not Abramovic or Sheik Ratt Lenroll, despite the monetary benefits...

 

[There's always next year]

Levy has today yet again proved why he is and always will be a legend in my eyes. The best chairman there has ever been in football.

I am not surprised that some of the derp brains around here are now whining. Basically, up until today the overwhelming mood has been, oh no Levy is going to go back on his word and we are going to look sill. Levy then sticks to his word and re-iterates his stance, and now people are still not happy. Amazing.

I think the vast majority of Spurs fans are applauding Levy, but we still have another 8 weeks before window shuts and I'm sure there will be further twist and turns. We have still to hear from Modric, which will give a better understanding of his state of mind.

Yes applaud Levy, but be very aware that football can bite you firmly on the arse just when you think things are going to plan.

 

[StartingPrice]

I am Levy's biggest fan but I think he may have opened a can of worms that will have a negative effect on Spurs whenever we try to sign new players.

Levy should have thought about what he was going to say to the press and really should have let the dust settle before speaking to Sky because it just looked to me as if he was coming from a fairly heated meeting with Modric and then his agent ..............and in the aftermath of that,he came across very,very smug.

He didn't really leave any room for Modric to save face with the media and the fans.

We all know that today's players are precious little things who think the sun shines out of their arse and who don't like to be told what to do.

I believe this episode will make the whole buying process a hell of a lot more difficult for us.
I think in future if players sign with us ............They will not sign long contracts unless they have an agreement in it that allows them to leave if a big club comes in for them.............they may well insist on a buy out clause............they will also be wary of signing extensions to their contracts with us.

I would say that today rather than being in a stronger position as a club in the eyes of the football world,we are actually in a weaker one.

Maybe he was looking a bit smug because he feels like he has finally laid some ghosts to bed.
Maybe he looked a bit smug because he has just revealed to Modric the players we will be signing, while Modric revealed to him that his interview had been massively butchered, and now he wants to wnakfesting stay for the rest of his career.
Maybe he looked a bit smug because he finally had an opportunity to finally tell the media, who consistently try to hound us out of our best players and back into mediocrity, to go fook themselves.

I think you're making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Maybe this.
This obsession some Spurs fans have to see the darkest negativity to any situation so that they don't get hurt when it inevitibly all goes wrong is starting to get on my nerves in a very serious way.

I once found a mole hill on a mountain. I didn't have a clue what to make of it.

Was it a Lesser Australian Beardless Joey-Cobber Fair-Dinkum Mole:shrug:

That would be perplexing.

 

[jonnyrotten]

For Levy to achieve maxisme shareholder wealth he must increase revenue. The only way a chairman can increase revenue is by enlarging the capacity. Unless you think David Dein built the scumerates?

But yes you are right both have made mistakes.

I take it you don't run a business (I hope....)

 

[stemark44]

Levy has today yet again proved why he is and always will be a legend in my eyes. The best chairman there has ever been in football.

I am not surprised that some of the derp brains around here are now whining. Basically, up until today the overwhelming mood has been, oh no Levy is going to go back on his word and we are going to look sill. Levy then sticks to his word and re-iterates his stance, and now people are still not happy. Amazing.

I take it you are referring to me...........then get your facts right.

Look at any of my previous posts I have been certain all along,since the Modric transfer talk happened,that Levy would not go back on his word and I have argued against some of the cry babies who believed he would.

I just feel that he handled this in the wrong manner.
He should have made it appear that they had a nice discussion and that he had satisfied Modric's ambitions by telling him that we had plenty of players in mind that would strengthen the team for next year.
He should have said that Modric was happy now to stay for at least another season and possibly more,depending on how the team performs in the future.
He should also have said that Luka stated that he would be working extra hard this coming season to help the club achieve their ambitions and the ambitions of the fans and himself.

That's how this situation should have been handled.

 

[ostrov]

Levy has today yet again proved why he is and always will be a legend in my eyes. The best chairman there has ever been in football.

I am not surprised that some of the derp brains around here are now whining. Basically, up until today the overwhelming mood has been, oh no Levy is going to go back on his word and we are going to look sill. Levy then sticks to his word and re-iterates his stance, and now people are still not happy. Amazing.

This.
Some people value their opinion more than the Chairman's.

 

[sloth]

Just to say this next bit isn't aimed at the people quoted below...

I tell you what there are some unbelievable numpties on here at times. Honestly some of you lot don't have a fucking clue. Since I started regularly posting on SC I've started to question whether democarcy really is such a good idea considering the general level of pig-ignorance people have about issues on which they're quite prepared to expound at length.

They're the equivalents of my Dad when he tries to tell you what's wrong with the sport of [insert sport of choice] when he's never watched the fucking sport, never followed it and at most read an Observer article in 1983 which views he's pretty much regurgitating word for word. It doesn't matter that he doesn't know what he's talking about, or that it's fucking obvious to anyone who does know something about the subject he's talking about that he hasn't a bleedin' clue, he thinks he knows what he's talking about and he's going to hold forth on the topic, loudly and vociferously.

Anyway, just so you know, all of you for whom that cap fits, it's pretty fucking obvious to the rest of us that you don't know what you're talking about.

I do hope that everyone praising Levy for doing the job for which he is remunerated at a level inconsistent with companies with comparable turnover or profit remember to praise those who do their jobs and get paid less in a year than he earns in a month, like nurses, policemen, teachers, firemen etc.

I'm not saying he is doing a bad job or am anti-Levy, I am the opposite in fact, I do think he is doing a good job on the whole.

But I'm not going to praise him for this, as I think it should be the least we should expect from a competent chairman.

He's the major shareholder in a business which in the main doesn't do dividends. His pay is good, though he's not the highest paid director in English football by any stretch. He's certainly the best chairman in English football, imo, by a large margin. He's more valuable to us, for example, than any one of our players.

I take your point about not deserving special praise for this though. It was clearly in the interest of the club for him to do as he did and like many there was never a doubt in my mind that he'd act this way.

Some of the expressions of relief come from, I suppose, people who haven't worked out yet how it all works.

I just posted this in TR thread but it applies here:

My heart stands by what Levy is trying to do 100%. Brave man. But my head says lets not start sucking each other off just yet. Lets get to 1 Sep, 00.01 hrs with Modric and then celebrate that even though our best player's heart is no longer in 100% in it, at least our chairman has sent out some kind of message.

Truth is, unless a miracle happens next season, we all know all we are doing is postponing the inevitable. A small piece of my brain says when you have a player publicly stating he wants to go, then you end up looking a bit sad by forcing them to stay. It's happened to Arsenal & ManU in the last couple of years, bigger and better clubs than ours.

I think we all put a bit to much pressure on our chairman over this issue to be honest - certainly not helped by Redknapp's continual televised verbal diarreah . I admire his balls, but I wouldn't have held it against him if he'd just tried to get the best deal for the club, re-invested wisely and we all moved on. After all, as much as I love Modric, if we sink as a club because one player goes, then how good are we ?

My heart applauds this gesture, but my head is not so convinced about what this means for us.

Agree. I think we've known since the end of last season and the failure to qualify for CL that we can hold onto our good players for one more year, if we don't make CL next year then we'll have to start the building process again, hopefully this time with cash in the bank and a more level playing field (UEFA fair play regs).

I understand where you are coming from but I totally disagree. These things are always a two way street and us as fans are so emotionally involved that we don't really see it. If Mods, or any of our players, started playing badly over a sustained period we would call for him to be dropped, if it continued there would be some who would start booing. If it stil continued there would be some who say we should sell him. In the same way that we are all spurs first, the players think of themselves first. That I can understand, it's the way of the world.

We need to keep our best players to help us to develop as a club and reach the levels of success and performance that we all dream of. If that means we have to force a player that is integral to that process to stay then so be it. Furthermore, it sends a message to the rest of the squad and the wider footballing community and that message is that we won't be forced into selling players unless it suits us to do so. We are not, as Martin Samuel has suggested, a selling club.

In terms of Levy, he has done a fantastic job in my opinion. When he took over we were a bloody joke, a squad full of old, over rated dross. Nobody took us seriously, our season was generally over by November except for the odd cup run. We now have a young and vibrant squad which is worth far in excess of what we paid for it. He has made mistakes, of that there is no question, but he always has the best interests of the club at heart.

If he decided to pack it in tomorrow we would be in a safe and stable position with the foundations to progress under new leadership, could Chelsea or City say that? Could Man u or Liverpool say that? I don't think they could. Us and Arsenal are the only financially solvent clubs operating at the top of the prem and I for one am happy, grateful and proud of that fact.

Long may it continue.

Agree. Although we are a selling club, as are most other clubs, or rather a club for which some part of its income will traditionally come from player trading. Hence the whole debate about buying players with "sell-on" value.

You're correct though, we do have to hold onto our best players, but there's a limit to how long that is possible. For this season at least it was necessary, for although we failed to qualify for CL last season we're not yet ready to give up on this current push to breakthrough into the top echelons. If we don't make it next season though, then we'l have to fall-back, regather our forces and go again with new personnel. As BC says, that's the way the food-chain works.

 

[ardiles]

I once found a mole hill on a mountain. I didn't have a clue what to make of it.

Could this be the first documented case of someone (or something - the mole), making a mole hill out of a mountain? :shrug:

 

[WhiteStripe]

I take it you are referring to me...........then get your facts right.

Look at any of my previous posts I have been certain all along,since the Modric transfer talk happened,that Levy would not go back on his word and I have argued against some of the cry babies who believed he would.

I just feel that he handled this in the wrong manner.
He should have made it appear that they had a nice discussion and that he had satisfied Modric's ambitions by telling him that we had plenty of players in mind that would strengthen the team for next year.
He should have said that Modric was happy now to stay for at least another season and possibly more,depending on how the team performs in the future.
He should also have said that Luka stated that he would be working extra hard this coming season to help the club achieve their ambitions and the ambitions of the fans and himself.

That's how this situation should have been handled.

Maybe you shouldn't take things so personally. Did I quote you, mention your name or intimate it was based on your post? No.

 

[stemark44]

Maybe you shouldn't take things so personally. Did I quote you, mention your name or intimate it was based on your post? No.

That's fine,no probs.

 

[kkemal]

I just posted this in TR thread but it applies here:

My heart stands by what Levy is trying to do 100%. Brave man. But my head says lets not start sucking each other off just yet. Lets get to 1 Sep, 00.01 hrs with Modric and then celebrate that even though our best player's heart is no longer in 100% in it, at least our chairman has sent out some kind of message.

Truth is, unless a miracle happens next season, we all know all we are doing is postponing the inevitable. A small piece of my brain says when you have a player publicly stating he wants to go, then you end up looking a bit sad by forcing them to stay. It's happened to Arsenal & ManU in the last couple of years, bigger and better clubs than ours.

I think we all put a bit to much pressure on our chairman over this issue to be honest - certainly not helped by Redknapp's continual televised verbal diarreah . I admire his balls, but I wouldn't have held it against him if he'd just tried to get the best deal for the club, re-invested wisely and we all moved on. After all, as much as I love Modric, if we sink as a club because one player goes, then how good are we ?

My heart applauds this gesture, but my head is not so convinced about what this means for us.

:clap:

 

[Spurger King]

Could this be the first documented case of someone (or something - the mole), making a mole hill out of a mountain? :shrug:

Indeed. It also makes you wonder if it's possible to make an actual mountain out of several thousand mole hills, all piled on top of each other. In fact when I think this through, aren't all mole hills essentially made of the same contents as mountains (namely rock and soil), and as such, all mountains are identical in substance to a mole hill, as well as containing the same essential shape? So in other words one would be making something out of itself, which isn't at all absurd.

I can't help thinking this post is drifting off topic, so I'll simply finish by saying that Levy rocks. Rocks are also found on mountains. But not mole hills. And therein lies the difference. Case closed.