Daniel Levy - Chairman

[totalspurs]

The way I see it is that our fan base is now polar divided between...

Happy to have Levy and able live with the fact that means we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years...

Or

Blame Levy for the fact we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years.

 

[tommysvr]

The way I see it is that our fan base is now polar divided between...

Happy to have Levy and able live with the fact that means we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years...

Or

Blame Levy for the fact we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years.

That’s not how it is for me. It’s “Levy has done well, and I’d rather continue with him than end up like Everton, Blackburn etc who’ve been taken over or run by Saudi Arabia.”

 

[totalspurs]

But tha

That’s not how it is for me. It’s “Levy has done well, and I’d rather continue with him than end up like Everton, Blackburn etc who’ve been taken over or run by Saudi Arabia.”

But that's still the first camp...Happy to have Levy and able live with the fact that means we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years...

 

[tommysvr]

But tha

But that's still the first camp...Happy to have Levy and able live with the fact that means we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years...

Maybe, but the relevance of no trophy is lost on me. We're a much more stable club than before he took over, and aside from being state-owned, I don't see how anyone else gets us any closer to the top of English football.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I’m don’t mind having Levy as an owner, I would just like the club to have a better CEO, especially as we pay the highest rate in the PL.

 

[Grays_1890]

The way I see it is that our fan base is now polar divided between...

Happy to have Levy and able live with the fact that means we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years...

Or

Blame Levy for the fact we haven't won a trophy in nearly 20 years.

Or people can see he has done well, made mistakes and is the owner/chairman till otherwise, Im in that camp and also not resigned to us being unable to win things in the future because despite what some fans say, football don't work like that

 

[Raziel]

It's not that hard if you look at facts not emotion

- Levy/ENIC have done the best possible job off the field, brand stature, infrastructure, future proofing the club, raising the revenue streams to compete with anyone but money doped clubs or United (league of their own). I don't think you can find a single owner who matched that improvement in last 20 years (outside of outright money doping, even then?)
- On field is a mixed bag, consistency in results is club's historic best and better than most of our peers (we haven't been out of Europe in 13 years, 5 CL runs included). The black mark is obviously the one trophy (I could caveat but won't)

There are two futures under Levy/ENIC
1. Nothing in league/FA/UEFA changes and we continue to be a top 6 competitor and likely we will convert one of the 20+ chances we have had at a trophy at some point but not be a regular thing.
2. The league/FA/UEFA really put in financial controls (the 70% rule) and we get to compete on more even financial footing and then have a shot at more regular competition.

For something other than that, to be an elite club we need a different financial model (money doping/cheating)

In the end it comes down to how far are you willing to push your moral/ethical boundaries to say your club won a trophy?

 

[Finney Is Back]

It's not that hard if you look at facts not emotion

- Levy/ENIC have done the best possible job off the field, brand stature, infrastructure, future proofing the club, raising the revenue streams to compete with anyone but money doped clubs or United (league of their own). I don't think you can find a single owner who matched that improvement in last 20 years (outside of outright money doping, even then?)
- On field is a mixed bag, consistency in results is club's historic best and better than most of our peers (we haven't been out of Europe in 13 years, 5 CL runs included). The black mark is obviously the one trophy (I could caveat but won't)

There are two futures under Levy/ENIC
1. Nothing in league/FA/UEFA changes and we continue to be a top 6 competitor and likely we will convert one of the 20+ chances we have had at a trophy at some point but not be a regular thing.
2. The league/FA/UEFA really put in financial controls (the 70% rule) and we get to compete on more even financial footing and then have a shot at more regular competition.

For something other than that, to be an elite club we need a different financial model (money doping/cheating)

In the end it comes down to how far are you willing to push your moral/ethical boundaries to say your club won a trophy?

There actually is another way…. For the football side of the operation to be run much better so that our considerable finances translate to a better academy, better scouting, better signings, better succession planning, all allied with a suitable first team manager to maximise our chances of winning. Perhaps Paratici and more recently Munn will make this happen. However our structure for a good few years preceding Paratici was appallingly under valued, under funded and under resourced.

 

[Yiddo]

Still don’t get how people think that anything that happens on the pitch is Levy’s fault. He has backed every manager, Harry and Poch both had 2 very very good teams but couldn’t get them over the line, thats on the coaches not Levy.

He got in serial winners and they couldn’t adapt their tactics to play to the players strengths, i really think Conte is bang average. A good coach can change it up, the fans wanted him and Levy went and got him and backed him with £200m in 2 transfers windows.

 

[Raziel]

There actually is another way…. For the football side of the operation to be run much better so that our considerable finances translate to a better academy, better scouting, better signings, better succession planning, all allied with a suitable first team manager to maximise our chances of winning. Perhaps Paratici and more recently Munn will make this happen. However our structure for a good few years preceding Paratici was appallingly under valued, under funded and under resourced.

See my other thread

- I don't disagree that all those things can/should be improved

I just think it's marginal returns (at this level) and the gap to what City/Chelsea/Saudi Sportswashing Machine can/will spend won't realistically be closed consistently by that.

- Your best hope would be that you are well placed to take advantage of a Leicester/Arsenal type year or the odd cup. City paid >£150M for Haaland to add to a squad that already cost >£1B to assemble under an elite manager, sorry, don't think good scouting beats that.

 

[Raziel]

Still don’t get how people think that anything that happens on the pitch is Levy’s fault. He has backed every manager, Harry and Poch both had 2 very very good teams but couldn’t get them over the line, thats on the coaches not Levy.

He got in serial winners and they couldn’t adapt their tactics to play to the players strengths, i really think Conte is bang average. A good coach can change it up, the fans wanted him and Levy went and got him and backed him with £200m in 2 transfers windows.

People love to believe everything is controllable, and that everything can be fixed by one guy (real or imagined).

22 times to a QF, SF, Final or title run in 22 years and one conversion, said it before, we should have fluked at least one or two more. But even me saying that is not understanding how odds works, flipping a coin is 50/50, doesn't mean you can't/won't get 10 heads in a row.

 

[DeanoAustin]

Enjoyed the interview but thought he was very guarded and only half answered some of the questions. Obviously does not like the spotlight.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Did this interview at Cambridge Union.

34min 50secs in he nutshelled the requirements of an owner.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Enjoyed the interview but thought he was very guarded and only half answered some of the questions. Obviously does not like the spotlight.

I thought the same. But has probably ceased saying anything newsworthy or opinionated.
Why feed it?

 

[Grays_1890]

Still don’t get how people think that anything that happens on the pitch is Levy’s fault. He has backed every manager, Harry and Poch both had 2 very very good teams but couldn’t get them over the line, thats on the coaches not Levy.

He got in serial winners and they couldn’t adapt their tactics to play to the players strengths, i really think Conte is bang average. A good coach can change it up, the fans wanted him and Levy went and got him and backed him with £200m in 2 transfers windows.

There is a simple saying about things like this and thats you only need one good truth for every other lie to be spun the way of the truth. Thats just how it is I suppose but thats how it plays out on literally every subject on here. Sanchez has a poor game so every games poor, Dier has a good game and its not good because he has been poor in the past, Romero gets booked too much despite not being booked before the WC at all.

With Levy and Enic its "They don't win trophies" everything there on gets spun as their fault, you enter a conversation about where they are at fault, where they have done well, the truths about money etc and everything else is generally spun as their fault and when you get to the crux of any conversation its "well they don't win things"....

It even happens on general football chats, you can't have a conversation about the faults of other clubs because that rhetoric spreads there, dare you say Liverpool or Chelsea are having a bad year because "well they win things" well yeh they do but they are having a bad year....See what I am saying?

As I have said previously, the truth always generally sits somewhere in the middle with all the noise but people rarely leave the trench to admit that which is fine, but its so obvious at times it kinda starts to look silly.

Thats my view anyway

 

[Mikey10]

Still don’t get how people think that anything that happens on the pitch is Levy’s fault. He has backed every manager

He really hasn't.

He has often left transfers (in and out) very late, leading to a lack of clarity for managers, and disruption to longer and short term plans.

He has often bought players that managers clearly didn't want.

He has held on to players for too long, and has focused at times on buying players who had the potential for a good sell-on value rather than bringing something to a squad straight away.

He has sacked managers who had plenty of credit in the bank.

Famously, he failed to strengthen a squad which was on the verge of winning something on a number of occasions under Poch, not adding to it for 18 months. We all know what happened as a result.

Lately, he has sacked Conte to replace him with his assistant, thus depriving the players of any chance of a new voice and a new approach which may have seen us over the line to a top 4 finish.

I could go on...

He's achieved some outstanding things off the field and that is where his talents obviously lie. His attentions would be much better focused there imo, and he should completely handover anything to do with the footballing side to someone with more understanding of how that element works. (Perhaps we will get there with Scott Munn, although there have been a umber of false dawns before).

I'm very happy for him to stay as a CEO, but one who completely delegates footballing matters to someone much more competent in that area.

 

[DubaiSpur]

34:56 'When you're a fan, and also an investor' Well that puts to bed that silly debate from the other day....

He *says*, mate. Well, he also said he had no interest in football whatsoever back in 2003, so one of the two is a lie right off the bat. Wonder which one.

I'll have to watch this - it's probably the first interview this bloke has done in a long while that isn't Baghdad Bob-style softball PR with that obsequious bloke that does our club interviews. Looking forward to seeing if he says anything truthful, but not expecting much.

 

[billyiddo]

He *says*, mate. Well, he also said he had no interest in football whatsoever back in 2003, so one of the two is a lie right off the bat. Wonder which one.

I'll have to watch this - it's probably the first interview this bloke has done in a long while that isn't Baghdad Bob-style softball PR with that obsequious bloke that does our club interviews. Looking forward to seeing if he says anything truthful, but not expecting much.

He also *said* that he had no interest in football (apparently, not a direct quote and from a 25 year old article relating to the reasoning behind buying another club) yet you have no trouble believing one and not the other, strange

 

[DubaiSpur]

He also *said* that he had no interest in football (apparently, not a direct quote and from a 25 year old article relating to the reasoning behind buying another club) yet you have no trouble believing one and not the other, strange

Sure. I look at his tenure and see if it fits the actions of a fan or an ex-owner of a Mr. Byrite clothing store with limited interest in the club outside of as a real estate vehicle/investing asset, and it strikes me he does a lot more in category B than category A.

Hence, one data point seems more reasonable than the other, to me at least. Others probably take him at his word, which they' re entitled to.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

He *says*, mate. Well, he also said he had no interest in football whatsoever back in 2003, so one of the two is a lie right off the bat. Wonder which one.

I'll have to watch this - it's probably the first interview this bloke has done in a long while that isn't Baghdad Bob-style softball PR with that obsequious bloke that does our club interviews. Looking forward to seeing if he says anything truthful, but not expecting much.

Even if you want to die on that hill, and let's say he wasn't a fan, I'm sure he could 'become' one. As is very much publicly being played out by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds at the moment.