Postecoglou & Lange (& Paratici) Watch

I don't have names. I was merely asking why the choice would necessarily be between Levy and something worse. Are we saying that there couldn't be anyone better out there to move the club forward? Don't get me wrong, he's done a great job with the stadium but his penny-pinching and intransigence in the transfer market have caused us to

• not move players on when they were past their sell-by date
• miss out on better players when we had a chance to get them in, i.e. when we could offer them CL football
  
• buy our 2nd or 3rd choice players that more often didn't live up to expectations

 

I'll accept that Mourinho wasn't helped by having players that didn't suit his system of play...BUT he told Levy that the squad would make the Top 4 and they didn't twice over! That's on him. Also, I believe that with VAR giving penalties for exhaling to near to a forward, Mourinho's anti-football is a dead letter. Levy wasn't smart enough to see either of those things...and plenty of posters on here were saying it from Day 1.

If you look at my posts above...

No, I have no faith in Levy' supposed Damescene-conversion. He is an egotist and control freak. He won't change and he will be back to the old routine as soon as his chestnuts are out of the fire. I guarantee it. He will have to have the football cheque book pried from his cold dead hand.

 

Who would you take from the current Premier League owners, if given the option?
I wouldn't want any of the dictator-aligned owners and most of the rest are bloody awful.
I agree with you on his mistakes, though.

 

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to blame Levy 100% for the issues with the squad when it comes to moving players on. Yes there’s instances where he has probably held out for higher valuations that have come back to bite us but players have to want to go to the club that makes an offer for their services in order for us to be able to sell them.

The transfer market is way more complicated than just putting a player up for sale on FIFA. Don’t get me wrong I think that between Levy, the Football Board and the managers, the overall management of the squad in the last 5 years or so has been poor, but without excusing the mistakes, it’s not easy to get these things done.

 

ENIC aren't Tottenham...and they will sell the business to whoever they choose when the time comes...they are not a benevolent owner, just capitalists.

Levy isn't ENIC...Joe Lewis can push through any senior management he wants. Levy could be gone tomorrow, whilst ENIC remain.

Whilst ENIC aren't going to leave, other than on their terms and at a time of their choosing, we can affect better management if we have a mind to and make it apparent that we won't accept less. We just have to make ENIC know that we've had enough of their continuing to prioritise non-football matters.

 

I don't think that Joe Lewis gives a crap about Tottenham or Spurs fans. Levy is ENIC in this matter, in my opinion.
Lewis has seen his initial investment (£50m, maybe?) grow almost exponentially, so I can't see him replacing the man that's responsible for it.

 

The super rich hate losing money even more than the poor...it's how they got rich in the first place.

If the club starts to lose sponsors and fall in terms of its projected value, outside of Covid, even Joe will notice...I promise you.

 

Chalk that one off.

 

I’d be happy for Poch to return. Only if he clears out and is ruthless.

 

If someone could actually name someone they think is better then I'd be delighted to debate the pros and cons.

 

Long term success on the pitch depends mostly on having more money to spend, partly on having the best training facilities and pretty much nothing else. Getting any sort of sustainable edge in recruitment is a pipedream. All we are seeing over the last three seasons is a random fluctuation in our recruitment fortunes.

 

It is difficult to look at a list of 19 players recruited across 8 windows, see 3 or 4 real success stories, and conclude that what we are looking at is a 'random fluctuation'.

 

Do you mean football people to run the football side ONLY, or that PLUS a load of jobs that those individuals aren't qualified to do (property development, NFL stuff, handling sponsors), in a similar way as Levy isn't suitably experienced or qualified to make high level football decisions?

If you look at other big clubs, they have very savvy owners, who have or are looking to divide up management of their numerous functions. Manchester United have just parted with Woodward , who is great on the financials but another Levy on football matters.

Before getting in Guardiola, City got in Tixi Bergiristain to run the footballing side of the business. After ****ing up for years, Liverpool got in Michael Edwards (formerly of this parish), to save themselves from making repeatedly terrible decisions. Chelsea had Michael Emenalo. The continent is littered with DoF's - Rangnick, Campos, Andre Berta.....take your pick. I wonder whether we could get Michael Edwards back if we paid him double what Liverpool pay him and promised to keep Levy away from him?

It's not the shortage of candidates that's the problem, it's that Levy loves being 'a player' in the football 'crap shoot' and won't give it up.

 

I'm sorry but that's utter nonsense.

In the 5 years up to their PL win, Liverpool's net spend (£107m) was less than...

1. Man City – £601.98m
2. Man Utd – £484.88m
3. Arsenal – £267.88m
4. Everton – £225.42m
5. Brighton – £214.86m
6. Wolves – £205.22m
7. West Ham – £187.49m
8. Bournemouth – £176.95m
9. Aston Villa – £166.65m
10. Watford – £125.69m
11. Leicester City – £124.83m
12. Newcastle – £122.91m
13. Chelsea – £115.57m

Knowledge and expertise leads to success in pretty much every business; ignorance and foolishness very rarely does.

 

Not highly regarded by their fans, to be fair.

Harsh but fair. Signing players is not random. There are good and bad ways of going about it.
Brentford, for example, have consistently recruited well for a number of years using a statistical analysis method.
It all sounds a bit Comolli to me, but I think that he applied a good idea badly.

 

I think that him being Nigerian had a fair bit to do with that. I'd be pretty happy with most of these...

https://footyroom.co/forum/discussions/emenalos-signings-2011-14-55966

Since he left, their recruitment has been VERY patchy.

 

Not a complete list, as he left in 2017, but it's interesting to see some names on there that essentially flopped at Chelsea but went on to better things.
De Bruyne's move was scuppered by Courtois shagging his missus, for example, while Salah may have upset people for other reasons.
Doesn't seem to be doing anything now, strangely. He's 55, so I doubt he's retired.

 

I couldn't find a complete list but it's better looking than most clubs manage and than he's remembered for.

Obviously, Chelsea being more bent than a 9 bob note does no harm to that...but I would happily take results like this compared to what we've been up to under Hitchen and Levy in the last few years.

Hitchen's a scout. He might be a good one and one day, he might even be a good DoF, who knows? Currently, he's just Mini-Me to Levy's Dr Evil.

 

6-7 years ago I would have been excited by Martinez. In 2021 it’s a hard No from me

 

If Martinez is our next manager it'll be an unmitigated disaster. He was horrendous at Everton and ain't really pulled up trees with Belgium so please, in the name of all that is holy ... please...not Martinez