Chairman's message

[indianspur]

I would disagree with you wholeheartedly.


On the 31st of August most spurs fans were delighted we had managed to get Adebayor in after how influential he was last season.

many fans suspected he would perform badly after getting a permanent contract. They were right.

also most fans were unhappy with just Ade and Defoe as our main strikers. We were left short and that was debated at length

 

[milo]

How much money are we talking about here? Or we that hard up that we'll go bankrupt if we pay an extra million for a player or two? Sometimes it is worth spending more money if it gets the squad settled and we get a borderline world class player such as Moutinho. It's risk vs. reward, It may not guarantee we get top 4, but I would at least appreciate Levy for trying.

I don't know.

The problem is that we view this from a fans perspective, we are not owned by fans, we are owned by a sports investment company.

 

[markysimmo]

I just hope that AVB his the squad and players he wants firmly inbedded by the date of our 1st game in August...

 

[Jurgen the German]

I would disagree with you wholeheartedly.


On the 31st of August most spurs fans were delighted we had managed to get Adebayor in after how influential he was last season.

At the start I would have been happy, but come January, it was painfully obvious that we were short with Adebayor being brick and also going off to the ACN, leaving us with just Defoe, who hey presto got injured the very next game.

 

[Jordinho]

Didn't we go back with a LOWER BID once they'd already accepted an offer from us? Goes without saying were not Man United, but some fans talk like were some small club like Portsmouth or something and leaving deals late is the only way we can work.

Without knowing the details, the general gist of it was:

Early last summer we enquired about Lloris and most likely dozens of other players, as all clubs do.

Whatever they quoted us at the time and we intimated we would bid wasn't even in the same ballpark.

Towards the end of the window Lyon contacts us with a view to selling Lloris. At this point we know that they need to sell and we have purchased a few other players in the meantime, so it's only natural we tell them we might not be able to afford the previously talked about fee just to see if we can save a million or two.

Transfer windows are the biggest poker game there is and nobody in their right mind will let a player go early unless they're either desperate to get rid or getting silly money. Even if you're close to an agreement, the selling club might still want make progress on a replacement before announcing to the world they've just received buckets of cash and desperately need a new player.

 

[braineclipse]

I do. I blame everyone who was involved to varying degrees. Not blaming AVB would mean you think he got everything correct this season, which is clearly not the case.

For me to think that it's fair to blame someone they would have had to perform worse than expectations. I think it's unfair to expect perfection of others, and so to use "do you think he got everything right this season" as a basis for assigning blame seems way off to me.

How much money are we talking about here? Or we that hard up that we'll go bankrupt if we pay an extra million for a player or two? Sometimes it is worth spending more money if it gets the squad settled and we get a borderline world class player such as Moutinho. It's risk vs. reward, It may not guarantee we get top 4, but I would at least appreciate Levy for trying.

No one has talked about going bankrupt.

Sometimes. And sometimes not. It is a risk vs reward evaluation and there are rewards for both approaches to be considered. To suggest that Levy doesn't realize what those are at this point seems a bit silly to me. Do you really think he's too daft to understand that having all important players signed before the first game carries a benefit?

 

[Jurgen the German]

For me to think that it's fair to blame someone they would have had to perform worse than expectations. I think it's unfair to expect perfection of others, and so to use "do you think he got everything right this season" as a basis for assigning blame seems way off to me.



No one has talked about going bankrupt.

Sometimes. And sometimes not. It is a risk vs reward evaluation and there are rewards for both approaches to be considered. To suggest that Levy doesn't realize what those are at this point seems a bit silly to me. Do you really think he's too daft to understand that having all important players signed before the first game carries a benefit?

You want me to answer honestly? I don't trust his judgement 100% when it comes to the football side of things. I expect people to retort with "he knows a lot fudging more than you", well I'm not running the club, he is.

 

[Spursalot]

For me to think that it's fair to blame someone they would have had to perform worse than expectations. I think it's unfair to expect perfection of others, and so to use "do you think he got everything right this season" as a basis for assigning blame seems way off to me.

I don't expect perfection, nowhere did i say i do. I just believe it would be silly to assign blame to a single party when any of multiple parties could have made the difference.


He made some very obvious mistakes in some games tactically. I'm not expecting him to get everything right, far from it. If he gets things wrong he should be accountable. Just as everyone should.

 

[Mackay61]

We should be absolutely gutted. But many people on here consider that we have had a great season and much has gone well. But I believe we are in significant trouble and the reason lies at Mr Levy's door. Gaining Champions League football may have convinced Bale to stay, may have convinced a couple of squad changing players to sign. In the close season we can expect Arsenal to spend up to £70m on strengthening their squad and much as I hate Arsene he can spot good players. Emirates Marketing Project will splash the cash and Chelsea, with Jose back in the fold, will do likewise. Liverpool are improving and we can expect them to press us for fifth. Mr Levy will continue to look for young talent at good prices - sometimes it works - Vertonghen and Sandro are great examples - sometimes it doesn't but essentially we (he) is trying to get Champions League football on the cheap.
For the sake of an extra £15K on a forward and/or £15K on an attacking midfielder we could have got the extra two points (or goals) that would have got us fourth position. But Mr Levy will always, always try to get by with spending less than he needs to. I could recall many occasions when he has starved the team of players in key positions - this season he left us with Defoe and Adebayor upfront - and one of them had a crisis in form. That is a bad decision on his part and contributes towards the loss of tens of millions in Champions League income and may contribute towards us not keeping Bale.
This is penny wise and pound foolish - trying to get into the Champions league on the cheap and the Gooners are laughing at us - again!
In this day and age the only teams who can compete are those with massive funds available - preferably from gate receipts but often through a sugar daddy. It is time for Enic to sell up to an owner who will inject that extra £50M that can mean us consistently qualifying for the Champions League - and more than that - competing to win it, not being delighted just to take part. When I started supporting Spurs in the early sixties we were competitive at the highest level - I want to see that again before I meet my maker and I won't while Enic are in charge - it is just a fact of life in today's football world.
Applaud a good season if you will but the power at the top of the Premier league remains the same.

 

[Spursalot]

You want me to answer honestly? I don't trust his judgement 100% when it comes to the football side of things. I expect people to retort with "he knows a lot fudging more than you", well I'm not running the club, he is.

No, he's earned my trust. Over the past number of years we as a club have become bigger and better, which in my mind shows that his good decisions outweigh his bad ones.


He won't get everything right, and should be accountable when he doesn't (re Bentley), however not spending money i don't think we have isn't something i can criticise him for.

 

[braineclipse]

You want me to answer honestly? I don't trust his judgement 100% when it comes to the football side of things. I expect people to retort with "he knows a lot fudging more than you", well I'm not running the club, he is.

I'll take honesty

Luckily his opinion is not the only one that counts when it comes to the footballing side of things.

And yes, I do think he knows a lot more than the vast majority of fans.

I don't expect perfection, nowhere did i say i do. I just believe it would be silly to assign blame to a single party when any of multiple parties could have made the difference.


He made some very obvious mistakes in some games tactically. I'm not expecting him to get everything right, far from it. If he gets things wrong he should be accountable. Just as everyone should.

Well, I suppose I'm not really blaming anyone so maybe I use different standards.

 

[Jordinho]

We should be absolutely gutted. But many people on here consider that we have had a great season and much has gone well. But I believe we are in significant trouble and the reason lies at Mr Levy's door. Gaining Champions League football may have convinced Bale to stay, may have convinced a couple of squad changing players to sign. In the close season we can expect Arsenal to spend up to £70m on strengthening their squad and much as I hate Arsene he can spot good players. Emirates Marketing Project will splash the cash and Chelsea, with Jose back in the fold, will do likewise. Liverpool are improving and we can expect them to press us for fifth. Mr Levy will continue to look for young talent at good prices - sometimes it works - Vertonghen and Sandro are great examples - sometimes it doesn't but essentially we (he) is trying to get Champions League football on the cheap.
For the sake of an extra £15K on a forward and/or £15K on an attacking midfielder we could have got the extra two points (or goals) that would have got us fourth position. But Mr Levy will always, always try to get by with spending less than he needs to. I could recall many occasions when he has starved the team of players in key positions - this season he left us with Defoe and Adebayor upfront - and one of them had a crisis in form. That is a bad decision on his part and contributes towards the loss of tens of millions in Champions League income and may contribute towards us not keeping Bale.
This is penny wise and pound foolish - trying to get into the Champions league on the cheap and the Gooners are laughing at us - again!
In this day and age the only teams who can compete are those with massive funds available - preferably from gate receipts but often through a sugar daddy. It is time for Enic to sell up to an owner who will inject that extra £50M that can mean us consistently qualifying for the Champions League - and more than that - competing to win it, not being delighted just to take part. When I started supporting Spurs in the early sixties we were competitive at the highest level - I want to see that again before I meet my maker and I won't while Enic are in charge - it is just a fact of life in today's football world.
Applaud a good season if you will but the power at the top of the Premier league remains the same.

So the fact that we are closer to the top than ever before means we are in big trouble?

 

[Jurgen the German]

No, he's earned my trust. Over the past number of years we as a club have become bigger and better, which in my mind shows that his good decisions outweigh his bad ones.


He won't get everything right, and should be accountable when he doesn't (re Bentley), however not spending money i don't think we have isn't something i can criticise him for.

I accept that, but I think this we needed to take a gamble and fork out that extra money to get either Moutinho or Leandro, I'm not unrealistic, I don't expect us to get both. Like I said earlier, it's risk vs. reward. Either of those players may have been the difference between top 4 and no top 4. No guarantee obviously, but I would have respected Levy a lot more if he had taken the risk. I don't expect him to do it every season, but I can't see how doing it once in a while is going to harm us significantly financially in the long run.

 

[Modric THFC]

We should be absolutely gutted. But many people on here consider that we have had a great season and much has gone well. But I believe we are in significant trouble and the reason lies at Mr Levy's door. Gaining Champions League football may have convinced Bale to stay, may have convinced a couple of squad changing players to sign. In the close season we can expect Arsenal to spend up to £70m on strengthening their squad and much as I hate Arsene he can spot good players. Emirates Marketing Project will splash the cash and Chelsea, with Jose back in the fold, will do likewise. Liverpool are improving and we can expect them to press us for fifth. Mr Levy will continue to look for young talent at good prices - sometimes it works - Vertonghen and Sandro are great examples - sometimes it doesn't but essentially we (he) is trying to get Champions League football on the cheap.
For the sake of an extra £15K on a forward and/or £15K on an attacking midfielder we could have got the extra two points (or goals) that would have got us fourth position. But Mr Levy will always, always try to get by with spending less than he needs to. I could recall many occasions when he has starved the team of players in key positions - this season he left us with Defoe and Adebayor upfront - and one of them had a crisis in form. That is a bad decision on his part and contributes towards the loss of tens of millions in Champions League income and may contribute towards us not keeping Bale.
This is penny wise and pound foolish - trying to get into the Champions league on the cheap and the Gooners are laughing at us - again!
In this day and age the only teams who can compete are those with massive funds available - preferably from gate receipts but often through a sugar daddy. It is time for Enic to sell up to an owner who will inject that extra £50M that can mean us consistently qualifying for the Champions League - and more than that - competing to win it, not being delighted just to take part. When I started supporting Spurs in the early sixties we were competitive at the highest level - I want to see that again before I meet my maker and I won't while Enic are in charge - it is just a fact of life in today's football world.
Applaud a good season if you will but the power at the top of the Premier league remains the same.

An extra 50m lol.
That wont get us consistently in the Champion's League.
To get us consistently into the Champion's League the club would need to be the 2nd or 3rd highest spending club in the country season after season.
City wages are 200m and Chelsea's are 175m.
Our wages are 90m!

So we're 100m behind on wages along without going into transfer fees and the rest.
For us to be guaranteed Champion's League season after season we'd need an extra 150m ish a season.
Anything below that is a gamble. We might still be struggling for 4th.

Levy right now is getting in with a chance of getting Champion's League football season after season without gambling the clubs future. Its all we can do until we built a new stadium.

 

[Amor]

Great stats about global fans. Being in only my second (third now?) season of supporting Spurs even I have seen the growth of our fanbase here in bum fudge Ohio, even converted a few friends myself.

 

[indianspur]

i just hope Levy is honest with AVB.....if we cannot compete for 20 mill plus players, then tell AVB what we can go for, back AVB in getting these players in before pre season, and then let the manager get on with it

 

[DHSF]

I think this is a fairly crucial summer (we say that EVERY summer) but I think Liverscum will be stronger, Arse will spend, Chelscum will be right up there, Man bricky will invest and Manure will be the front runners, even with Moyes in charge. It will be a humungous battle and we can NOT be left behind in the transfer market.

There is this school of thought about not doing a Leeds, no one is saying go out spend 100m betting on our future, but we need to spend in our priority areas i.e. a striker and maybe another creative midfielder.

Levy really does need to help AVB out. Its a broken record and a feeling of Deja Vu but its glaringly obvious what we need. AVB also needs to re-evaluate how he plays at home, as that is where we 'lost' it this season. Home form has been utter brick especially the performances. Away we are fantastic and was always more confident away than at home but home games is where success is made as far as im concerned.

Anyways thank fudge two months without football - can enjoy the cricket now.

 

[BucurestiSpur]

I just hope we get our business done as soon as possible. Some decent signings done quickly certainly won't hurt the chances of Bale staying and could be worth an extra few points that we always seem to lose at the start of every season.

Hearing talk of Moutinho starting up again. In a strange way i will be upset if we sign him this summer after being in for him last summer and that should have been the signing to get us the extra couple of points we needed and also a fantastic bedrock for AVB to build his side around a player he knew and trusted. To sign him now..... :|

 

[Jurgen the German]

I think this is a fairly crucial summer (we say that EVERY summer) but I think Liverscum will be stronger, Arse will spend, Chelscum will be right up there, Man bricky will invest and Manure will be the front runners, even with Moyes in charge. It will be a humungous battle and we can NOT be left behind in the transfer market.

There is this school of thought about not doing a Leeds, no one is saying go out spend 100m betting on our future, but we need to spend in our priority areas i.e. a striker and maybe another creative midfielder.

Levy really does need to help AVB out. Its a broken record and a feeling of Deja Vu but its glaringly obvious what we need. AVB also needs to re-evaluate how he plays at home, as that is where we 'lost' it this season. Home form has been utter brick especially the performances. Away we are fantastic and was always more confident away than at home but home games is where success is made as far as im concerned.

Anyways thank fudge two months without football - can enjoy the cricket now.

Definitely agree with the last bit!

 

[FaarkinJoocy]

Don't care what happens as long as liverscum stay out of the top 4