Tottenham a Laughing stock as Levy's games backfire

Matt you make some fair points about new stadium it doesn't guarentee anything but without it makes the task nearly impossible ... Quiet rightly you point out the gap growing and where will we be by the time the doors open .. Its one thing building it but how long will it take to fully pay it off , how many years will it be after the doors open before we actually see the financial benefit from it .. You say 2 years , i cant see how it will be fully paid for within 2 years of opening .. On top of all that how much will players be costing by then , player prices are getting crazier & crazier every year , 30s+ , 40s+ mill is bad enough for top players , now you seem to pay that for unknowns , 19 , 20 ,21 y/o,s who have done nothing in the game .. Its very hard to predict where Spurs or football in general will be in the short term or the long term future ....

 

Levy is all about making money for shareholders and has no interest in winning trophies. Just check the net spend on players over the past 3 years and it tells its own story. As a fan I want the club to win trophies and in particular to compete with Arsenal this will not happen if the ambition is to finish 6th and not have a squad capable of winning any trophy. I don't want the club to have a big stadium half full because most weeks the team is going to lose and I am fed up with playing second fiddle to our greatest rivals.

 

Sorry Sid but check the net spend over the past 3 years and you will see he has not been paying anywhere near enough for the club to compete.

 

Unfortunately, Poch's policy of inverted wingers will only really do us harm, and may well lead to him losing his job in Oct!

We need to hope that Kane regains his fitness, and Son hits the ground running and score goals. Not only that we need a mighty dose of luck that they will remain fit for the whole season. Otherwise we may have to use Chadli as an emergency striker! He only lasts for half a game!

We have no real midfield generals, which could be a problem, unless Bentaleb and Mason muscle up in the Spurs gym, and improve their defensive/ attacking, possession, and 'passing the ball' form.

 

I think that Levy has done this all for a purpose - he hasn't sacked anybody in 12 months, so when the team doesn't get the results it gives him an excuse to do what he does best -- sack the manager/coach.

The guy has really f****d up this time and we will be lucky to finish in the top ten with this meagre squad. The thing that has pissed me off most about this farce is : Levy wouldn't fork out £25m on a proven premier league striker (and goalscorer), but he's happy to splurge £22m on an unknown and untried in the PL Korean (didn't we learn from the Soldado/Lamela/Paulinho fiasco.

I am so pissed off at the moment that I am tempted to only keep an eye on our scores - but not really interested in watching MOTD or any other games. In my 45 years of being a loyal diehard fan I have never felt so disgruntled with the owners/chairman of the club as I do right now. To top it all we will probably lose to the Arse scum at home in the 3rd Round of the League Cup im a couple of weeks time.

Lewis will never sack Levy, because he is his son-in-law.

 

The fact is that everyone has caught up to Levy's tactics and they simply don't want to do business with him. I feel for Poch and Kane who must be distraught with even more pressure on them. I sure hope that Son and N'Jie can get up to speed quickly. If not I'm afraid we are in for a long winter. As others have stated the fact that we still have Lamela and Adi @100k a week is beyond me.

 

The one that deserves the blame is Levy. Not Poch, not Mitchell. You're crazy to actually think the manager can just buy players. Poch and Mitchel had their targets. Levys stubbornness and toxic leadership failed to bring the key player our manager wanted (Berahino).

P.s. You guys have probably have never Son Min play but he is awesome.

 

No, I don't. Neither does Levy. He planed to spent more, but he lost in different game the men running football clubs are playing.
Imagine Levy banging his bald head over the edge of his desk. That's how he feels most likely now. It doesn't make sense to unload our frustration on him. He tried. He fought in best interest of THFC. And he lost. Miserably. His opponents Peace and Koeman won. Especially Saints did. Not getting Wanayama is much more devastating to us than missing on Saido. Spurs are left with no holding MF other than Bentaleb who is due for second year depression in form. Dier, who is a great talent, will play there as matter of long term emergency, but against stronger clubs I expect him to be sent off, if not next game, given the way he corrects for poor positioning, due to his inexperience.
Back to Levy and the game he must play. That game has become increasingly difficult to be successful at. The food chain within global football, is getting more like animal planet. Wolves get their meal first, whatever left is picked by coyotes, then eagles eat and ravens after. Not a perfect analogy, but you got the point: Levy and his/our Spurs are not wolves. That is why he has to wait and see. That is why he is dealing by very late. It is all because wolves do not respect coyotes.
Spurs are disrespected not because of Levy. It is because we are not top club. We are not top club for the reasons that are different that ENIC, Lewis or whoever. We are the club that striving to become top in the circumstances when previous achievements have no value.
Levy plays the game knowing all that. I am not sorry for him, but I would not blame him. It's like blaming Spurs for not scoring on Howard. In football business the inept players do not survive. Levy will be out when he starts losing. This window may be a start. Or it might be a fluke. Whatever it was it is not a time to demand his dismissal.

 

Hey, what's all this about not having enough strikers? Surely someone is putting ball in net during practice, non?

I can think of three forwards who would help and look good in our lineup right now: Jermaine Defoe, Robbie Keane, Jozy Altidore. Even maybe Mr Berbatov. I don't think any of them would have cost the proverbial arm and a leg, and certainly Jermaine is showing he still knows how to score in the Premier.

As I've said before, we don't know whether Poch has taken the players he has and is doing the best he can or insisting on a system for which the current squad is not competent taking from training to gametime.

Eventually, in all sports I would say, when success targets fail in spite of the money thrown at the problem, it's time for new leadership. You know that Einstein saying, doing the same thing over and over with the same results is insanity. Well, folks, here we are. We need Levy out of the owner's box and a quality forward or two in the penalty box.

And now, on with the show, and a prayer that one or two guys catch fire in the red zone.

 

d Don't you understand we have one natural CF in the whole club. the whole club ffs wake up wakey wakey. With big earners Paulinho Soldado Holtby Capoue Kaboul all moved on and replaced with players like Trippier Wimmer Alli Njie will be on an absolute fraction of their contracts. The club have probably turned a profit in this window im guessing.. If we would even only managed to get a Berbatov Defoe or a Dwight Gale perhaps just to play in the cups and give cover to HK I could just about swallow that but that was even managed. HK the only striker we have currently looks tired unfit and out of form. If we lose next game then MP is under an enormous microscope and pressure. Now if he was a top class manager,tactician,motivator or man manager I wouldn't be so worried but he has shown no signs of either quality and he will more than likely crumble and succumb to the axe! Levy wont take the blame that's for sure. £8m net HAS been spent this window. How much more income will the arrival of Son bring from the far east alone-more than 8m im saying.. Levy has had a blinder of a window.

 

You are definitely not along StonerSpur.......you couldn't make it up could you..........at least you got a voice from Sugar....I'm not sure I've ever heard this one speak.........

 

My biggest issue isn't with missing out on Saido, it's what happens when Dier is out either through suspension or injury or a much needed break from a grueling position?

Hopefully Son and N'Jie can provide some speed and goals...after all you can get goals from pacy wingers, but if Dier is out, what then? Bentaleb maybe? Mason in that role? Seems odd to sell Capoue and Stambouli when one would be an easy fit for that spot.

 

Levy has become too egotistical for anyone to do business with. He is regarded as a joke by the NFL execs who had to deal with him. They treated him with courtesy to his face but made it clear over here in the USA that they considered him an insufferable, pompous dick. His performance in this last transfer window has only confirmed this view, particularly his ridiculous low balling of transfer fee offers in the mistaken belief that clubs with lower revenue will just roll over if you leave it late enough. The image of Levy as a despot is further compounded by his lackeys falling over themselves to convince us all we really don't have just one central striker. Time to go Daniel, you have overstayed your welcome both sides of the Atlantic.

 

I have always defended Levy. I point out how much we have improved as a club since he/ENIC came on board e.g. Club now financially sound, fantastic new training facilities, new stadium on the way, etc.

I am also very aware that Levy has his eyes firmly fixed on the bottom line as any astute business man does, an attribute that seems to really annoy a lot of our supporters. It shouldn't annoy us because without money we cannot make progress - look where Chelsea/Man City would be without their sugar daddies fat wallets.

For this transfer window however I think Levy has got it badly wrong and I am beginning to wonder about his business acumen. If you keep looking back at your previous bottom lines and thinking how well you have done, you reach a situation where you have your eyes firmly fixed on the past, while at the same time backing confidently into the future - a scenario where you lose perspective and are heading for a car crash.

If we are to fill our new stadium and reap the financial rewards to compete with the big boys we need an attractive product to entice in more paying supporters. An attractive product in our case is a winning team playing the sort of football we all love to watch. To do that you need the right type of players.

Which brings me back to the window just closed. We all know/knew that we need both a quality defensive midfielder and and a quality box to box midfielder - either or both of whom have the experience and personality to be a leader on the pitch. We also know that we need another quality striker. We got none of them.

We also know that both Poch and Levy knew this because Levy went after at least two of the three by chasing both Berahino and Wanyama - and that particular two because we can assume that Poch and Mitchell identified them as players they wanted. All fine so far but the bottom line is that we didn't get them. And we all knew (or at least were reasonably sure) for at least the past week that we weren't going to get either of them because both WBA and Southampton made it abundantly clear that they were not going to sell to us. So if we knew that a week ago then obviously Levy also knew it.

So why did he keep flogging a dead horse? And apart from that he would have known at least two months ago if he had chased them up at that stage (which he should have) that he wasn't going to get them. So enter Paul Mitchell. Surely he had a plan B, plan C and however many plans were required to get in the type of players we wanted and have them in place for pre-season.

But it didn't happen and now we have: a) 3 points from 4 games and b) no chance of getting the players we want until at least January with half the season gone. So presumably less points at that stage than we should have and points cost money - so not very good business planning there by Levy.

And apart from that a very important element that Daniel doesn't seem to consider is the huge anger and frustration that it causes for us supporters. After all we are his customers and in business you must keep your customers happy if you want to keep them. Although I suppose we will all, or most of us, remain fans. In my case I have been a fan for close on 60 years so I'm not going to abandon ship now.

But that said I think Daniel need to sit back and take on board our frustrations. And issue a statement to us explaining why he did things the way he did, and how he intends to resolve such issues in future windows - a forlorn hope? I hope not. COYS!!

 

Great piece Greavesy. Sadly Levy isn't capable of being open and honest with us, and with us contributing less than 10% of future revenues once the new Sky deal kicks in, he's too logical to notice that he needs us to create the Brand that he is trying to sell. Too absorbed in his spreadsheets. I love the input from USA Calling about what the NFL bosses thought of him. FFS

 

At last some real insight into Levy the master negotiator, as seen from across the pond. Keep it up please.