Daniel Levy - Chairman

[glorygloryeze]

Those are good questions and I imagine everyone has their conditions as to how that balance looks. It's that same old cliche where I think the club has done well off the pitch, but scored multiple own goals and missed opportunities for progress on the pitch and progress is literally the only thing I want, not even directly trophies (continued progress will eventually lead to success).

I give credit and appreciate the good work in terms of the current development of the club structure, this is absolutely a positive in my eyes, ie. the approach we have made with signings largely since Paratici joined etc but we have to admit that all the good work that is being done now is to repair the damage done previously.

My skepticism of ENIC goes a long way back, specifically back to the 10/11 season. Which is kind of long and boring and in the past now, but my real critique starts from that era as the model we have we have followed over the years has never really been the problem, it's the application of that model that has befuddle me and where the debate about 'not being a football man" has rung accurate for me.

So I don't so much argue for alternatives although the obvious ones exist, what I have always wanted was to follow our model and apply it well and and more boldly, for too many years I haven't felt that was the case.

Out of interest, what was this scepticism that goes back to the 2010/11 season borne out of? What happened then that made you sceptical?

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Out of interest, what was this scepticism that goes back to the 2010/11 season borne out of? What happened then that made you sceptical?

I loved that season with those CL nights

 

[Bishop]

Out of interest, what was this scepticism that goes back to the 2010/11 season borne out of? What happened then that made you sceptical?

Hah, this is gonna open a can of worms. We had finally hit the holy grail (CL football) but the season before we had one really obvious problem. Our strikers were shi...Defoe had the season of his career scoring 16 in the first half of the year but then only getting 2! For the rest of the season, ( he was also unsuited to move to a solo striker that was happening at the time). Crouch just used to miss chance after flipping chance after chance, the usual rebuttal is he scored the goal Vs City to get get the CL place but if he wasn't so bloody useless in front of goal and could finish we wouldn't have needed to get to that match to qualify in the first place. Pav clearly wasn't rated by Harry so we were in desperate need for a striker.

If you remember that was the summer with all the speculation linking us with Forlan, black and yellow and a pre Napoli Cavani amongst others. We were desperate for a striker and the fact that we didn't do anything in the end was the point at which I realised that Levy was either incompetent or just didn't care because for me there was no way he could have watched the games that season and not realised we needed a bloody new striker and it confused me because all the talk up to that point was that reaching the CL was to be goal and the aim to take the club forward but instead of trying to progress and work off that foundation we instead just sat with what we had which was proven to not really be good enough.

Van De Vaart papered over the cracks but even that move was one precipitated by Real wanting rid and offering him to us on the last day of the window and he wasn't a bloody striker. It kind of just said to me that the people in charge were clueless and had no ambition because if ever there was a time keep developing that was it (before City became what they they are) and surprise, surprise the next season we didn't make it to CL and largely because our strikers weren't good enough. Crouch and Defoe got 4 goals each that season. 4! Flipping goals in team that made oodles of fudging chances.

Then we have the infamous 11/12 winter window when we had a serious chance at really challenging for the title but we needed some reinforcements and we got broken Saha and Nelson!

 

[glorygloryeze]

Hah, this is gonna open a can of worms. We had finally hit the holy grail (CL football) but the season before we had one really obvious problem. Our strikers were shi...Defoe had the season of his career scoring 16 in the first half of the year but then only getting 2! For the rest of the season, ( he was also unsuited to move to a solo striker that was happening at the time). Crouch just used to miss chance after flipping chance after chance, the usual rebuttal is he scored the goal Vs City to get get the CL place but if he wasn't so bloody useless in front of goal and could finish we wouldn't have needed to get to that match to qualify in the first place. Pav clearly wasn't rated by Harry so we were in desperate need for a striker.

If you remember that was the summer with all the speculation linking us with Forlan, black and yellow and a pre Napoli Cavani amongst others. We were desperate for a striker and the fact that we didn't do anything in the end was the point at which I realised that Levy was either incompetent or just didn't care because for me there was no way he could have watched the games that season and not realised we needed a bloody new striker and it confused me because all the talk up to that point was that reaching the CL was to be goal and the aim to take the club forward but instead of trying to progress and work off that foundation we instead just sat with what we had which was proven to not really be good enough.

Van De Vaart papered over the cracks but even that move was one precipitated by Real wanting rid and offering him to us on the last day of the window and he wasn't a bloody striker. It kind of just said to me that the people in charge were clueless and had no ambition because if ever there was a time keep developing that was it (before City became what they they are) and surprise, surprise the next season we didn't make it to CL and largely because our strikers weren't good enough. Crouch and Defoe got 4 goals each that season. 4! Flipping goals in team that made oodles of fudging chances.

Then we have the infamous 11/12 winter window when we had a serious chance at really challenging for the title but we needed some reinforcements and we got broken Saha and Nelson!

Yes, i remember all of that. I also remember that January of 2011 when there were all these stories of bids going in for the likes of Aguero and Cavani...it seemed like just half-hearted attempts to look ambitious (and that was because of the reports from Athletico saying that we didn't seem to be serious as to when we bid and how much we bid to get Aguero).

Oh man, that really is a can of worms, but one i also feel with you!!

 

[Muttley]

Hah, this is gonna open a can of worms. We had finally hit the holy grail (CL football) but the season before we had one really obvious problem. Our strikers were shi...Defoe had the season of his career scoring 16 in the first half of the year but then only getting 2! For the rest of the season, ( he was also unsuited to move to a solo striker that was happening at the time). Crouch just used to miss chance after flipping chance after chance, the usual rebuttal is he scored the goal Vs City to get get the CL place but if he wasn't so bloody useless in front of goal and could finish we wouldn't have needed to get to that match to qualify in the first place. Pav clearly wasn't rated by Harry so we were in desperate need for a striker.

If you remember that was the summer with all the speculation linking us with Forlan, black and yellow and a pre Napoli Cavani amongst others. We were desperate for a striker and the fact that we didn't do anything in the end was the point at which I realised that Levy was either incompetent or just didn't care because for me there was no way he could have watched the games that season and not realised we needed a bloody new striker and it confused me because all the talk up to that point was that reaching the CL was to be goal and the aim to take the club forward but instead of trying to progress and work off that foundation we instead just sat with what we had which was proven to not really be good enough.

Van De Vaart papered over the cracks but even that move was one precipitated by Real wanting rid and offering him to us on the last day of the window and he wasn't a bloody striker. It kind of just said to me that the people in charge were clueless and had no ambition because if ever there was a time keep developing that was it (before City became what they they are) and surprise, surprise the next season we didn't make it to CL and largely because our strikers weren't good enough. Crouch and Defoe got 4 goals each that season. 4! Flipping goals in team that made oodles of fudging chances.

Then we have the infamous 11/12 winter window when we had a serious chance at really challenging for the title but we needed some reinforcements and we got broken Saha and Nelson!

Yes, i remember all of that. I also remember that January of 2011 when there were all these stories of bids going in for the likes of Aguero and Cavani...it seemed like just half-hearted attempts to look ambitious (and that was because of the reports from Athletico saying that we didn't seem to be serious as to when we bid and how much we bid to get Aguero).

Oh man, that really is a can of worms, but one i also feel with you!!

So interesting that neither of you mention any of the words Harry, Redknapp, Daniel or Levy in your summary of that period.

The deep root causes of the issues you talk about were exactly those 4 words. In stockpile Harry we had a first team coach, not a manager. He was more junior than either rookies Jol and AVB, and just couldn't get his head around finally managing a BIG club. He stockpiled so many players and we had no manoeuvrability in the transfer market because of our sub-optimal football operations. Levy was in control of football ops and it was not his finest hour. It was so sub-optimal compared to what it could have been with some squad strategy and with way better judgments from our 2 leaders. The Steven Pienaar saga was just an absolute joke. The blind leading the blind.

There perhaps was a parallel universe where an Aguero would have joined Spurs. A universe where you don't start every summer with 35 senior pro's and have to sell in the last week of every transfer window just to add another average player. A universe where football operations allowed you to attract an Aguero, rather than ending up with your first team manager making snidey comments about his chairman and creating a narrative that he was the victim. That 's after taking up the wage bill by 35% and knowing that a lot of his highest paid players had no impact on his 1st team.

All hail King and Modric and a young Walker and Bale though. They deserved to play with Aguero and Cavani but were never going to under that leadership duo.

Thinking back to those incredibly frustrating times make me so thankful how far we have come.