Daniel Levy - Chairman

[thfcsteff]

Well there are always going to be a section of fans who dislike the chairman ( but if anyone believes its 1/3 of the supporters they are living in cloud cuckoo land). 1. We live in a world where so many folks want it ( IT could be anything) and WE want it now. The main bitch is that Levy does not spend enough money and is only here to fill his own pockets, i/we should really feel sorry for those who think that because they will never be satisfied because they will always want one more signing.

I always wonder just how many of these dissatisfied fans were around during the 90's and saw just how close this club were to being broke and falling into the grubby hands of the crook Maxwell ( and who knows we may have lost club for good). Since ENIC arrived this club has been on a upward track and a lot of fans who joined in for the ride are mostly the same ones who bitch now.

This club is on the verge of great things ( i really believe that) we have the facilities that are second to NONE and have been going forward to achieving those great things, we have hit a blip ( no doubt about that) but to hear some of the fanbase ( a small minority) we are rubbish/crap/going downhill etc and its all down to ENIC.3. Its a sign of the time i guess when the call is " I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW". Sad world.

OK.

I have great respect for you as I know you're a home and away supporter. You know I get my miles in too. That being said, I have to take some of these points on. I took the liberty of adding a number per bolded point for clarification.

1. I agree, there is an instant-grat culture which has invaded our society. I hate it. Yet it is that same culture which largely helped unseat Pochettino. From the first wobbles in January 2019, p[eople jumped on him. From our first slump. He got us to the CL Final. Where was the patience to see if he could rebuild a M II to go one step further? Where was the patience when we first hit the slump? The endless drone of "trophy trophy trophy" became cacophonous. Just look at Liverpool for a modern example of showing a bit of fortitude. As for "not spending money" Levy, that is only part of the issue. It is also WHEN he has released the cash and WHAT he has allowed it to be spent on. Plus what he does not move on fast enough.

2. If you want to go back, why not remind people of what Burky said right after we won the UEFA? Of course we remember the Scholar nearly into Fat Bob debate, not to mention the Sugar years. ENIC have us on great footing but Left has failed to make the right movers at vital moments in the market. Fact.

3. If that is the call you hear, then listen again mate. It is very different to what many I know are saying.

 

[thfcsteff]

By the way, flying a plane would be embarrassing, agreed.

 

[thfcsteff]

From where we were to where we are now and people can still complain.. its hard to comprehend!

Best stadium, best training ground, up there competing for 10+ plus now and people still want some kind of Championship Manager cheat mode scenario where we blow everyone away artificially just so they can have banter for a brief moment and say we are the best.
Seriously, we are in a bad patch (relatively speaking... Compared to recent years, not compared to 95% of other clubs), It happens, it can't always be improvement on improvement each season, That's just unrealistic. Every club has peaks and troughs, Even United and Arse couldn't keep it up and are rebuilding after some bricky years.
I will settle for 2 steps forward, 1 step back if it means long term we are well equipped to compete at the top for the next couple of decades etc.
I mean who would you rather have... Stan Kronke? Mike Ashley? Dildo Bros? Wigan owners that apparently don't even exist!?
No club is perfect, I dont even want it to be, but I'm so proud of the Spurs we have become under Enic/Levy, could we have done some things different? Of course there have been mistakes, not refreshing the squad or not going balls out for certain targets due to wage restrictions for a long time etc. But you know, maybe that balancing act has got us to the new training ground, new stadium and potentially greater long term income far quicker than many thought possible.

I know its hard to be patient. I have no idea if the Mourinho experiment will work or not. But at least give him a transfer window, see if the club back him and he gets what he wants, see if there is improvement and go from there. If he doesn't get what he wants and next season is more of the same then yeah, fill yer boots!

I agree with most of this. The one thing which will haunt me forever, and I mean forever as a lifelong supporter, is that we actually DID have it all, we just took one element of that for granted instead of giving him the working conditions/tools he used for. Let us never forget that Pochettino never asked for massive players and never expressed anything other than understanding of our situation. The fact remains, he was taken for granted for too long and in the end we fudged it. We will ride again, of course we will and maybe hopefully with Mourinho, but make no mistake, we fudged it when we had it all.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I agree with most of this. The one thing which will haunt me forever, and I mean forever as a lifelong supporter, is that we actually DID have it all, we just took one element of that for granted instead of giving him the working conditions/tools he used for. Let us never forget that Pochettino never asked for massive players and never expressed anything other than understanding of our situation. The fact remains, he was taken for granted for too long and in the end we fudged it. We will ride again, of course we will and maybe hopefully with Mourinho, but make no mistake, we fudged it when we had it all.

Firstly, I don't think my hate for Levy has been anywhere near the level you have thrown over the last few months BUT I loud and clear get your love for Poch, and if something you love so greatly gets killed off then you naturally look for blame even if the accusations are debatable. Fwiw, circumstance is more to blame imo.....but it's all been done to death.

I loved Poch too, everything about him. He did so much for us in a testing time, a stadium rebuild brings so much disruption through finances, lack of a home ground, uprooted supporters but we sailed thru that because of what he served up on the pitch. We'll never know how hard it was to navigate that course because he made it look like it was easy, in his eyes the good times just meant getting the 11 on the pitch to play beautifully, f.ck the distractions.

Even when it started to go wrong, we still made top 4 and a CL final.

Looking back though it is slightly bizarre why he left (sacked, whatever) when he did?
If it was backing, squad refresh he wanted, that's what last summer was the beginning of. We were holed below the waterline but had limped into port and the new shipmates were waiting. Wasn't this what he was waiting for? It must of been the damage to the captain himself (Poch) that was less repairable? And I think it might of been less why it fell apart, but how it fell apart, that really took its toll on the man. It seams implausible but the group fell out if love with him (or at least his ways)? And Poch being the character he is, really took that badly.

And that is so annoying because WE HAD reached the other side...the land of money...the land of new shipmates...the land of the new WHL..wasnt this what we (and Poch) wanted all along. We hadn't (understandebly) wrecked ourselves on the rocks getting there, we'd effing made it.

I even more depressed now shipmates And I've a NLD to face

 

[thfcsteff]

Firstly, I don't think my hate for Levy has been anywhere near the level you have thrown over the last few months

BUT I loud and clear get your love for Poch, and if something you love so greatly gets killed off then you naturally look for blame even if the accusations are debatable. Fwiw, circumstance is more to blame imo.....but it's all been done to death.

I loved Poch too, everything about him. He did so much for us in a testing time, a stadium rebuild brings so much disruption through finances, lack of a home ground, uprooted supporters but we sailed thru that because of what he served up on the pitch. We'll never know how hard it was to navigate that course because he made it look like it was easy, in his eyes the good times just meant getting the 11 on the pitch to play beautifully, f.ck the distractions.

Even when it started to go wrong, we still made top 4 and a CL final.

Looking back though it is slightly bizarre why he left (sacked, whatever) when he did?
If it was backing, squad refresh he wanted, that's what last summer was the beginning of. We were holed below the waterline but had limped into port and the new shipmates were waiting. Wasn't this what he was waiting for? It must of been the damage to the captain himself (Poch) that was less repairable? And I think it might of been less why it fell apart, but how it fell apart, that really took its toll on the man. It seams implausible but the group fell out if love with him (or at least his ways)? And Poch being the character he is, really took that badly.

And that is so annoying because WE HAD reached the other side...the land of money...the land of new shipmates...the land of the new WHL..wasnt this what we (and Poch) wanted all along. We hadn't (understandebly) wrecked ourselves on the rocks getting there, we'd effing made it.

I even more depressed now shipmate And I've a NLD to face

Surely you mean hate for Mourinho? I think DL blew this bit of it for sure but I don't hate him and as best I can recall never said I did? Mourinho? For over 20 years! Although U must confess I do feel sorry for him a bit...

 

[glasgowspur]

Firstly, I don't think my hate for Levy has been anywhere near the level you have thrown over the last few months BUT I loud and clear get your love for Poch, and if something you love so greatly gets killed off then you naturally look for blame even if the accusations are debatable. Fwiw, circumstance is more to blame imo.....but it's all been done to death.

I loved Poch too, everything about him. He did so much for us in a testing time, a stadium rebuild brings so much disruption through finances, lack of a home ground, uprooted supporters but we sailed thru that because of what he served up on the pitch. We'll never know how hard it was to navigate that course because he made it look like it was easy, in his eyes the good times just meant getting the 11 on the pitch to play beautifully, f.ck the distractions.

Even when it started to go wrong, we still made top 4 and a CL final.

Looking back though it is slightly bizarre why he left (sacked, whatever) when he did?
If it was backing, squad refresh he wanted, that's what last summer was the beginning of. We were holed below the waterline but had limped into port and the new shipmates were waiting. Wasn't this what he was waiting for? It must of been the damage to the captain himself (Poch) that was less repairable? And I think it might of been less why it fell apart, but how it fell apart, that really took its toll on the man. It seams implausible but the group fell out if love with him (or at least his ways)? And Poch being the character he is, really took that badly.

And that is so annoying because WE HAD reached the other side...the land of money...the land of new shipmates...the land of the new WHL..wasnt this what we (and Poch) wanted all along. We hadn't (understandebly) wrecked ourselves on the rocks getting there, we'd effing made it.

I even more depressed now shipmate And I've a NLD to face

I know exactly what you mean, Poch leaving was odd and I think it will take time for us to find out what really happened.
Personally I think the pressure of the "no trophy" was getting to him. He seen it as his reputation getting it and it was so frustratingly close a few times.
As quite a few on here have said poch was looking drained towards the end, he was under a lot of pressure.
Levy, as we know, takes a longer term view and was relatively happy with how things were going on the pitch. He was prepared to wait it out, get everything on and off the pitch in place and then go at it full tilt.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Embarrassing.

One bad season (which let’s be honest, we all thought would happen at Wembley) after our best period in modern history and people are flying banners.

Reminds me of “Boycoutt”.

Eh. More like 20 mostly trophyless years where balancing the books supplanted ambition, but sure, chalk it down to this season if you'd like. 'To dare is to do' became 'to dare is too dear', and people are pointing that out now.

As for all the (imo) increasingly circular arguments up above about ENIC supposedly improving us...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1282026930188017674

...if anything, it could be easily argued that we *actually got worse* under ENIC, relative to the previous twenty years and to everyone else

Just like Spurs to get the most pointless, useless paperweight of a billionaire owner. Everyone else with billionaires can at least look forward to spending now and then. We got an utterly pointless tax exile in the Bahamas who bought us to beef up his portfolio, stuck his mate in charge and then forgot about us. Some owners we have.

 

[Baleforce]

Eh. More like 20 mostly trophyless years where balancing the books supplanted ambition, but sure, chalk it down to this season if you'd like. 'To dare is to do' became 'to dare is too dear', and people are pointing that out.

As for all the (imo) increasingly circular arguments up above about ENIC supposedly improving us...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1282026930188017674

...if anything, it could be easily argued that we actually got worse under ENIC, relative to the previous twenty years and to everyone else.

apples and oranges, the game has changed beyond recognition, it was a level playing-field before, now it's all about money and being in the European Cup

I have a question for you @DubaiSpur lets say ENIC put the club up for sale, which I am presuming is what you are hoping for, what do you see happening that changes our position, what can another company monetise to a greater degree than ENIC, that will raise our transfer and wage spend?

 

[Jordinho]

Eh. More like 20 mostly trophyless years where balancing the books supplanted ambition, but sure, chalk it down to this season if you'd like. 'To dare is to do' became 'to dare is too dear', and people are pointing that out now.

As for all the (imo) increasingly circular arguments up above about ENIC supposedly improving us...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1282026930188017674

...if anything, it could be easily argued that we *actually got worse* under ENIC, relative to the previous twenty years and to everyone else

Just like Spurs to get the most pointless, useless paperweight of a billionaire owner. Everyone else with billionaires can at least look forward to spending now and then. We got an utterly pointless tax exile in the Bahamas who bought us to beef up his portfolio, stuck his mate in charge and then forgot about us. Some owners we have.

Lost finals:

CL x1
League Cup x3

Lost semi finals:

FA Cup x5
League Cup x2

How many of these were ENIC/Levy's fault?

 

[AjaxDeSuperYids]

apples and oranges, the game has changed beyond recognition, it was a level playing-field before, now it's all about money and being in the European Cup

I have a question for you @DubaiSpur lets say ENIC put the club up for sale, which I am presuming is what you are hoping for, what do you see happening that changes our position, what can another company monetise to a greater degree than ENIC, that will raise our transfer and wage spend?

This is very important because those hoping for a sugar daddy owner or something similar need to realise that boat has sailed for us.

The time for that to happen was when RA considered buying the club. Now we are worth far too much for anyone to pay JL what he would want and then also be prepared to splurge much more of their own money on players. Also there is ffp that would limit any attempt to do that anyway.

I reckon JL would want £2.5b and anyone paying that will run the club in exactly the same way, using the clubs own resources to improve the team.

It would be very dangerous water for us imo if someone bought the club for that kind of money and they’d more than likely ‘re-mortgage’ the club and plunder it into even more debt. And debt that this time might not even be sustainable without routine CL.

Its quite simple all that though tbh, I havent revealed anything the world doesnt already know, which speaks to how brain dead these people flying the plane are.

I do understand the frustrations though especially when you see how RA has transformed such a tin pot club right on our doorstep and won an incredible amount of silverware along the way.

But like anything there is a context.

 

[Finney Is Back]

This is very important because those hoping for a sugar daddy owner or something similar need to realise that boat has sailed for us.

The time for that to happen was when RA considered buying the club. Now we are worth far too much for anyone to pay JL what he would want and then also be prepared to splurge much more of their own money on players. Also there is ffp that would limit any attempt to do that anyway.

I reckon JL would want £2.5b and anyone paying that will run the club in exactly the same way, using the clubs own resources to improve the team.

It would be very dangerous water for us imo if someone bought the club for that kind of money and they’d more than likely ‘re-mortgage’ the club and plunder it into even more debt. And debt that this time might not even be sustainable without routine CL.

Its quite simple all that though tbh, I havent revealed anything the world doesnt already know, which speaks to how brain dead these people flying the plane are.

I do understand the frustrations though especially when you see how RA has transformed such a tin pot club right on our doorstep and won an incredible amount of silverware along the way.

But like anything there is a context.

Actually our owners could inject a whopping £300 million of funds and we would be fine for FFP. Of course they won’t do though.

£2.5 billion? For a club carrying £800 odd million of debt? No chance.

 

[parklane1]

OK.

I have great respect for you as I know you're a home and away supporter. You know I get my miles in too. That being said, I have to take some of these points on. I took the liberty of adding a number per bolded point for clarification.

1. I agree, there is an instant-grat culture which has invaded our society. I hate it. Yet it is that same culture which largely helped unseat Pochettino. From the first wobbles in January 2019, p[eople jumped on him. From our first slump. He got us to the CL Final. Where was the patience to see if he could rebuild a M II to go one step further? Where was the patience when we first hit the slump? The endless drone of "trophy trophy trophy" became cacophonous. Just look at Liverpool for a modern example of showing a bit of fortitude. As for "not spending money" Levy, that is only part of the issue. It is also WHEN he has released the cash and WHAT he has allowed it to be spent on. Plus what he does not move on fast enough.

2. If you want to go back, why not remind people of what Burky said right after we won the UEFA? Of course we remember the Scholar nearly into Fat Bob debate, not to mention the Sugar years. ENIC have us on great footing but Left has failed to make the right movers at vital moments in the market. Fact.

3. If that is the call you hear, then listen again mate. It is very different to what many I know are saying.

Listen mate i know you are a true supporter and not one who has jumped on the bandwagon over the last decade, and i always enjoy your posts. I will take your three points as followed.

(1) As you know i have said both before and after the Poch sacking that i would have given him the rest of the season and see where we go from there. I have nothing but respect for Poch and what he has done for us but the facts are he has not won anything. We had chances but blew them ( not saying for one minute that it was always his fault but he is the manager and should take some responibility).

(2) I remember exactly what Burky said and i do not disagree with what he said. For me Burky was the second best manager we have had and his trophy haul confirms that ( imo). As for what Levy should/should not have done is open to debate and always will be. I just think we would not be where we are today if he had not arrived at the Lane and i will always be thankful for that.

(3) That is the call i am hearing and you only have listen to the call from T W att er and the other social media macarons.

 

[parklane1]

Levy, as we know, takes a longer term view and was relatively happy with how things were going on the pitch. He was prepared to wait it out, get everything on and off the pitch in place and then go at it full tilt.

I have cut you post down ( not because i disagreed with anything) but this is the point i want to deal with. I am happy that he may take longer to do things and the result is that we have the best stadium in the game and our club is can now be compered to the big clubs around the world. I love our club and always have been but for most of my time as a fan we have not really been as amongst the big boys as we are now.

We have hit a blip ( of course we have) but we will get over it because thanks to Levy we now have the capability to push even further on. As i have said if it was not for the planning that Levy laid out then we would not be hearing about all the flimflam about how far we have fallen ( or likely to) we are getting from a small portion of fans.

We all know that football has changed and there is a breed of supporter who can not see past the end of their noses, flying fudging airplanes with Levy out banners, m orons on T wa TTer foaming at the mouth etc,etc. MADNESS.

 

[Legohamster]

Actually our owners could inject a whopping £300 million of funds and we would be fine for FFP. Of course they won’t do though.

£2.5 billion? For a club carrying £800 odd million of debt? No chance.

- I want us to stop fudging around over 10 million or so to get a player like Fernades in.

great we saved 10 million, cost us 80 million at least in Cl rev - realistically we won’t get back in for 2 seasons.

this summer is massive for transfers.

 

[elyid]

Eh. More like 20 mostly trophyless years where balancing the books supplanted ambition, but sure, chalk it down to this season if you'd like. 'To dare is to do' became 'to dare is too dear', and people are pointing that out now.

I think whilst most fans would agree no trophy in 20 years is bad, this is partly due to how football has changed (for the worse) since the inception of the Premier League and CL money. The fact is that English football has been more of a monopoly in the past 20 years than during the previous 100.

We basically had a decade or more of Man Utd, Arse and Liverpool milking CL money and Chelsea and Emirates Marketing Project spending £2bn.

It's much harder for teams to break into the top (i.e. Nottingham Forest getting promoted then shortly afterward winning the league and European cup - not gonna happen now, ever).

So then the argument is, does "To Dare Is To Do" mean getting brick loads of money to compete? I can certainly see your side that if other clubs have done it then why can't we? Fair point. Although I think on a balanced view when you compare all the clubs in the PL we have done well compared to the average.

However.... the main reason I am less upset is that I hope / believe (or have been fooled into thinking) that the "why can't we" solution was building the stadium and that our stadium revenue will then make us part of this monopoly for the next 25 years...or even over-taking the others.

If the Poch days are still the high watermark in 5 years time then I would probably agree with you more, but for now I hope we are 90% through to seeing some large gains.

 

[Grays_1890]

Eh. More like 20 mostly trophyless years where balancing the books supplanted ambition, but sure, chalk it down to this season if you'd like. 'To dare is to do' became 'to dare is too dear', and people are pointing that out now.

As for all the (imo) increasingly circular arguments up above about ENIC supposedly improving us...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1282026930188017674

...if anything, it could be easily argued that we *actually got worse* under ENIC, relative to the previous twenty years and to everyone else

Just like Spurs to get the most pointless, useless paperweight of a billionaire owner. Everyone else with billionaires can at least look forward to spending now and then. We got an utterly pointless tax exile in the Bahamas who bought us to beef up his portfolio, stuck his mate in charge and then forgot about us. Some owners we have.

Haha context is king, most of the stuff quoted That was good in the pre Enic came in the 80s. The real truth and facts are that the 10 years before they purchased the club we had seen huge regression during the leagues transformative years to the Prem which saw the gap between us and the rest grow to a level that Enic had to spend 15 years fixing.

How many times did we finish in the top 10 in 1990-2000? What was the shortest points gap between us and the eventually champions in that period?

Facts are we were a dying swan in the 90s, some of if not the most turgid decade Spurs has ever experienced. Our greatest highlights being player related rather than any extended period of decent football. We are better known for Ginola winning the player of the year award than anything significant.

In that period Arsenal who we were on a par with, floating around 7th to 14th went on and created a dynasty, Man United dominated the game etc, we were in reverse in a HUGE way.

By the time Enic came there was too much money at the top based on years of Premiership TV success that turning the fortunes around wasn’t like the 80s where a good manager and a few shrewd additions got you back up there, it took Oil Barron money to change the tide, that’s why it’s took me 10-15 years to turn that tide and get us back to a level that even remotely looks like closing the gap on and off the field.

Those twitter posts that look sexy are actually lacking in any real depth

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

- I want us to stop fudging around over 10 million or so to get a player like Fernades in.

great we saved 10 million, cost us 80 million at least in Cl rev - realistically we won’t get back in for 2 seasons.

this summer is massive for transfers.

Hindsight again.

What about the time we missed out on Schneiderlin?
What a missed opportunity...if only

Funny how no-one talks about that

 

[Modric THFC]

This is the weirdo that organised the ENIC OUT plane

https://twitter.com/x/status/1256682897706278913

 

[Legohamster]

Hindsight again.

What about the time we missed out on Schneiderlin?
What a missed opportunity...if only

Funny how no-one talks about that

1. Fernandes is and was clearly quality and what we needed
2. How do you know MS wouldn’t have been a success here?

 

[glasgowspur]

I have cut you post down ( not because i disagreed with anything) but this is the point i want to deal with. I am happy that he may take longer to do things and the result is that we have the best stadium in the game and our club is can now be compered to the big clubs around the world. I love our club and always have been but for most of my time as a fan we have not really been as amongst the big boys as we are now.

We have hit a blip ( of course we have) but we will get over it because thanks to Levy we now have the capability to push even further on. As i have said if it was not for the planning that Levy laid out then we would not be hearing about all the flimflam about how far we have fallen ( or likely to) we are getting from a small portion of fans.

We all know that football has changed and there is a breed of supporter who can not see past the end of their noses, flying fudging airplanes with Levy out banners, m orons on T wa TTer foaming at the mouth etc,etc. MADNESS.

Levy isn't out to do a jack walker or a Leeds, he's out to make us viable long term challengers. He won't risk it going wrong, and for that reason alone I wouldn't have anyone else.
Poch was the right man at the wrong time, by about 18 months imv. He had us 18 months ahead of schedule on the pitch, but Levy can't hurry up a project as big as the stadium build.
I also think Levy knows this and that's why the sacking statement was so fulsome in its praise.