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Daniel Levy - Former Chairman

25 years of almost unanimously poor footballing decisions. It's a shocking record no matter how anyone tries to dress it up.
I am no Levy fan but to blame him for Kane & Son leaving is a stretch. Look I think Daniel did some really good stuff & made some fudge ups. at the end of the day I think he tried to do what he thought was right by the club & for that I thank him. In hindsight could he have done a better job maybe. Let's see if Enic really are different without levy I have my doubts
 
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Yet the most successful period in the clubs history based on league finishes and European qualification.
Yip - and that was largely tied into our growth as a business model. I've never denied he did well there. Unable to take the most important step, though; frequent appointments of managers which didn't work, holding on to players for too long, losing out on players by offering frequently ridiculous low-ball offers, buying and selling too late in wondows, not freeing up funds to allow the squad to kick on at vital moments, lowest wage to income ratio in the league...
 
I am no Levy fan but to blame him for Kane & Son leaving is a stretch. Look I think Daniel did some really good stuff & made some fudge ups. at the end of the day I think he tried to do what he thought was right by the club & for that I thank him. In hindsight could he have done a better job maybe. Let's see if Enic really are different without levy I have my doubts
I don't blame him for either of those things. I do blame him for how he went about filling the gaps (e.g. no real replacement for Kane for a year - Solanke as the replacement, for example).
 
Yip - and that was largely tied into our growth as a business model. I've never denied he did well there. Unable to take the most important step, though; frequent appointments of managers which didn't work, holding on to players for too long, losing out on players by offering frequently ridiculous low-ball offers, buying and selling too late in wondows, not freeing up funds to allow the squad to kick on at vital moments, lowest wage to income ratio in the league...


We're seeing right now that performance isn't tied to growth off the field unless the right decisions are made along the way, ergo the periods in which we were consistently around the top 4/6 were a result of good footballing decisions made at the time.
 
Yip - and that was largely tied into our growth as a business model. I've never denied he did well there. Unable to take the most important step, though; frequent appointments of managers which didn't work, holding on to players for too long, losing out on players by offering frequently ridiculous low-ball offers, buying and selling too late in wondows, not freeing up funds to allow the squad to kick on at vital moments, lowest wage to income ratio in the league...

How many teams have consistently done better?
 
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Levy's expertise was at extracting every last penny in whichever operation he did. If we are taken over by some sort of sugar daddy or operation that has extreme financial means (and at £4B that is very likely) and where withal to spend it then those penny extracting strengths are not really necessary. Instead we would need a bold and strident leader who knows how to build a squad prudently. Essentially you're looking more at a Michael Edwards then you are Levy. Add that whomever is taking over would likely be someone who is already financially savvy, so Levy's strengths again are a little bit unneeded.

If we are instead bought by another penny pincher, then yes maybe Levy could live to fight another day.

Regardless of if it's Levy or someone else, there are two pieces we are missing from his time, one is decision making, "ownership"

It's very clear that the Frank appointment has gone off the rails (and we have historical context of a very similar appointment in Nuno), and it's very clear, Vinai, the board, Lewis family, whoever, no one is making a decision, and the concern (from an outside perspective) is does anyone know who is supposed to be making the decision?

The second is some connection with the club, Spurs was a life project for Levy, Vinai/Lange/Lewis kids? do they have a connection, do they "care"? And I know people will say it's always a business, but you want someone in that board that actually feels a connection, I'm not sure we have that now.
 
Regardless of if it's Levy or someone else, there are two pieces we are missing from his time, one is decision making, "ownership"

It's very clear that the Frank appointment has gone off the rails (and we have historical context of a very similar appointment in Nuno), and it's very clear, Vinai, the board, Lewis family, whoever, no one is making a decision, and the concern (from an outside perspective) is does anyone know who is supposed to be making the decision?

The second is some connection with the club, Spurs was a life project for Levy, Vinai/Lange/Lewis kids? do they have a connection, do they "care"? And I know people will say it's always a business, but you want someone in that board that actually feels a connection, I'm not sure we have that now.
Levy explicitly said a few months back the decision of sacking a manager is a collective board decision, I doubt that's changed now?

To be fair Vinai and co have been making a decision, they've been deciding to stick with Frank up until this point. It might not be the decision you want, but you still make decisions when not sacking a manager. It's not like they're sitting there on a weekly basis refusing to discuss our plight....
 
Levy explicitly said a few months back the decision of sacking a manager is a collective board decision, I doubt that's changed now?

To be fair Vinai and co have been making a decision, they've been deciding to stick with Frank up until this point. It might not be the decision you want, but you still make decisions when not sacking a manager. It's not like they're sitting there on a weekly basis refusing to discuss our plight....

I've been in board meetings, someone still makes the call, someone sets the tone.

Vinai and co have made a decision by not making a decision (the worse option), let's be clear, by mid-December, there were only two rational decisions
- fire Frank, get new manager in, give him January window to get a couple of players to attempt to save the season.
- decide Frank is still your guy (who the fudge knows why, but say you do), he needed 2-3 top level players in, early in January to have any chance of it not ending where it is right now. What have we got? some kid from Brazil that has disappeared and most likely will be loaned out next season, and a very opportunistic purchase of a player (of a profile we don't really need) already on the move when our hand was forced by injury. Net spend $0 ..

This is cowardice, I've seen it at a board level, this is
- They all know Frank is dead, without a single bit of strategy, they just hope he can limp to end of season, get a few results that avoid fans completely rioting, hope the business and player impact isn't too bad, then replace in summer (because they haven't done the diligence to have proper succession planning), and save the spend for then.
- Vinai/Lange/whoever else was part of the decision team to bring him in, don't have the courage to say "look we made a call, at the time, it looked right, we gave the guy a shot, it hasn't translated/worked out, we all know these appointments have some measure of risk, we got this one wrong. Best thing we can do for the club/season is to course correct as soon as possible and yes, it will have a significant fiscal impact that we are going to have to accept."

I really hope I'm wrong, I hope they figured today's game was dead anyway and let him take one last hit on the way out and he'll be gone in the morning.
 
I've been in board meetings, someone still makes the call, someone sets the tone.

Vinai and co have made a decision by not making a decision (the worse option), let's be clear, by mid-December, there were only two rational decisions
- fire Frank, get new manager in, give him January window to get a couple of players to attempt to save the season.
- decide Frank is still your guy (who the fudge knows why, but say you do), he needed 2-3 top level players in, early in January to have any chance of it not ending where it is right now. What have we got? some kid from Brazil that has disappeared and most likely will be loaned out next season, and a very opportunistic purchase of a player (of a profile we don't really need) already on the move when our hand was forced by injury. Net spend $0 ..

This is cowardice, I've seen it at a board level, this is
- They all know Frank is dead, without a single bit of strategy, they just hope he can limp to end of season, get a few results that avoid fans completely rioting, hope the business and player impact isn't too bad, then replace in summer (because they haven't done the diligence to have proper succession planning), and save the spend for then.
- Vinai/Lange/whoever else was part of the decision team to bring him in, don't have the courage to say "look we made a call, at the time, it looked right, we gave the guy a shot, it hasn't translated/worked out, we all know these appointments have some measure of risk, we got this one wrong. Best thing we can do for the club/season is to course correct as soon as possible and yes, it will have a significant fiscal impact that we are going to have to accept."

I really hope I'm wrong, I hope they figured today's game was dead anyway and let him take one last hit on the way out and he'll be gone in the morning.

With everything you said this very time last year, does this not feel like deja vu?

Perhaps the penny is finally dropping that:

a) we are not well-run overall from a football perspective (though generally have been great from a commercial/financial one

b) because of years of a) we are now not attractive enough to get a manager/coach better than the likes of Ange, Frank etc
 
With everything you said this very time last year, does this not feel like deja vu?

Perhaps the penny is finally dropping that:

a) we are not well-run overall from a football perspective (though generally have been great from a commercial/financial one

b) because of years of a) we are now not attractive enough to get a manager/coach better than the likes of Ange, Frank etc

Actually the last 18 months feels very different

- For 20+ years, people have said the club was badly run, and point to how managers were fired too early, or wrong fit, or whatever. Within all of that, the club managed an average league position of 5~ish, and managers and player knew, no Europe, sometimes no Cl and their job was on the line, that meant even post Poch we had 4th, 5th, Cup final finishes.

For whatever reason last year (Levy handing over some football matters, maybe his authority was already being pulled), we failed to hold Ange accountable for league results (as we are doing with Frank), and it didn't get better, it just got worse, and we allowed expectations to drop.

Pre 18 months ago, if Levy was in charge, Frank would have been gone in November, we would have gone for a bigger name (paid them like Jose/Conte) and made a couple of buys in January to correct.

Glasner would absolutely come, just like Iraola would have over summer, (not sure I think either of them are right) Poch is still whoring for the job, I'd argue based on Emery's last speech (I'd offer him a lot of money), Ancelotti went to Everton, there is always someone.
 
Actually the last 18 months feels very different

- For 20+ years, people have said the club was badly run, and point to how managers were fired too early, or wrong fit, or whatever. Within all of that, the club managed an average league position of 5~ish, and managers and player knew, no Europe, sometimes no Cl and their job was on the line, that meant even post Poch we had 4th, 5th, Cup final finishes.

For whatever reason last year (Levy handing over some football matters, maybe his authority was already being pulled), we failed to hold Ange accountable for league results (as we are doing with Frank), and it didn't get better, it just got worse, and we allowed expectations to drop.

Pre 18 months ago, if Levy was in charge, Frank would have been gone in November, we would have gone for a bigger name (paid them like Jose/Conte) and made a couple of buys in January to correct.

Glasner would absolutely come, just like Iraola would have over summer, (not sure I think either of them are right) Poch is still whoring for the job, I'd argue based on Emery's last speech (I'd offer him a lot of money), Ancelotti went to Everton, there is always someone.

But almost certainly not what we would need and who would be right. Our poor reputation has put paid to that (see our last two hires)
 
Levy's expertise was at extracting every last penny in whichever operation he did. If we are taken over by some sort of sugar daddy or operation that has extreme financial means (and at £4B that is very likely) and where withal to spend it then those penny extracting strengths are not really necessary. Instead we would need a bold and strident leader who knows how to build a squad prudently. Essentially you're looking more at a Michael Edwards then you are Levy. Add that whomever is taking over would likely be someone who is already financially savvy, so Levy's strengths again are a little bit unneeded.

If we are instead bought by another penny pincher, then yes maybe Levy could live to fight another day.

Penny pincher ??? The guy spent a Billion pound on the stadium.

Can’t see how at least part of comments like that aren’t Anti Semitic
 
25 years of almost unanimously poor footballing decisions. It's a shocking record no matter how anyone tries to dress it up.

What you talking about? How long have you been a fan? Do you remember how bad of a state we were in before Levy??

People have really short memories man.
 
But almost certainly not what we would need and who would be right. Our poor reputation has put paid to that (see our last two hires)

You pay someone enough if they are available they will come, this is an almost universal truth.

And Levy was willing to spend on managers both for better and worse.
 
how many of the pro clubs in the UK, have won more PL titles than us in the last 25 years

what we talking, 30, 40?

just where are we on the scale?

Leicester
Liverpool
Arsenal
City
United
Chelsea

You need to actually win things to make the hard work of those league finishes and European qualifications you mention worthwhile.
 
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