The ousting of Daniel (COYS)

[bigfrooj]

There is no way back for Levy now after that 21 minutes at Newcastle. It’s the culmination of everything footballing wise he decided for the club since ENIC took over. He needs to let go whether he wants to or not.

 

[Centrocampista]

At least during the mediocrity before Enic we won a few trophies and took cups seriously. Enic have given us nothing but a building. Enic have taken something me and generations of my family loved and wrecked it. I only support spurs for nostalgia reasons now.

 

[KILLA_SIN]

I don't see where he goes from here. Failed to back our most successful manager with a full rebuild, had the excuse of the stadium build and covid, appointed two 'serial winners' in Mou and Conte who did fuck all except bore us to death and had the best English striker of this generation. Where does he hide now. But most damning of all I still expect nothing to change

 

[felmani26]

A scathing article from Henry Winter indeed and whilst undoubtedly Levy deserves the vast majority of the valid criticism, I don’t agree how he almost exonerates the board as they are also culpable for the mess we currently find ourselves in.

 

[knowlespurs]

For levy it has to be nagsheadman
Would look brave or stupid to get slot in when letting poch goes to Chelsea, and we just know how brave or stupid will work out
That's not a criticism of slot but an inexperienced manager who will be under pressure from day 1, even if Chelsea win and we lose our 1st game

 

[cookiemonster]

Has he gone yet?

Getting pelters everywhere from fans journalists pundits maybe even his own family

 

[sundanceyid10]

The Cambridge Uni interview was worrying. he appears oblivious to all criticism and issues.

No shit! It is par for the course. He is absolutely clueless.

 

[michaelj70]

I’m not ‘Levy out’ so I’ll say what I came to say and fuck off and leave you in peace.

I don’t give Henry Winter or Matt Law any credit for these snide pile-on pieces. It’s the easiest thing in the world to kick a man when he’s down. Was it Levy who picked two wing-backs who don’t have a clue how to defend as the full-backs in a 4 on Sunday? Is Levy responsible for the massive drop in Son’s form this year, or the haplessness of Kulusevski & Romero since Christmas? Is it Levy who broke these players to the extent they can’t handle anything but a 3-4-3?

Levy has made plenty of mistakes. Hiring Nuno was stupid, as was retaining Stellini when Conte got the boot. Both recommendations of Paratici, apparently. Levy also fucked up massively in summer 2018 transfer window, including in not paying a relative pittance for Grealish.

But so many things he’s blamed for were easily defensible decisions at the time and it is Monday morning quarterbacking to say differently now. Poch had 25 points from 24 games before he was sacked and had hardly won away from home in the league in a year. Both Mourinho and Conte were appointments large sections of the fanbase supported each time, as hiring pragmatic ‘win now’ managers made a degree of sense when Kane & Son were in their prime. I don’t think any of us felt we had a better option than Conte when Nuno was (rightly) sacked. Most of us were thrilled to get him.

And then the nonsense that he hasn’t invested in the team? He invested for Poch in 2019 (Ndombele, Lo Celso, Sess), for Jose in 2020 (Bale, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Doherty, Bergwijn), for Nuno & Conte in 2021 & 2022 & 2023 (Romero, Emerson, Perisic, Richarlison, Bissouma, Bentancur, Porro, Kulu etc.) He has spent lots of money. But we were beaten 6-1 at the weekend by a team that contained Willock, Longstaff, Burn & Murphy in the starting line-up. We need to assign more fault to the guys hired to coach the players to perform.

So chant for Levy to go by all means, that’s your right. I don’t think it will work - he owns the club (with Lewis) so he’ll only go when he gets the money for the club that would make it worthwhile. But don’t for a second think the club we are today is in any way worse than the shitshow before Levy road into town. Or pretend that lots of decisions we portray as foolish now didn’t make sense at the time and for good reason. He needs to get the next decision on the coach right - as he did with Jol, Redknapp and Poch. Let’s not pretend though that lots of us and lots of journalists weren’t applauding other appointments that we make fun of now.

Ok, enough, I’ll fuck off.

Well said What clear thinking Impressed you sticking to the facts Hard at moment to have rational thoughts
A mix of Jol , HR and Poch would be best way out if this mess

 

[glacierSpurs]

The Cambridge Uni interview was worrying. he appears oblivious to all criticism and issues.

If only there is one, just one, Spurs fan in that group of students...

But they probably would have been screened through for any Spurs fan during the signing up to attend. Lol

 

[djhotspur]

Good article on him in the times this morning

 

[spursfan77]

Look at these morons. They tried to paint themselves as some sort of sensible anti owner movement and completely shot themselves in the foot with tweets like this.

 

[kursaal]

Good article on him in the times this morning

Daniel Levy lacks courage, class and respect for Tottenham’s fans

new

The capitulation against Newcastle showed a club directionless in the dugout, dressing room and boardroom. The chairman must listen to supporters before it’s too late

Henry Winter

, Chief Football Writer

Monday April 24 2023, 5.00pm BST, The Times

It must be sad being a fan held in contempt by others. It must be miserable going to matches and hearing your name vilified. It might be possible to pity Daniel Levy were he not so out of touch with Tottenham Hotspur supporters, were he not culpable, in part, for the “comfortable” culture that inhibits this great club.

Even Monday’s inevitable decision to dismiss Cristian Stellini, the end of an error, and the sensible appointment of Ryan Mason until the end of the season cannot mask the chaos of Levy’s chairmanship. Levy could have been one of the game’s good guys. Tottenham’s chairman solved the Rubik’s Cube of a planning and construction puzzle to conjure up the best stadium in Europe. He managed to juggle residents’ and council concerns to build a magnificent training ground in green-belt land widely hailed among the top three facilities in England. Levy also stood up to those clubs with questionable spending habits.

And yet Levy is loathed, lumped in with the wretched Glazers on the lists of owners to disown. Thursday’s match between Spurs and Manchester United in N17 promises to be riddled with fans’ dissent towards boards — el Caustico. And unlike Levy, the Glazers do not purport to be fans of their club; they are just investors passing through United, making billions, not friends or memories. The Glazers were keen to leap aboard the European Super League gravy train because money is their engine. Levy would have known the damage that the ESL would wreak on the English pyramid yet still allowed his beloved club to leap into the arms of this monster. Shame on him.

Tottenham fans make clear their feelings towards Levy. The chairman can expect more protests when Spurs host Manchester United on Thursday

VISIONHAUS/GETTY IMAGES

Also, thick of him. Where did Harry Kane hone his craft? Down the pyramid at Leyton Orient in League One and Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City in the Championship. Levy willingly joined a murky plot with the Glazers that would have put (some of) those clubs in peril. For all the Glazers’ greed, they at least eventually appointed people who found the right head coach in Erik ten Hag, who addressed the under-performing culture of the club. Levy oversees a club directionless in the dugout, dressing room and boardroom.

Levy couldn’t accept the totally legitimate critique from Antonio Conte about the club environment that breeds complacency. Levy failed to heed the wise words of Giorgio Chiellini after Juventus came from behind to triumph in the Champions League round of 16 in 2018. “It’s the history of Tottenham,” Chiellini told BT Sport. “They always miss something to arrive at the end.” Out of the mouths of Italian winners came truths. But Levy doesn’t listen.

Why? Those who know Levy can see the relevant character flaw: arrogance leading to distance, patently rooted in shyness. Whether that’s to do with upbringing, being told he wouldn’t make it in life, only Levy could answer. Whether that’s to do with having a professional background in investment banking, distancing him from the lifeblood of a club, the fans, only Levy would know. But Paul Barber, Christian Purslow and Darren Eales all have strong backgrounds in business and are eminent, front-foot representatives of their clubs (Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa and Newcastle United respectively) and are as good at mixing with fans as Levy is scared.

Rather than communicate properly with fellow supporters, Levy chose to speak to students at the Cambridge Union on March 14. That absolutely sums up the man: retreating to a safe place, comfortable armchairs, unthreatening atmosphere, rather like the Spurs comfort zone as slated by Conte and Chiellini: cosy, indulgent and stuck in the past. I’ve spoken there. It’s hardly Frost-Nixon.

Levy struggles to take on board criticism and did not listen when Conte told a few home truths last month

ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA WIRE

Levy, who gained a first in economics and land economy at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1985, is surely bright enough to realise how alienating this was, opening up to a bunch of strangers, some Arsenal fans (the first question was the start of a popular Arsenal refrain: “What do you think of Tottenham?”), when he could have been talking to those whose lives revolve around Spurs.

Levy lacks courage and class. Most damagingly, Levy lacks sufficient respect for fans, without whom Tottenham is just bricks and mortar, soulless and soundless. As someone who considers himself a fan, he will be squirming in his cushioned seat on Thursday when “Daniel Levy, get out of our club” rings around the stadium.

It’s not only the match-goers protesting, albeit the most important section of the Spurs support. Others around the world are turning. Before Sunday’s debacle at Newcastle, Spurs asked on social media where fans would be watching from. The replies duly flooded back from Dakar, Melbourne, Nairobi, LA, all points of the compass, and also the “usual place . . . from behind the sofa”, “under my bed crying” and “in a darkened room with a rubber floor and insulated walls — wearing a jacket with sleeves that tie up and I can’t move my arms”.

These members of the Spurs diaspora, scattered far and wide, knew the pain pending. Levy should worry about this revolt across the world’s time zones. The floating fans whom Premier League clubs love to target are not going to be wooed by Spurs; they’ll follow Newcastle instead, appreciating their nascent winning culture under Eales, Dan Ashworth and Eddie Howe.

Stellini should have been sacked straight after Sunday’s defeat at St James’ Park

SCOTT HEPPELL/REUTERS

Sunday’s home technical area had Howe. The away area just had why: why on earth was Stellini, Conte’s assistant, appointed in the first place, overseeing this tactical disaster-class, this absence of leadership, this 6-1 humiliation? Hugo Lloris, a schoolboy tennis star in France, could see the tennis score incoming and withdrew at half-time, allegedly injured. The club captain not appearing for the second half embodied the absence of leadership. Levy should have dismissed Stellini at the final whistle, not waited until Monday.

It at least makes sense to appoint Mason for the rest of the season. He is actually respected by the players and most of the fans. Mason cares. There are good people at Spurs, on the coaching staff (Mason), in the academy (Chris Powell, Bradley Allen, Jermain Defoe, Paul Bracewell) and representing the club as ambassadors, such as Ledley King.

Eminently capable people are on the Spurs board. Rebecca Caplehorn, director of football administration and governance, worked at Queens Park Rangers, and is highly respected on Premier League committees. Seated next to Caplehorn at a dinner, I left with the clear impression that she’s genuine about Spurs. I’ve met Matthew Collecott, the operations and finance director, an accountant who’s worked with other clubs, and he is as committed to Spurs as Caplehorn.

Donna-Maria Cullen is executive director, a management consultant often depicted as formidable and scary by the media, but her passion for Tottenham, and the good work it can do in the community, is undoubted. Just because there is a caveat that all take chunky sums out of the club as professionals, that doesn’t diminish their personal and emotional engagement. Cullen, like Levy, takes huge pride in the life-changing schemes the club offers for local youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds, not least a route into Oxbridge. Levy’s board do plenty of good.

Also on the board there’s Todd L Kline, the chief commercial officer with a background in US sports who arrived in 2021, perhaps a signal of the way Levy’s club is going, hosting NFL games. As Kline’s LinkedIn page notes: “Tottenham have appointed a former NFL executive as the club’s first chief commercial officer to aid the search for a lucrative naming rights partner for their stadium.” How’s that going?

Kane deserves to win trophies at Tottenham, not just be their record goalscorer

OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA WIRE

As he uses the stadium as a multi-event venue, Levy has to remember that Spurs are a football club, as well as a business, and the opening statement of the club manifesto reads: “ ‘The Game Is About Glory’. The words of our 1961 Double-winning captain Danny Blanchflower reverberate around Tottenham Hotspur and everything we do, to this day and into the future.”

Except under Levy, “The Game Seems About Money”. Spurs spend substantially on players but don’t always spend it well. They need younger, hungrier, more ambitious players on the rise, seizing a pathway.

Only the home-grown Kane and Oliver Skipp responded at St James’ Park. It’s not simply British talent. Why are Brighton beating Spurs to Alexis Mac Allister given Spurs’ long-standing Argentine connections?

And where’s the next Kane? And whither Kane? Levy insisted to the Cambridge Union that his No 10 “can absolutely win a trophy at Spurs” but then added: “Being a legend is also important, the fact that he’s a top scorer for Tottenham Hotspur, he’s making history. I hope one day there’s a statue of Harry Kane outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.”

Leaving aside the number of Tottenham statues inside Newcastle’s stadium, Levy’s comment encapsulated the club’s problem. Kane’s record is not a trophy. It’s wonderful for him personally, but collectively for Spurs? How many of those 274 goals in 429 appearances have brought silverware? None.

No disrespect to Kane but the game is about collective glory, silverware not statues. Levy has to realise that. One day, the Spurs chairman will leave the club with a full wallet, an empty trophy cabinet, an even emptier heart and no friends in the maddened crowd. That’s no legacy. Wise up, Daniel, open up to the real fans, listen to them — and learn.

 

[Karol]

Good article on him in the times this morning

That's Henry Winter removed from Levy's Christmas Card list

Damning article, absolutely damning

 

[Rout-Ledge]

The Henry Winter article is excellent, and helpful. Levy’s chickens are coming home to roost now. It’s clear he has absolutely no idea how to take the club forward beyond short term blockbuster managerial appointments, both of which have failed in disastrous fashion.

 

[pablo73]

One thing that really irks me is those people who try to defend Levy's decision making process by saying certain decisions (eg hiring Mourinho & Conte) were popular with fans at the time.

Firstly, it's not the job of fans to come up with an overarching footballing strategy and secondly Levy making decisions to appease the fan base (eg getting 'big name' managers in) is a massive part of the problem. He wouldn't get anything like the same criticism if we ended up in this position but he could point to some sort of identifiable strategy or footballing philosophy that we are trying to follow and that everyone can get on board with.

Instead he lurches from one type of manager to another, one style of football to another, doesn't fully back any of the managers and then we inevitably end up with the disjointed, disinterested squad we see today.

He has been asleep at the wheel for far too long. He needs to wake up (preferably jump overboard) and hand the sailing of the ship over to someone who can at the very least choose a direction and stick to it.

 

[WiganSpur]

There is no way back for Levy now after that 21 minutes at Newcastle. It’s the culmination of everything footballing wise he decided for the club since ENIC took over. He needs to let go whether he wants to or not.

He will think his last hope is to step back and let Munn run the footballing show. And if that fails he will probably offer his resignation imo - I don't see any non-toxic way he'd be able to stay on anyway as before long we'll be like Ashley's Newcastle. Yesterday was the first admission of failure directly from him i've ever seen. At least now he doesn't seem quite as deluded as we thought he was.

 

[Joe Bjorn Hotspur]

It seems as though the Change for Tottenham stance is slightly clearer now, not full on Enic out but at least they’ve now suggested that the change they want is Levy to go. It’s a good start from them as I think they’re reading the room now. This screen shot is of printable posters on their website.

 

[tommyt]

Can't get into the URL everyone is reading...it all goes Italian..any pointers ? Surely everyone here is not a Times subscriber !

Daniel Levy lacks courage, class and respect for Tottenham’s fans

archived 24 Apr 2023 17:17:54 UTC

archive.is

 

[alfie103]

A scathing article from Henry Winter indeed and whilst undoubtedly Levy deserves the vast majority of the valid criticism, I don’t agree how he almost exonerates the board as they are also culpable for the mess we currently find ourselves in.

Maybe some of it has come from board members briefing Henry Winter?

 

[dontcallme]

Look at these morons. They tried to paint themselves as some sort of sensible anti owner movement and completely shot themselves in the foot with tweets like this.

Change for Tottenham

I just came across this fan page link below - also copied in what their objectives are for anyone who interested. https://changefortottenham.com/ ABOUT CFT A voice to those who walk through the turnstiles every week. A voice for those whose love for the club has been passed down through...

spurscommunity.co.uk

We actually had a thread trying to laud these complete fools.