This is the classic lets grab all the old tired/lazy narratives we can and through it together, fudge man Levy has faults but can we actually think about things before just screaming?
- Berbatov, Carrick, Modric, Bale are all 8-13 years ago, almost a fudging decade for the newest one
- Sheringham? fudging really, you want Levy to own that? 1997?
- and fudge Carrick, Modric, Berbatov, Bale and Harry, they have a large part to do with us not winning anything (they all had their chances)
Levy did not trust Harry in the end, and it's been done to fudging death that Poch didn't take players in those two transfer windows (not that he wasn't offered) and it's even more hilarious that Leicester and Tielemans is used as an example of what we should do (in this very thread), when he is one of the very players Poch turned down.
Poch was offered players that he didnt want ... of course he didnt want to take them. Surely Levy should have offered players that Poch wanted.
Bergwijn (£26M) and Sessegnon (£25M) were not cheap, both were highly thought prospects, and again for clarity Sessegnon and Clarke were bought for Poch not Jose.
So again players were brought by the club without the consideration of the manager, in this case it was for Poch (how much did he use them?, Same goes for Mourinho)
Jose got PEH, Bale, Reguilon, Rodon, Doherty, Bergwijn, Hart, Vinicius, hardly "not backed" and yes a better CB would have helped but can we not pretend he was left begging.
Lets get this right, were these players that Jose wanted? Hardly look like the calibre of players that he is used to working, PEH is the only player on that list that Jose was emphatic with. He probably didn't have a clue who Doherty, and Rodon were. If Jose would have had his way Diaz and Skirinar were who he wanted and would have worked with the rest of the squad, instead of getting a bunch of average fodder.
Levy has had DoF's before, again he's pretty much the guy that brought the fudging concept to the PL, Arnesen & Comolli ring a bell?
Laughable to champion him as some sort of pioneer, he tried a system that works for many clubs around Europe.
Fill their coffers? fudge, fudge, fudge, other than Levy being well paid, ENIC/Levy do not "fill their coffers", they do not take money out of the club (United's ownership does), they re-invest back into the club, hence the infrastructure/training facilities/stadium/etc.
This is true, but it would be nice to have owners that want to succeed in competitions and ambitious rather than sitting on the club, fattening it up for a nice hefty price.
So let me scream for a minute
- Great you saw Spurs win the league title (wasn't my fudging lifetime), you want Levy own the failure for 60 years of not repeating? or just fudging maybe Spurs isn't as big a club as you think?
So its ok to accept this and not go for titles? Surely we want an owner who wants success also, not just a P&L.
- A plan to win trophies? ok, what is it?
To dare to do things in the market to build a title-winning team by backing managers that they have employed with players that the manager wants, not a punt on future price.
Because here's what's been tried
- Take Spurs from 5th/6th in revenue and somewhere around 19th in Europe, deal with two money doping clubs joining (so effectively pushing us down an additional two positions
Done brilliantly
- Build a modern training/academy facility to bring youth players through
Done brilliantly
- Spend ten years dealing with flimflam UK bureaucracy and government rooster blocking to buy land, plan and build one of the best stadiums in the world, been completely innovation (no one else in Europe has done)to add NFL and non football revenue to further close the gap to top teams
Done brilliantly
- Get the club to 3rd/4th in revenue and in top 10 clubs in world football
Done brilliantly, but how does that translate into competing on the pitch? Or again are we just trying to be the next best thing content with being the glue between the top teams and average teams?
- Appoint one of the best managers in the history of the game and give him 7 players
7 Players of his chosing? Nope not in a million years.
Here's what I'm hearing
- Throw out ENIC/Levy (everyone entitled to), get new owner willing to spend ~£3B (candidates please? who is this person)
Levy is not the be all or end all. He and Enic will sell the club and laugh all the way to the bank. Just because no one has come out and made any suggestions, it doesn't mean that people don't exist.
- Spend £150M-ish (completely ignore the fact that the other teams around us with better results are going to do exactly the same)
Just by spending the same sort of money the top four would be a step in the right direction, rather than spending less than relegated teams on players that the manager doesn't want or require.
- Hire a magic DoF that suddenly will get a better hit/miss ratio than everyone else in world football (but for some reason no other big club has hired)
Well if it takes Levy away from footballing matters then it will not take magic. Tell me is Levy better qualified than people that know and understand the game, changing room, team dynamics etc
- Hire a great upcoming manager (that most people on this board won't agree with anyway) that will suddenly fix (magic dust again) the fact that our players (for decades) simply underachieve when it matters
It doesnt matter who Levy appoints if the manager is not going to be able to spend the money as he wishes vs getting players brought for him ... see look at us we buy players ...
Again the DoF thing is a case of not thinking it through
- Do a few DoFs do well? = yes, why don't you here about a great DoF at City/Madrid/PSG/etc?
City have the chap from Barca, These teams back their manager without stitching the manager up with multiple average or speculative buys. Essentially i don't think anyone is asking for Levy to go crazy and splash a fortune like PSG or City ... but not to interfere in footballing matters by buying fodder for the manager rather than target players the manager wants. I am sure the manager is capable of identifying his own players within a budget set forth. Not just getting players who may be good or may not be good ... its all about boosting sale price rather than target success.
The answer was seen at Spurs, FA given the task to rebuild with cheaper players could go buy 10-15 "cheap" players and if a third made it, that was success, your worst failure would be £10M-ish and your successes worth 2/3X that. When Comolli came in and had to buy more expensive, it gets harder. Everyone likes to point to Lille, Ajax, whoever is ignoring the fact that they buy players that aren't good enough for us anymore (we can't be a development club for players), when you step up to £30M/£40M the success rate is exposed and failures hurt.
So change the model knowing that good players can get us further in competitions and give us a better chance of winning titles and cups and inturn increasing profit. Just like buying any player it may be a risk. As a club we should be able to absorb small losses on players. Something Levy is not happy to do, when pretty much every other club out there accept that it may be the case when dealing in the market.
And yes, someone is going to answer, I'm satisfied with where we are, underachievement, whatever
No thanks, I grew up watching Spurs win things and compete properly for competitions, play exciting football and were ambitious, were never the biggest but certainly the journey used to be emotional proper highs and devastation .... now its just middle of the road not doing anything, but exciting P&Ls and margins. Excellent, I should go support HSBC or Tesco. We are a Business with an aspect of football, when it really should be a Football Club with a business aspect.
No, I'm not, but I am old enough to know two things
- The club is not going to disappear because of a bad season or player leaving
Oh deary you believe the narrative that a club like spurs will fall out of existence? Not a chance! A premier London club with a huge set of supporters, a global entity ... talk about fear-mongering as the only alternative.
- We are not City/Chelsea/United or Pool (hilarious how often their model is used to compare in this thread, they are a much fudging bigger club than us).
It takes winning titles and cups to even pretend to be a great club .... we used to be great! a carling cup win in 20 years is the most barren spell we have seen at the club ... you may be satisfied with mediocracy and pretending to be a club that wants success ... I am not. I respectfully counter with my simple views.
