I remember reading a statement published by Daniel Levy on the last day of the season that I have now re-read and find it amazing that Spurs parted company with Redknapp, when you take into account what was said and recent events. The key parts of his 13th May 2012 statement were: "Today will see the final League positions of several Clubs decided, ourselves amongst them. It is a mark of our progress and the quality of our squad that each season we now look and expect to be competing at the top of our game." "Once again we have seen football played at home and away which has shown our brand and style of play around the world and led our competitors to describe us as the most entertaining team in the Premier League." "Our squad has top players at all levels and we shall continue to seek stability and to retain key players this summer and beyond. We are a Club that is focussing on growth and moving forward." So from my understanding, it appears last month Levy acknowledged that we had moved forward in leaps and bounds under Redknapp's leadership, have played some of the best and most entertaining football in the country and that stability is at the forefront of his plans, with growth and development for the future, key to our success... That rhetoric has recently changed in less that four weeks to... The Club can today announce that Harry Redknapp will be leaving his post as manager. "This is not a decision the Board and I have taken lightly. Harry arrived at the Club at a time when his experience and approach was exactly what was needed. This decision in no way detracts from the excellent work Harry has done during his time with the Club and I should like to thank him for his achievements and contribution. Harry will always be welcome at the Lane." This proves just how hot and cold our Chairman can be. He can go from being ecstatic with our manager to ready to pull the trigger. Does that illustrate a Chairman focussed on stability, growth and progress? Clearly he did not have any solid plans laid out prior to sacking Redknapp. If he did, he wouldn't be interviewing every Manager presently out of work who comes without a hefty compensation fee. Frankly, I feel Levy is treading on dangerous ground these days. If he gets our next appointment wrong (which I suspect he will), I won't hold back on my criticism of him as this to me looks set to be another of his shoddy decisions, handled badly with an inevitably p*** poor outcome. How you can go from supportive of your manager and looking to build on a stable foundation, to sacking the guy in one month, screams of a Chairman who makes knee-jerk decisions. Regardless of Redknapp's public statements and irritating press relationship, I am trying to make sense of all this and frankly can't. I wasn't Harry's biggest fan in recent weeks either but if as a Chairman you have no contingency plan in place that betters what you already have, it makes you look a fool and an amateur.
I disagree, in my view Levy felt that the club couldn't move forward with Redknapp and his approach and has probably felt like that for a while.
How do you explain "we will continue to seek stability"? They are his words, not mine. Stability isn't sacking your manager.
Flaspur many on here think Levy is "god" he can't do no wrong and apparently he learns from his mistakes (we can go through examples of were imo the same mistakes have been made) but still, we will be told he has learnt from his mistakes so that’s rather pointless. For us to sack the manager that got us champions league football to go possibly back to a system that has failed in the past AND without no current manager causing players to be unsettled and lack of plans for next season is frankly pathetic and unprofessional imo. I don't care about if arrys face never fitted here anymore or if the board couldn't stand the guy, sometimes you need to accept people you don't like or even enjoy having a relationship with (on a business level) still have many positives to offer and until we was sure there was a clear plan, a clear vision and someone was identified to fill this role, then causing unnecessary drama is negative towards our ambitions. Who do we think we are? real madrid? does levy think he is a Russian billionaire? reason I say this, is because we're not in a position to start making our players unsettled and having managerial changes when were making progress, as we don't have the financial clout to buy ourselves out of trouble. Clubs like chelsea, madrid etc can spend 50-100 million plus each season on players, wages, and still progress or win trophies if they decide to sack managers because they don't achieve a certain criteria (or even if they win the double). Clubs like ourselves need stability, to build a team, build a squad and use a system that works, not use a system that certain people admire. So yes once again we're left with a pre season of drama, upheaval and uncertainty and who is blame for that? only one person and its not rosie the dog.
Exactly! Levy's ego is way too big and frankly, I do not believe he is cut out to run a football club hence why he'd rather hide behind a DOF to do all the negotiating and transfer dealings. He's a classic delegator. If someone screws up, they get fired whilst he always has his hands clean. I predict that if the next manager he appoints doesn't work, he will get a lot of heat from the fans. His nine lives are running out fast!
Stability is more than retaining a manager - especially if it is felt that the manager is actually a potential cause for destabilising the situation. I don't think you should read too much into what were pretty general (and accurate) comments by DL about the state of the club and playing staff. He could hardly have gone public with criticisms on the last day of the season, could he?
His open letters are a joke. Just another feather in his cap as far as he's concerned. He's a megalomaniac!
He has the best record of any Spurs' chairman since the sixties. For the first time in decades we are punching above our weight and usually improving season on season. He takes difficult decisions and gets a lot more than half right. Getting Harry in was an inspired way of correcting a previous error, but Harry can't take us further. If we start going downhill then the buck will stop with him, but delegating and moving people on when they are not up to the job is exactly what a chairman is supposed to do. One of Harry's major weaknesses is that he has no idea of players value so Levy had to do the valuations as well as the negotiating. I suspect he is very uncomfortable in that role and we really do need a DoF type figure to advise him.
What i'm dreading most is the new "the dream team" the dof and manager( that needs a translator) presented to us as "The dream team" to take us onto "the next level", they should make a movie about this "next level" all the clubs that have failed to find it but tried so hard to get there.
Sorry mate but statements like that really rile me. How do you quantify a Chairman's record? Money spent, managers hired/fired, league finishes, accounts/balance sheet, number of good/crap players signed/sold... please enlighten me because I can't remember in my lifetime another Spurs chairman with a record of: 1) Sacking a manager during a UEFA Cup game 2) Replacing the manager with a hapless idiot who couldn't speak our native tongue 3) Sacking a Manager with the highest finishes in the league during his Chairmanship 4) Highly likely to replace him with a Manager with less than 3 years managerial experience who WILL Fail
The next manager will make or break Levy. More chance he will get it wrong than right. The real power is tax dodge Lewis , Levy must be his pocket tyrant.
i could give you a load of quotes where Harry is contradicting himself also. especially the one where in February he claimed that losing a manager or knowing that you will lose your manager soon does not effect the players(because he felt he would go when England come calling)...and then only a week or two ago he was saying that he needs his contract sorting out quickly(in other words extending) because it effects the players. I dont blame Levy for his U turns...its quite easy to see why Levy figured that working with Redknapp will be a strain for him in the future....it is not always about what happens on the pitch....plus in front of the cameras Levy will be diplomatic he is not like Redknapp...Levy has more to lose than Redknapp.
lets look at it another way..if you get a team 4th and CL football...does that give you the right to take the piss out of the club? i think not...some things are more important than 4th bloody placed finishes and CL football. some people actualy put self respect before that..especially if the former comes at the risk of the latter. nothing to do with thinking Levy is god...he done what anyone would do in any walk of life if their was a conflict of intrests.
It's not unusual at high levels in industry and commerce for people to have short shelf lives. There is a school of thought that says you should replace top management on a regular basis even when results are good. Just to keep everyone on their toes. In Levy's case to say all those things about the way Spurs were playing was easy. Redknapp did produce a good squad playing some great football, but the chairman has to decide if he has reached his peak and try to replace him just at that point. In this case it is easily possible that Joe Lewis made the decision, because like many of us he was fed up with Redknapps media performances. That would explain why Levy apparently does not have someone ready to take over. Although we don't actually know that, he may have, but is keeping the fact under wraps. Harry obviously didn't expect it, just maybe Levy didn't either. Whatever, I think it was the right decision anyway for the reasons I have already posted many times. I think it was becoming more and more difficult to retain stability with Redknapp on board.
There are also many on here that think Redknapp should have been allowed to say and do what he wanted and that Spurs as a club should of bent over backwards to keep him. Levy isn't perfect but I will always defend him as he has the club's best interests at heart. And no1 can argue that despite his mistakes we have been a lot more successful with him as chairman than we were before he came in.
That is an exaggeration and to be honest i'm seeing that alot on here in regards to redknapp, if someone doesn't like the guy they exaggerate their view and act like he was killing the club when in reality he was just being the manager he has always been and he has always been someone that talks to the press. As for taking the piss out the club, again I wouldn't say that as the England job is the pinnacle of any English managers career so he was put in a tricky situation and at the time I was slightly peeved but thats cause im a spurs fan and as you know that means number interest is spurs. Harry Redknapp wasn't born a spurs man or set out in his career to manage this club, he set out in his career to be a success and get the England job so he could never do the right thing in that respect as in reality it was just an unfortunate situation that did effect our season and was bad timing for all parties. As for bending over backwards to keep Redknapp? I don't see anyone suggesting this, all I see are some fans realising the situation could have been resolved to allow arry to carry on with his team and see how he would react to missing out on England and the challenge faced with getting us back into champions league. Anyhow until we get a new manager in, a lot more will be said but personally I don't have a high opinion of Levy and the way he deals with certain issues yet I know its in his interests for us to be a success yet his previous decisions imo tell me its not just the manager that needs to be replaced for a "different approach".
