Bedfordspurs
Mark Falco
When he was co owner before they realised he was stealing from the club?
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ENIC
- Thread starter mattls
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Bedfordspurs
Mark Falco
That’s how I remember it
I stand corrected.
Grays_1890
Chris Jones
Na he was Chief exec by then, I rewatched the two docs about it in the week from the 90s, what a mess we were
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
Could he?!?
They owned 20% of autonomy which ended up being sold for £12.5bn. Which was about 10 years ago.
They sold their stake to help buy spurs.
Edit - my bad. £7.4bn in 2011.
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
He wasn't on the bench matchdays during that period. Not in squad photos: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/rE0AAOSwYKhfJcj5/s-l1600.webp
The term DoF didn't exist back then. But he 'moved upstairs' as it was put at the time, to deal with DoF-like duties.
Grays_1890
Chris Jones
He was def chief exec, not manager
Muttley
Ben Thatcher
OK, so was that an early acknowledgment from Levy that he needed more football DNA around himself to cover his own gaps?
I still think one of the big losses was Trevor Birch in 2019. I think he would have been a great fit for Levy. Just look at his Wiki
"Trevor Birch (born 16 February 1958) is an English chartered accountant, football executive, and former professional footballer. He is chief executive of the English Football League. Birch has been an executive at several clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, Swansea City, Chelsea, Leeds United, Everton, Derby County, and Sheffield United. Birch has worked at Ernst & Young, BDO International, and Duff & Phelps."
Such a shame that he want to the EFL top job, which he still holds, soon after he joined us.
The only times levy has stepped away from the dof system was when he had managers that were fairly successful. It seems his preffered option.
I seriously doubt he sits at home at night picking out players to buy. He'll go for what the scouts, dof and coaches agree upon. He might go for the cheaper option. Especially in terms of wages. Which i think most fans would love to change.
braineclipse
Steve Sedgley
Fully agreed. Made this point a lot of times in the past, but just look at how our transfer business has been different under different managers (and DoF types). To me it seems obvious that Levy trusts the people below him to make those decisions.
Perhaps could be argued that his lack of "football DNA" has led to him hiring or trusting the wrong people. For me him and just about every chairman in football in that case (everyone that's been in involved long enough at least).
The wage structure may change a bit. But imo only when the players already at the club get good enough that we essentially have no other choice to keep the best players already here. That comes with a certain level of on the pitch success too.
Muttley
Ben Thatcher
Do you think we've ever had a manager that shouldn't have been working with a DoF then?
Harry Redknapp was a great example. We assumed as a senior guy that he was a manager. He wasn't. He was a 1st team coach who was out of his depth with the full spectrum of football operations activities. He'd love an opinion on them based on his many interviews we saw. He had slopy shoulders around them though. Between him and Levy, they had the entire P&L sub-optimal. We started every summer with 35 senior pro's and had to sell to buy. The wage bill had gone up 30-40% down and we couldn't get it under control. That was limiting our ability to create transfer kitty. We couldn't churn the squad as it was the blind leading the blind at the top. 2 words......Steven Pienaar. What a mess. People will just talk about that Crouchy goal and Bale dazzling us in the CL. The reality was so different.
I actually think that the times that Levy worked 2-in-a-box with his managers were the most disastrous times, especially when we had bad recruitment leads like Hitchen. Levy just pandered to their needs and we had major cleanup operations when they left their trails of destruction. We'd spunk money left, right and centre on players that had no first team value. We ended up loaning over-25's just to do damage limitation until we could get them off the books. We also had so many late window signings that we never settled the squads before the season was underway. Perhaps it was Levy's preferred model at one stage. He saw the light on the journey though, and has even vacated the old space he occupied and moved upstairs a little. I don't think it is now.
Levy is now operating at the level he should be. The sponsor deals are getting better and better and it seems he's looking for more investors. You've got the naming rights focus, the hotel, the NFL deals, the corporate hospitality and all the other non-football operations areas. I like the leadership group below him right now. Early days, but Munn and Lange seem to operate well together with Ange and you see the 1st team squad getting lean and mean. The passengers are gradually being moved on and what is left is really exciting. The academy is buzzing, albeit that work was done before the new guys. I also think Paratici was good for Spurs. His legacy is very core to our 1st team squad.
BTW, has anyone else heard that Levy's son is being groomed to take over the reins at some stage?
Grays_1890
Chris Jones
Sorry to cut your message, just saving people for space.
I think Levy has been guilty of trusting people with money who came with big reputations but did little or nothing, he can take some blame for that because IMO he was guilty of being taking in by abit of flashing of the knee (as he was in appointing Jose).
But on the above I totally agree, given a management group a budget and letting them work out the parts they need, in consultancy with the manager is clearly the way to go and also the deals are being done now which should in theory suit future managers who will have lots of options of good young talent players to choose from.
Muttley
Ben Thatcher
I think that's the point I was making. Levy is a Spurs fan, bleeds Spurs and is one of us. I always assume best intent with him in everything he does.
That doesn't mean he hasn't made bad decisions, and not put the right people in place to make the decisions that he wasn't really qualified to make. That is leadership 101 for me. He got there in the end (I think), but some of the journey so far was rough on the football operations side.
I'll have a smile from ear to ear when he gets his trophies.
Craig_J
Mido
I think it is a stretch to say that he "bleeds Spurs and is one of us".
I'm sure for all his life if asked what team he supported he would reply Tottenham. But he doesn't seem like someone who was particualrly bothered about football before.
Whether his time at the club has increased his sense of attatchement beyond what is predomianntly a purely transactional, business basis - who knows.
But I definently don't think he was a diehard Spurs fan before. I know someone posted a while back his first letter in the match day program when ENIC took over in 2001 and he admitted that football wasn't his strong suit and that he would be a temporary chairman until someone more suited could take over from him (though of course that never happened).
Lemonade Money
Les Medley
The best option to replace Levy, I've heard yet.
Our wage bill went up around 30% one season largely due to cl bonuses.
Muttley
Ben Thatcher
Yeah, it did but we immediately fell back into the Europa League format but couldn't get the wage bill right sized based on the reducing revenues for 2-3 years after. That meant money paid on wages for players who had no 1st team impact didn't turn into transfer kitty. Then Harry would have the Sky microphone shoved under his nose and make nasty little digs about our chairman not buying players. Harry never once spoke in the "we" about THFC. He eventually got Levy'd in the end and rightly so. Then the cleanup operation began just like it did at Pompey, QPR and Brum. lol - Christopher Samba anyone?
Reckless guys like Redknapp always needed a DoF.
Lemonade Money
Les Medley
There are always two sides to the story, Redknapp pleaded for Eden Hazard, but Levy said no. Defoe, Palacios, Crouch, Kranjcar. You can always cherry pick. The 'we' bit I don't care about, if we play football that good. Agree it should be down to a DoF and the bigger picture though.