Enic don't want to invest their own money in the team but they aren't going anywhere. That means the squad improvements are self financed by player sales, so Levy is a great business man and I believe they are in this for the long haul to maximise profit from any sale of their shares. I can't be "pro" for any owner that is only here to make a profit from selling the club as thats not what football is about and they have the knowledge, finance and power to take more risks (if they had the passion). Levy is a great business man and I appreciate the positives, as in making us more soundly run but we're fooling ourselves if we think we can improve on top four and the champions league quarter final by employing people like AVB or going after the saints manager Poncho.
I actually think that the only way to substantially increase the value of Spurs to ENIC is to get into the Champions league regularly so the business driven plan and the football driven plan are exactly the same. The only difference is that ENIC are much more risk adverse than a purely football driven owner would be. I don't have any issue with that as I don't want the Club going bust. Levy's plan on hiring managers is more akin to throwing darts at a dartboard of promising managers and hope one hits the person who is going to be the next Wenger or next Ferguson and then quickly sack the ones who don't make the grade before they do any damage. I don't have any issue with that in principle as I think most managers make almost no difference (which is why they get sacked so often by all clubs) but if you get a great one you should keep them for ever.
I'm not asking or expecting them to risk the club going bust, but they have been here for 13 years, they are going to make a huge profit when they leave spurs if they look at their overall investment and their strategy of maintaining a low net spend each year. No I don't expect them to change and yes I can appreciate certain aspects but if you look around the world and see the clubs which have success, they are run by people who have a passion for bringing success to the club and that involves risk. Levy can keep on throwing darts and hoping he hits the bullseye, but its a fantasy, He had the chance to invest in a manager who gave us two top four finishes and instead he decided to go down the route of throwing darts again, 2 years later and we're still in transition. I expect that to be 3 years and then ironically 4 years to match the length of service Redknapp gave us. Maybe after 4 years we may get lucky but City, Utd, Chavs, Goons, Everton, Liverpool. Thats 6 clubs who people would say are in a better position then us, in terms of the football aspect. We missed the chance to invest at the key times under Redknapp and now we are going to find it even harder to get back in the top four.
The only chance you lot have got of getting anywhere near the top four is if Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City or Chelsea **** up. Even then you have got Utd who will be back in the mix and Everton who have been knocking at the door, so even your 6th place finish will be hard to achieve next season. You should just dine out on the fact that you finished above Utd and enjoy the DVD
Liverpool could easily drop out, they benefitted this season from no midweek distractions and weren't overly crippled with injuries, I think Man Utd will spend enough to get back into the top 4 next year and they'll then be a fixture once again. Man City and Chelsea are also standing dishes and that'll never change while money dominates the game, so the only spot up for grabs is ours IMO....
They did, but didn't they win both FA Cup and CL that season ? Can't imagine they placed too much emphasis on the final half dozen or so league games when they're booked for 2 major cup finals...
True, they were **** house in the league that season. Trouble for Spurs is that they are behind 6 other clubs, with the exception of Utd who will undoubtedly spend and improve under Butthead. Also every time the spuds do look like they might mount a challenge for the top four, they find new and hilarious ways to **** it up. Whether it's dodgy Lasange, Chelsea winning the CL, Alan Sugar and the ghost goal or spending 110m and ending up finishing lower than the season before. They just seem to have the loser mentality.
Spurs problem is that they can't attract a quality manager, no idea if Pinocchio will be the right man for them, but even so, he'd be an upgrade over not-so-nice but dim.
Also, what quality manager would want to manage Spurs ? Levy has got ideas above his station about what Spurs can achieve and throwing that 110m at the problem was a direct attempt to buy his way into the top four. When that didn't happen he sacked two managers in the same season. It's okay demanding 'success or the sack' at a club like Barca or Real, but come on this is Spurs we're talking about. They should be pleased with a top 5 finish and a decent cup run and then build from there.
Ordinarily i won't bash Spurs, i have no real issue with them aside from the friendly rivalry, but at this stage i pretty much pity their fans. I bolded the last part because it does make 200% sense to do that, actually build a squad with a winning mentality rather than just throw money at the problem, pretty much what i said we should do if we sacked Wenger, have a couple of rebuilding years. If i was Levy, i'd clear out a lot of the squad, get a new manager in and allow him to pick the signings, allow him to build a squad, and if he fails at first, give him another season to improve, Rome wasn't built in 1 day.
I have nothing against any Spurs fans as individuals and I wish them all the best in their personal lives, but I don't pity them or offer them any sympathy when it comes to football. They chose to support Spurs, nobody forced them to do it, so I say they have to live with that. I can't see Levy doing what you suggest either as he would have to admit that he's got it wrong and fess up to pissing all of that Bale money up the wall. He strikes me as a smarmy little **** who has his head firmly up his own arse. The manner in which he sacked Jol was atrocious and he also heaped the blame on AVB for selling Bale, when it was him who sanctioned the deal. Also the fact that he tried to block the Ozil move to us means he deserves a big slap across his bald head. Spurs do need to take a few seasons to build and create stability, but all the time Levy thinks that Spurs should be competing with the top clubs, he's going to carry on sacking managers and it will be one step forward, two steps back.
I'd wager that 90% of the fans on the Spurs board have a better understanding of the game than Levy does, that's why i pity them, they know where they're going wrong, it's just the chairman hasn't got a clue.
So what should Spurs have done? Not sold Bale? Or kept the money from his sale in the bank? The first of those was unrealistic and the second means the squad would be worse.
Either kept Bale or spent the money more wisely. Pretty much any scenario would have been better than what you did. Which was sell your best player and then spend the money on dross.
Dross? Let's see Paulinho, Eriksen, Chadli - pretty sure all these could be sold for more than we paid for them Capoue, Chiriches, Lamela - all been injured much of the season, all young enough to come good Soldado - massive disappointment but rumoured that we've got an offer that will lead to only a small loss. The difficulty of getting so many players assimilated into the squad was definitely underestimated but I'd say that was AVB's fault not Levy's. This discussion is about Levy - he's got a Director of Football who looks after transfers - even if you turn out to be right about the dross why do you think any of this is down to Levy?
How can you blame AVB when the rumours are that he didn't want most of the players that were bought ?
Two questions: 1) You happy with sixth then? 2) Would you have done better had you kept Bale instead?
