Which is Daniel Levy's worst decision as Spurs chairman ?

[braineclipse]

Just what is it about Levy that makes him immune from criticism in some quarters and makes people fly off the handle whenever anyone questions him? NOBODY in football is beyond criticism. I'm sure you could come up with a list of Fergie's worst decisions despite being the greatest manager ever.

I'm not sure if I'm one of the people you're referring to as flying off the handle whenever someone questions him. I do think I'm one of the people who defends him the most on here.

I don't think he's beyond criticism, but I think a lot of the criticism aimed at him is unfair.

It's very easy to point out what didn't work out in hindsight. It's a completely different thing to actually make the decisions with limited information when decisions must be made.

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

I would say his worst decision was not bankrupting Spurs, the guys clearly clueless.

When I played FM 1997 I got Torquay to Champs League final and Prem winners in 7 seasons and Paul Trollop was the best player in the world, we made a profit every year and were in a 50k all seater stadium by 2005. Levy's really making a meal out of it, I mean I started in a much worse position than Spurs were in when he took over!

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

I'm not sure if I'm one of the people you're referring to as flying off the handle whenever someone questions him. I do think I'm one of the people who defends him the most on here.

I don't think he's beyond criticism, but I think a lot of the criticism aimed at him is unfair.

It's very easy to point out what didn't work out in hindsight. It's a completely different thing to actually make the decisions with limited information when decisions must be made.

The criticism's just incredible isn't it?

 

[charlietheyid]

His biggest decision will be this summer. Keep Bale!

Big clubs keep their best players.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I'm not sure if I'm one of the people you're referring to as flying off the handle whenever someone questions him. I do think I'm one of the people who defends him the most on here.

I don't think he's beyond criticism, but I think a lot of the criticism aimed at him is unfair.

It's very easy to point out what didn't work out in hindsight. It's a completely different thing to actually make the decisions with limited information when decisions must be made.[/QUOTE]

Well you've at least acknowledged that he gets things wrong so no I don't include you in this.

As for the highligthed part, kind of goes back to what I said before. That doesn't stop fans having a go at managers does it? I mean I've never managerd a premier league team but as a Spurs fan who watches every game whether it's live or on tv, I'd like to think I know enough to at least offer an opinion and make a judgement. I'm sure even Chelsea fans would question Roman Abramovich from time to time even though he's won them countless trophies. Well ok maybe not publicly because Chelsea fans are brick scared to have a go at him at games, but in private I bet a lot of them would be tinkled off by some of his decision making.

 

[braineclipse]

Well you've at least acknowledged that he gets things wrong so no I don't include you in this.

As for the highligthed part, kind of goes back to what I said before. That doesn't stop fans having a go at managers does it? I mean I've never managerd a premier league team but as a Spurs fan who watches every game whether it's live or on tv, I'd like to think I know enough to at least offer an opinion and make a judgement. I'm sure even Chelsea fans would question Roman Abramovich from time to time even though he's won them countless trophies. Well ok maybe not publicly because Chelsea fans are brick scared to have a go at him at games, but in private I bet a lot of them would be tinkled off by some of his decision making.

Depends how you have that go at the manager. If you're only having a go at the manager based on results in hindsight then I don't think that's much better, unless the results are clearly worse than what you would expect from the squad of that club. For Levy I really don't think there's much of a go to be had based on results alone, we've performed at least close to as well as can be expected from our club based on our revenue most of the recent years.

So if any complaining is done based only on results, I think that's unfair.

It's a different matter both for managers and for chairmen if the complaints are raised as the decisions are made, before the result is known.

If someone after the fact complain about the hiring of Ramos because it didn't work out that's just hindsight. If someone complained as he was hired because they honestly felt he wasn't good enough that's a somewhat different matter and I might feel that they have a legitimate complaint. Of course if that same person also complained as Redknapp was hired because they honestly felt he wasn't good enough then it might just be that the person is a negative bastard and happened to be right about Ramos

 

[Jurgen the German]

Depends how you have that go at the manager. If you're only having a go at the manager based on results in hindsight then I don't think that's much better, unless the results are clearly worse than what you would expect from the squad of that club. For Levy I really don't think there's much of a go to be had based on results alone, we've performed at least close to as well as can be expected from our club based on our revenue most of the recent years.

So if any complaining is done based only on results, I think that's unfair.

It's a different matter both for managers and for chairmen if the complaints are raised as the decisions are made, before the result is known.

If someone after the fact complain about the hiring of Ramos because it didn't work out that's just hindsight. If someone complained as he was hired because they honestly felt he wasn't good enough that's a somewhat different matter and I might feel that they have a legitimate complaint. Of course if that same person also complained as Redknapp was hired because they honestly felt he wasn't good enough then it might just be that the person is a negative bastard and happened to be right about Ramos

Your last paragraph is interesting. A lot of people on this board don't like Redknapp, some were appalled by Levy's decision to bring him, some never gave him the credit for the good job he did, constantly complained about him and were delighted when Levy got rid of him. But the same people can't bring themselves to criticise Levy for the decision to hire him in the first place? Strange.

As for the hindsight part, Levy has had many transfer windows to draw experience from now, and yet he continues to make the same mistakes in my view of course.

 

[Baleforce]

I think there are plenty who though that Harry was the obvious choice bearing in mind 2 from 8 and hiring him was an excellent decision, but then when we at the other end of the table he had his chance and wasn't up to it.

I was delighted when he hired him, and delighted when he fired him.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I think there are plenty who though that Harry was the obvious choice bearing in mind 2 from 8 and hiring him was an excellent decision, but then when we at the other end of the table he had his chance and wasn't up to it.

I was delighted when he hired him, and delighted when he fired him.

And how about the people who never liked him, gave him no credit throghout, never rated him and claimed the only reason he was a success was because he had a great squad? I think those people should man up.

 

[braineclipse]

Your last paragraph is interesting. A lot of people on this board don't like Redknapp, some were appalled by Levy's decision to bring him, some never gave him the credit for the good job he did, constantly complained about him and were delighted when Levy got rid of him. But the same people can't bring themselves to criticise Levy for the decision to hire him in the first place? Strange.

As for the hindsight part, Levy has had many transfer windows to draw experience from now, and yet he continues to make the same mistakes in my view of course.

I can't possibly argue on behalf of whatever posters it is you're talking of in the first part of this post. If you name some names maybe they could clarify, but that's not a description that fits me.

From what I remember there were quite a few people who were vocally unhappy about the Redknapp signing, that dissatisfaction was of course directed at Levy at the time of the signing (who else?). But the most of that unhappiness disappeared as we got results and quite a few people admitted that they had been wrong if I remember correctly.

I was quite satisfied with Levy replacing Redknapp with AVB although I thought it was a close and slightly surprising decision to get rid. But just because I was satisfied with us getting rid of him in the summer of 2012 doesn't mean that it was the wrong appointment 3.5 years earlier. I didn't think he was the right long term answer to push the club forward in the summer of 2012, but he was the right answer to take over after Ramos and get us back up again.

The specific discussion about the late transfers I think we've been over before. I think there are real positives with that strategy as well as negatives, Levy obviously has learned from experience and continues to think that the positives outweigh the negatives. If you think that he's unaware of the negatives that you can see then I think you seriously underestimate the man.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Ok, Scara and Gutterboy for a start.

As for the last paragraph, I feel Levy is a great businessman, but he's not got a great understanding of football. He is not the only chairman in football who is like this.

 

[scaramanga]

Ok, Scara and Gutterboy for a start.

As for the last paragraph, I feel Levy is a great businessman, but he's not got a great understanding of football. He is not the only chairman in football who is like this.

I criticised Levy heavily for employing a scumbag to manage our club at the time. At least he fixed his mistake though.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Fair enough

 

[braineclipse]

Ok, Scara and Gutterboy for a start.

As for the last paragraph, I feel Levy is a great businessman, but he's not got a great understanding of football. He is not the only chairman in football who is like this.

It's probably fair to say that he doesn't have a great understanding of football.

But that's different from saying that he doesn't realize the benefits you get from signing players earlier in the transfer window. That's not something that requires great insight to understand.

 

[Destroy All Gooners]

I still think the Summer of 2008 has to be up there. Selling Keane, Hanging onto Berbatov until the last minute. Shipping four decent squad players off to Sunderland. Frazier Campbell on loan. It bordered on negligence in my book

 

[milo]

It's probably fair to say that he doesn't have a great understanding of football.

How is it possible to judge what his understanding of football is?

 

[Jurgen the German]

How is it possible to judge what his understanding of football is?

By his decision making. I've never met AVB, but that shouldn't stop me offering an opinion on his understanding and knowledge of the game.

What's the alternative? Praise him when he gets something right but when he gets things wrong we say" oh well, it's a tough job to run a football club, it's easy in hindsight."?

 

[southstand1882]

How is it possible to judge what his understanding of football is?

For a chairman I would say looking at player acquisitions and managerial appointments would do that

 

[braineclipse]

How is it possible to judge what his understanding of football is?

Of course it's impossible, especially from the outside.

It just seems like a safe enough assumption and one I'm happy enough to argue based on as long as the word "great" is in there.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Of course it's impossible, especially from the outside.

It just seems like a safe enough assumption and one I'm happy enough to argue based on as long as the word "great" is in there.

Fair point. What I mean though is everything that we have benefitted from over the last decade during Levy's tenure e.g. The deals he gets for players and the commercial deals is a result of his brilliant business acumen, not his footballing knowledge.