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Vinai Venkatesham - CEO

SteveAWOL said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Vinai Venkatesham interview: Tottenham need ‘complete reset’, says chief executive

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with BBC Sport, Tottenham chief executive Vinai Venkatesham talks about a number of issues the club needs to address.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

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Seems to be trying to blame Levy for most the ills of the club, like the presser they did after the window
 
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Legohamster said:
Seems to be trying to blame Levy for most the ills of the club, like the presser they did after the window
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Asked to expand on that, Venkatesham said: "If I had to generalise, I would say on the non-football side of the club, in particular around stadium operations and commercial, that the club was and is really strong.

"I think if you look at the football side of the club, over a timeframe of five years or so, there has just been an explosion in progress across the Premier League. "I'm not saying that Tottenham didn't improve in that period. But what I can tell you is that when you look at where Tottenham were in many of those areas, compared to where I believe other Premier League clubs are, there was a significant gap. In some areas really quite worryingly so.

"I don't think that there was what I would call a relentless obsession with football success.

"Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world. But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer.

"I think there are many areas where the club hasn't got the right level of expertise."
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Which of those statements do you disagree with???
 
Legohamster said:
Seems to be trying to blame Levy for most the ills of the club, like the presser they did after the window
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Some of the ills at the club are undoubtedly down to Levy - they didn't appear overnight, and will not disappear overnight.

But yes - very much a 'blame my predecessor' thing going on with ENIC and Vinai right now, and you only get one bite at that cherry.

Like the joke goes - a new prime minister walks into his office, opens his desk and finds two letters from his predecessor. Opens the first letter and it says... "In your first crisis, blame me". So, he duly does.

Eventually a second crisis rolls around. And, in desperation, he opens the second letter.

"So, you need to write two letters..."
 
Mabspurs said:
Which of those statements do you disagree with???
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Arsenal etc regularly spent 65 million plus on players with money provided by the board/owners, that's what we are up against

"The Lewis Family" won't do that, they won't spend £100 million on one player and the wages.

Which is what will have us competing.

We apparently had money in Jan window, as soon as the window shut and the pressure was on the board "we didn't have money because of Levy" what a load of rubbish.

No issue with Levy getting his fair share of the blame, but the bigger issue was and is The Lewis family
 
Gutter Boy said:
First act of a poor leader - blame your predecessor

Second act of a poor leader - restructure
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I don't disagree per se, but personally I do think that a restructure is in place. There is something rotten in the club of Tottingham, and has been for a while. The seriousness or scale of it is up for debate, but I believe that is something that has held us back - even a decade ago when we were brilliant.

For me, I want the club to be taken seriously. Not the nice lads, not the pampering club for egos without total commitment. Not the club to be trodden on without a word. Not the club with an injury history that is utterly shameful, or where playing football is just a job. You are here to compete at the highest level for the club, not to bolster your YouTube following or elevate your status. You can have fun, but you're not here to have fun. This is not just my present personal thoughts (which have been voiced several times), but also based on insider statements all the way back to the 90s. I mentioned it latest regarding the vlog from Maddison, I did not completely love what I saw. I don't know exactly where the itch is or how to put my finger on it, but the difference between the "mood" compared to the inside we got a look at when Solskjær returned to OT was massive. Don't know how to describe it, but I got some kind of "dining in a fancy hotel without having any reason to be there"-feeling. You have the type of workplace you drag yourself by the fingertips to no matter how sick, and you have the type where you call in absent when you have a hangover. I suspect we are more of the latter than the former, mentally and figuratively speaking of course.

Levy and Spurs have built Class A infrastructure and facilities, and the players and staff should deserve to use them. If not, we must be quicker on the trigger to get rid. Why spend billions on losers? It really strikes me as odd that we can win a Europa trophy with the poorest setup we've had in two decades, when we couldn't even muster a league cup with the best - the coveted Audi Cup excepted. It's not only about the opposition or who the manager is or who plays left back then, it's also about us as a club. It might only be me, but I think it's a good thing that it's finally on the map. First when you start to respect yourself, only then will the media and the referees start to respect you.
 
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SubZero said:
I don't disagree per se, but personally I do think that a restructure is in place. There is something rotten in the club of Tottingham, and has been for a while. The seriousness or scale of it is up for debate, but I believe that is something that has held us back - even a decade ago when we were brilliant.

For me, I want the club to be taken seriously. Not the nice lads, not the pampering club for egos without total commitment. Not the club to be trodden on without a word. Not the club with an injury history that is utterly shameful, or where playing football is just a job. You are here to compete at the highest level for the club, not to bolster your YouTube following or elevate your status. You can have fun, but you're not here to have fun. This is not just my present personal thoughts (which have been voiced several times), but also based on insider statements all the way back to the 90s. I mentioned it latest regarding the vlog from Maddison, I did not completely love what I saw. I don't know exactly where the itch is or how to put my finger on it, but the difference between the "mood" compared to the inside we got a look at when Solskjær returned to OT was massive. Don't know how to describe it, but I got some kind of "dining in a fancy hotel without having any reason to be there"-feeling. You have the type of workplace you drag yourself by the fingertips to no matter how sick, and you have the type where you call in absent when you have a hangover. I suspect we are more of the latter than the former, mentally and figuratively speaking of course.

Levy and Spurs have built Class A infrastructure and facilities, and the players and staff should deserve to use them. If not, we must be quicker on the trigger to get rid. Why spend billions on losers? It really strikes me as odd that we can win a Europa trophy with the poorest setup we've had in two decades, when we couldn't even muster a league cup with the best - the coveted Audi Cup excepted. It's not only about the opposition or who the manager is or who plays left back then, it's also about us as a club. It might only be me, but I think it's a good thing that it's finally on the map. First when you start to respect yourself, only then will the media and the referees start to respect you.
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I remember Conte in one of his first interviews after he joined saying that the facilities were incredible but “maybe too much”. So I wonder if the 5 star environment has had an unintended effect. Also re Maddison, everyone loves him and I don’t doubt his positive impact on morale. But as a focal point, the main man…? I’m not so sure if he’s what we need.
 
I've found the Levy bashing to be particularly distasteful. It's unfair IMO and it's pure deflection.

I'd have a bit more tolerance for it if VV addressed the bad decisions he made and stood over this season. He did address Tudor but, from what I saw, waffled around it rather than saying the words "we made a mistake" or "we got it wrong". He didn't explain properly why Frank was hired, why he was retained for so long. He didn't explain why we didn't do much in January. He's been quick to throw brick at Levy but I've not seen him once take any responsibility for any of his decisions or any of the things under his control that went wrong.

It's also amazing how Charrington and the Lewis' can say with a straight face that they found the club didn't have football success front of mind when making decisions. The world and its mother could see that from the outside. Ex managers and ex players said it. Yet, we're somehow supposed to believe that the people who owned the club didn't know? It's not credible.

I've no faith in any of them and I despise every word I've heard uttered by them since Sunday. Until they start walking the walk, they should keep their mouths shut if they won't properly take responsibility for their part in our decline rather than laying into a fella who did much good work and isn't there to defend himself.
 
That's two statements and an interview now? One per day since the season ended. Hopefully that's the end of it. Now actually go and show us you mean it for once.
 
tommysvr said:
That's two statements and an interview now? One per day since the season ended. Hopefully that's the end of it. Now actually go and show us you mean it for once.
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I suppose it was impossible to write something in the match program as our destiny was not yet confirmed.

Anyway, I think it's only right to let the tea lady have her say before drawing a line under it. Probably be more insightful
 
Gutter Boy said:
First act of a poor leader - blame your predecessor

Second act of a poor leader - restructure
Click to expand...

In my time in industry the new CEO always does a big restructure after 6 months or so in post even when you don't really need one.

Its like a Boston/McKinsey personal coach guidebook for the new leader.

Either way. We desperately need some big changes some where.

Tarnishing Levys legacy all along the journey is classless imo. That being said, we don't know how much their relationships broke down and over what.
 
DeanoAustin said:
I've found the Levy bashing to be particularly distasteful. It's unfair IMO and it's pure deflection.

I'd have a bit more tolerance for it if VV addressed the bad decisions he made and stood over this season. He did address Tudor but, from what I saw, waffled around it rather than saying the words "we made a mistake" or "we got it wrong". He didn't explain properly why Frank was hired, why he was retained for so long. He didn't explain why we didn't do much in January. He's been quick to throw brick at Levy but I've not seen him once take any responsibility for any of his decisions or any of the things under his control that went wrong.

It's also amazing how Charrington and the Lewis' can say with a straight face that they found the club didn't have football success front of mind when making decisions. The world and its mother could see that from the outside. Ex managers and ex players said it. Yet, we're somehow supposed to believe that the people who owned the club didn't know? It's not credible.

I've no faith in any of them and I despise every word I've heard uttered by them since Sunday. Until they start walking the walk, they should keep their mouths shut if they won't properly take responsibility for their part in our decline rather than laying into a fella who did much good work and isn't there to defend himself.
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I agree that the Levy bashing is distasteful. My overall view is that piecing together these interviews I do think they have the right diagnosis of the problems and how to solve them - Vinai calls out the last 5 years specifically as a poor period and I think that’s right. Boosting the wage structure is an absolute must, we need proper, proven experience in the team etc.

That said, I think Vinai is especially weak on the explanation for this season. Especially keeping Frank too long. None of the explanations make sense to me. ‘We looked at results, the probability of turning it around, the issue of entering the interim market and the worry of replacing the manager in January.’

He’s listed 4 different things there and not one of them was ‘are the players bought in to what Frank is doing?’. Do they look like they are playing with confidence? Does it look like they are suited to what they’re being asked to do?

That still leaves me with serious doubts about their football decision making. Eventually they got it right with RDZ, but the whole Frank experience is very odd. They keep going on about expertise in key roles and I’m sure having a great head of performance or head of football operations is going to stand us in good stead long term. But getting the first team manager hire right is so critical, and they haven’t sufficiently explained why Frank was appointed and why he was kept on way longer than he should have been. It’s very odd.
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I agree that the Levy bashing is distasteful. My overall view is that piecing together these interviews I do think they have the right diagnosis of the problems and how to solve them - Vinai calls out the last 5 years specifically as a poor period and I think that’s right. Boosting the wage structure is an absolute must, we need proper, proven experience in the team etc.

That said, I think Vinai is especially weak on the explanation for this season. Especially keeping Frank too long. None of the explanations make sense to me. ‘We looked at results, the probability of turning it around, the issue of entering the interim market and the worry of replacing the manager in January.’

He’s listed 4 different things there and not one of them was ‘are the players bought in to what Frank is doing?’. Do they look like they are playing with confidence? Does it look like they are suited to what they’re being asked to do?

That still leaves me with serious doubts about their football decision making. Eventually they got it right with RDZ, but the whole Frank experience is very odd. They keep going on about expertise in key roles and I’m sure having a great head of performance or head of football operations is going to stand us in good stead long term. But getting the first team manager hire right is so critical, and they haven’t sufficiently explained why Frank was appointed and why he was kept on way longer than he should have been. It’s very odd.
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Yeah agreed. He talks about RDZ and the fact "he plays the style of football that our supporters and the broader football public want to see". Okay, then the next question is, where on your 30 point checklist was that last summer and, if it was there, how did you select Thomas Frank? And when you saw that the style he was playing was anything but the style of football we want to see (Bouremouth home, Arsenal away, Chelsea home, Forest away, Brentford away etc.), why did you keep him when the football was brick and results were worse? That does not stack up - he has to be accountable for what he says and does.

It suits him now to say that the style of football is an important factor because our current manager plays attacking football. But that either means it wasn't a factor last summer or you hired the wrong man despite what was an allegedly thorough process.

What he's saying does not stand up to scrutiny.
 
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