Since I've never been to a Board meeting at the club, I am not going to have an opinion on how much delegation happens in practice. I am one of the few posters on this Board who constantly argues for a DoF though. I would measure any organisation's performance over the full time the management has been in place. Our performance improvement has been remarkable over the Levy period on any measure you like, excluding trophies*. It is obvious that improving performance gets more and more difficult as performance gets better. When ENIC started there were probably more than a 10,000 players who would have improved our squad whereas now it's more like 500 and half of those already play for our major competitors. *I've asked many times on here for someone to tell me what different things the club could do to maximise trophies instead of improving league position. There has never been a single suggestion. We beat City in the League this season and lost in the Carabao final. Is everything magically better if we had reversed that and how would you even do that? Same with the FA Cup semi finals we have lost.
Because he declared himself fit for them, despite being nowhere near it, then had absolutely no impact on any of them. Playing with 10 men is difficult.
The club's turnover is ten times what it was when Levy took over. The club is involved in developing the High Road, servicing the NFL, attempting to secure an NFL franchise, buying golf courses, attracting concerts, boxing rugby games, forming break away leagues, attracting major sponsors, etc, etc. It's just not the same club and we have insufficient senior management to do these jobs and some of those we have simply aren't good enough. It took Levy years to appoint a specialist to attract a stadium sponsor and we're still waiting for a proper DoF. He is penny wise and pound stupid. Levy did a great job for a number of years but his refusal to change is now our biggest problem. His interfering was massively detrimental to finishing the stadium and he's doing similar to the football management. Hitchen's under qualified and lacks authority. He won't solve anything and we'll be overtaken by better run clubs until Levy realises that change is necessary or Lewis sacks him. Everything has its day....and his time of running the club as his personal fiefdom is running out.
In an effort to respond to your last point about maximising trophies, the answer to me is that it’s extremely difficult to quantify what gets a team over the line. It’s largely intangible and that’s why there’s such a mythos around the managers and players who consistently win the biggest prizes. To win in a final, obviously the quality of the players and the manager is a big factor. But they cutting edge in these pressure situations is mentality. That’s what sets the consistent winners apart from the rest. I say consistent because obviously there’s often a hefty dose of luck too. I posted a reply to one of your posts over the last couple of days which attempted to outline how I see the differences between the truly elite players and the simply very good ones. Yes there may be marginal differences in physical and technical qualities but the true difference is in the mind. It’s the ability to consistently execute at the highest standard in the most high pressure game situations that sets them apart. Clarity, speed of thought, consistency. That’s the bleeding edge and the best squads - think Real Madrid when they won all their recent CLs, had that from 1-11 and then some. So to try and answer your question about how you build that and win trophies - it’s really hard, and if it was easy then it wouldn’t be the edge. Employing Jose was clearly an attempt to import that mentality, just as employing Poch was an attempt to build it. Both failed. Ultimately I think some have it and some don’t and if there was an easy way to quantify who had it, then it would be gold in a scouting process.
Fans say things like ‘he’s taken us as far as he can’ when it comes to managers. ‘He needs a new challenge’ when it comes to players. People forget that this could apply to owners...the ones who have been around the longest of the 3 variants.
I agree with all that. There does seem to be more than a psychological problem with winning the first one though as the pressure is higher. That's going to be a major letdown when you've lost the only Champions League final you've got to and suspect failing to deal with that is a major factor in our recent poorer league form. It is possible to work on psychology as well as skill though. When watching tennis, where a lot of the commentators are tier 2 British players, I always notice how they praise the winners for not getting disheartened by going a set down. That they think that is worthy of comment shows where they were lacking.
100% - we all remember the games under Jose when we’d go 1 goal up, then as soon as we conceded an equaliser we just knew what would happen.
Personally I think all three comments are wrong! Particularly managers....they either know how to improve performance or they don't.
I think training needs to be more stressful so that it better simulates match conditions. I have mused a couple of times on how to do that but didn't really come up with anything apart from selecting 9 players for the next match and deciding the last two by a penalty contest. That is probably a very silly idea....
Personally I think all three comments are wrong! Particularly managers....they either know how to improve performance or Most of those things you list are essential for turning us into a top club though. That they have all been achieved while simultaneously delivering our best decade of League finishes and playing exciting football doesn't seem to me to be evidence that something is badly wrong. The last two seasons have been poor but **** happens sometimes. It was a big mistake to replace Poch with Mourinho but I don't see it as a terminal one. Anyway I am going to buy a second executive seat so I can take a mate along to matches...
We have thrown away our CL status and are about to lose our best players because Levy didn't listen to Poch and then lost his ****ing mind in appointing Mourinho. It may not be termnal but Levy's actions in the last 3 years would fail the test for cognitive life. Enjoy the extra ticket. I'll be back when Levy's not in control any more.
Just reading social media over the last few days feels like it’s going to be the “Bale Summer” all over again. Everyday there will be new reports, and new quotes from Kane. What’s the betting we’ll deny he’s for sale, but start “spending the Kane money”, only to sell him at the last minute? in the mean time, we’ve signed 7 new “‘magnificent” players. And we thought this season of football was bad…
I’m ready for it, letsssss gooo! Though spare a thought for Palace fans, if we think we’ve got it bad, they’re facing their third summer in a row where Zaha whores himself out
No doubt there will be enough gullible fans who’ll see the initial transfer window spending as “Levy matching Kane’s ambition”, only to be blindsided when Kane leaves near the end of the window! it’s a script we’ve all read before, sadly. I genuinely thought we may have turned a corner when it comes to selling our best players. It’s been a while since we’ve done so. back to the days of the leaking bucket.
I think this season has left many of us distanced from the club in a way we haven't been before. I think we are ready for anything new from Spurs and if transferring Kane enables it then so be it. Anything other than the boring stuff we have watched this season.
