The only owner that Levy is probably wealthier than is Matthew Benham. He's not going to get the funds through loans to make a difference.
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Vinai Venkatesham - CEO
- Thread starter mephitis
- Start date
Think we're leveraged.
ricky2tricky4city
Colin Calderwood
The majority of the world is tbh.
lurker of old
Ronnie Rosenthal
Thought he came across well in the video of DL and him. He's confident and sees room for improvement in our club. And he's experienced enough to challenge DL - which is why he was hired.
Gazza
Steffen Iversen
That will usually get you the sack
SpiderSpurs
Milenko Acimovic
Only IF Levy is still pulling the strings, I'm not so sure he is.
Gazza
Steffen Iversen
If you don’t believe that Levy is still not ultimately responsible …. I think you would be mistaken. That video was a PR stunt, executed very well.
Hey look it’s us we are chums, we enjoy wine, we want success, we sacked Ange, it’s not only levy who made that choice so don’t blame him because he really works hard, we want to win the premier league, we can go above our level…
This should give you fans some hope. Season tickets need to be sold.
I’m just your cynical spurs fan … this is what the club has done to me
lurker of old
Ronnie Rosenthal
Of course you're right, it is a PR stunt, but Vinai will want success on the field as well as commercially, so it should bode well....
SpiderSpurs
Milenko Acimovic
Just watched the 'first day' video. I thought it interesting that Levy is nowhere to be seen in it.
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Terry Venables
if anyone sees an article with a greater explanation of the breakdown of Vinai’s role, I’d love to read it. The video was great, he’s so smooth and articulate, and I feel like we have a genuine big hitter running the club. A big brain with high EQ. I can get behind that.
The thing that I still don’t quite understand is that they were at pains to say they’d make every decision together. I really want to understand what specifically we have hired Vinai for. Where are the gaps he is filling? How does he complement Levy? Is he just saving Levy time, or his he genuinely there to own things that Levy wouldn’t, or push Levy to make decisions that he wouldn’t have made on his own?
Vinai would not have taken this job to just be a second opinion for Levy. He’d want some autonomy or some understanding of where his skills can drive the club forward, some aspect they haven’t had before. I’d love to know more about what that is exactly, beyond the slick video.
The thing that I still don’t quite understand is that they were at pains to say they’d make every decision together. I really want to understand what specifically we have hired Vinai for. Where are the gaps he is filling? How does he complement Levy? Is he just saving Levy time, or his he genuinely there to own things that Levy wouldn’t, or push Levy to make decisions that he wouldn’t have made on his own?
Vinai would not have taken this job to just be a second opinion for Levy. He’d want some autonomy or some understanding of where his skills can drive the club forward, some aspect they haven’t had before. I’d love to know more about what that is exactly, beyond the slick video.
He's the CEO mate, he runs everything with oversight from chairman, staff will report into him vs. Levy, so likely Lange, Frank, even Paratici if he comes in will be subject to some kind of metrics/performace evaluation from Vinai
I'm not being a dingdong, but it's very normal for any Exec to require regular sign off from board, but you can have a 1B budget as an executive, but strategy and spend (over much smaller amounts) sign off on major expenses will still go to board/chairman revue, this is how every company works.
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Terry Venables
With respect, I’m not asking what a CEO does, I get that.
I’m asking what specifically he was hired to do, or maybe rather why exactly he was hired. What exactly is the ‘problem they are solving.’ Why was this hire required?
I work in executive recruiting in my day job, so I do understand general reporting lines and scope of responsibility. But within that, each business has a context, each senior hire has a reason. There is usually something they are trying to solve for in making it. It might simply be that DL wanted to be less involved in the day to day, and wanted his time back. If so, cool. I’m just surprised that Vinai would take that job, because it’s basically a COO scope. I’m especially surprised since the video seemed to be at pains to describe them as working hand in hand, making all the big decisions together. Again, I’d be surprised if Vinai would take that job, because I’d assume he’d want more autonomy. Maybe in football business the CEO and COO dynamic is actually a Chairman / Owner and CEO dynamic, which is fine, I’m just still more interested in what value Vinai thinks he’s adding beyond getting DL (known and self confessed control freak) out of the day to day.
And my big interest in this is philosophically and strategically, where will Vinai help us? In those strategic discussions, when there is a decision to be made, has he been assessed that he’ll basically go along with what Levy would have done? Or have they hired him because they want someone to be a catalyst for change in that respect? I assume budgets overall won’t be drastically different from how we’ve operated before, but would Vinai be able to advocate for a little more risk in the transfer market? Eg get that one truly top player in their position versus two with potential and sell on value as long as we can still afford it?
It was interesting that he was the one showing Frank around, not Levy. Clearly he will build up that relationship with him. When it comes to hiring and firing, what is Vinai’s view? Arsenal gave Arteta a couple of seasons out of the top 4 to implement his methods, and are now rewarded with consistent top 2 finishes. Would Vinai advocate for similar patience here?
So that’s my point. I understand the reporting structure and scope. But I’m more interested in strategy, the philosophical thinking that guides it and the decision making that results from it. That’s where leaders need to fit really well. Often the hire is deliberately a catalyst for change, other times it’s someone who is going to carry on the good work and give the senior executive their time back, but things will largely stay the same. I want to know what will be different with Vinai making decisions that Levy previously would have done, and why the club thought it was interesting to create situations where that is required.
lurker of old
Ronnie Rosenthal
It gives Levy a lot of time back, time which he may want to use developing the hotel. Say there are 3 candidates for a new player. Levy will be given the overview but Vinai will assess the detail of Lange's recommendations before boiling it down for DL. As for "it is more of the same?", we'll have to wait and see, but someone as successful and presumably ambitious as Vinai will want to do things their own way and mine their own experience of success, not just do what DL has always done, because whatever DL's strengths, we are not serial winners.
It's not the hotel (only)
Tottenham is now a lot of things
- Football on pitch focus
- Football budget
- Staff management, recruiting, retaining, attrition
- Stadium & non football events
- Commercials and sponsorships
- Hotel and surrounding area development
- NFL & F1 tie ins
- Clubs role in UEFA/FA (Levy was in part of UEFA stuff?)
- Partnerships with other clubs
- Potential investors, sale of club
- Overall strategy
Levy can't be deep on everything, Vinai will have to run large parts of the club (he himself delegating to others) but fundamentally be the day to day person. Levy can focus on growth of brand, investment, while Vinai runs the club.
Muttley
Clint Dempsey
Football clubs are clearly seasonal businesses. I have a feeling in the transfer window it's sometimes all hands on deck with multiple leaders getting involved. All the smoke has been there that Levy is still quite involved and even having face to face meetings with senior figures at other clubs. I guess Levy and Vinai will be lined up behind Lange and Frank until the window slams shut. Then we'll see Levy shift his workload onto some of those more strategic or external things whilst Vinai continues with the day to day operational detail. That gives Levy a decent few months to hand over the reins.
I'm feeling like Munn has already walked and removed his daily capacity from the club. So we all wait on what is happening with Fabio as next step I guess.
Absolutely, it's also, Levy, Vinai, Paratici, Lange all have different relationships with different clubs/owners in Europe/World.
While Vinai might be CEO, or Paratici/Lange might be in DoF/recruitment roles, if Levy has a personal relationship with owner of x club, it's a benefit to having him involved (I've done many big deals where I'm asking for executive suite to support, be in the conversation).
Not what you asked for but he did apparently define it in FAB meeting, effectively "day to day operations of club"
Minutes -> https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/me...ting-minutes-24th-june-2025-2024-25-final.pdf
SpiderSpurs
Milenko Acimovic
Vinai Venkatesham was CEO at Arsenal when the Partey 'rumours' first broke. 
He would have known about the investigation, needs to be 'let go' IMO.
He would have known about the investigation, needs to be 'let go' IMO.
LutonSpurs
Eric Dear
Vinai Venkatesham was CEO at Arsenal when the Partey 'rumours' first broke.
He would have known about the investigation, needs to be 'let go' IMO.
It isn't a good look at all. I hope we show we care about victims. However the club who has Chris Brown playing at their stadium might disappoint us