Levy's Logic

I read this morning (in The Fail admittedly) that our Chairman is "deeply unhappy with the performance of the team under our new head coach" and is now going to "tear up" our scouting plans and literally start from scratch. Here's the article for anyone who wants to see it for themselves. I've highlighted a few points (assuming they are reasonably accurate) just to raise a few points about Levy's way of thinking...

"Daniel Levy will begin a major restructuring of Tottenham’s scouting and recruitment procedures after their poor start to the Barclays Premier League season. (1) The Spurs chairman is planning the overhaul to help manager Mauricio Pochettino’s short-and long-term transfer activity. Although Levy is deeply unhappy with the performance of the team under their new head coach, (2) the Argentine has the chairman’s full support.

Instead )(3) Levy is planning a shake-up to ensure the proper procedures are in place to scout and recruit talent after spending the £86million from Gareth Bale’s sale last summer. The club’s head of analysis Jonathan Beaker has already left the club and has moved to Australia, but Levy has plans to restructure his scouting policy in the coming weeks. Spurs are still recovering from that chaotic spending spree last summer and (4) Levy wants to make sure there is a system of accountability in place after last season’s blame game. (5) Tottenham are widely recognised as the most political club in the Premier League and the fingers were being pointed after last season’s depressing results. Their director of football administration, Darren Eales, who was hugely supportive of staff at their new training ground, is serving his notice period. His departure for MLS side Atlanta, announced last month, is unrelated to his work at Spurs. He is leaving for personal reasons and is expected to complete the move to the United States in the next couple of weeks.

(6) Levy wants to bring people in to assist Pochettino before the transfer window opens in January. (7)Sporting director Franco Baldini is expected to play a key role in future plans, but Levy is driving the project. He was disappointed by the club’s failure to push on last season under Andre Villas-Boas after he sold Bale to Real Madrid for a world record fee. Instead they squandered vast sums on Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen."

1) So now the Chairman suddenly decides 2 months into the new campaign that he must back the new manager. Not logically in the summer during pre-season when he was recruited but only now, after realising with hindsight that his failure to sign the players Poch wanted was a massive disaster and now the results are exposing last season's poor transfer policies for what they are.

2) No he doesn't. If he did, he'd already have the players he wanted. Not the scraps left over from last season after Baldini and Levy's squandering of the money gained from the Bale sale.

3) Oh great, we need another shake up don't we! If there's one word that has been an ever-present under this regime for the past ten years, it is most certainly not "stability". That's the crux of it. When things don't work, Levy drops the axe. And what amazes me more is that after being at the helm for over a decade, he still hasn't cracked it at putting the right people in place to scout and recruit? If that's the case, where do you think the serious questions should be asked?

4) In other words, how can one save one's own arse from the axe after his recruitment policy? He's clearly out of options. Results and performances have been poor and he damn well knows that firing Poch this early would basically put his neck on the line too. AVB was his man. He failed. Sherwood was his caretaker. He fired him. Poch is his man and is struggling with this squad. Another managerial sacking would look ridiculous so now he's decided to blame the men behind the scenes instead. It's a constant case of who to point the finger at when things go wrong. Who's flavour of the month. Who's in. Who's out.

5) Yeah and who's the root cause of that!

6) Too little, too late.

7) So keep the very man who bought seven players who have all failed to realise their potential. So in actual reality, Levy is just picking on the small guys, who play little part and are easy targets - not the one's who made the final decision of purchasing the current squad. He's like a school playground bully. Pathetic.

Now... before the pro-Levy apologists shoot me down; I am trying to be objective here. Yes, ENIC and Levy had taken us forward in the first 6-8 years of their ownership. They did a great job of getting our finances in order. Have made us a profitable, financially stable club with excellent training facilities and are working to getting us a new stadium. Where balance sheet is concerned, plaudits are justified.

But over the past 3-4 years as a team, we have undeniably gone backwards and where recruitment is concerned, it's been chaotic. Levy's management of human resources is nothing short of laughable. I've said it over and over - he's either getting very bad advice from somewhere or is simply poor at judgement himself. Either way, the bucks stops with him and with the countless managers we've had over the past decade, the hirings, the firings and his handling of certain situations i.e Jol, Ramos, Redknapp, Sherwood etc... it shows he believes he is completely infallible.

Scores of us don't call him Teflon Dan for nothing. This latest twist in the long running soap opera at WHL is just another example of Levy trying to dodge a bullet and lay the blame on someone else. He can't turn on the manager as that would be career suicide. Instead, he sets his crosshairs on the little guy - the back room teams, the scouts. These guys just send reports back to the club on players they've watched or heard about. How they act or decide on them is down to Levy and Baldini and he bloody well knows it.

Mr. Levy - I sincerely applaud you for your astute financial acumen. You've done a sterling job to ensure our club has a solid fiscal future and brought our club back from the brink but that is now history. Please, for the sake of the game, for the glory of Tottenham, for your own pride and humility.... step aside and get Joe Lewis to appoint a new Chairman. One change is all that is required - not a recruitment fire sale. This merry-go-round cannot go on anymore.

 

1) It's the Fail and it's totally made up.
2) See above.

I think that we've taken a step backwards recently in an attempt to move forwards in the long term.
The club's spent our transfer money on the new training facilities and the preparation for the stadium, while focusing on youth development.
The scouting network appeared to fall apart, but that was addressed by bringing in Baldini and restoring Ian Broomfield.

The idea that we're failing on the pitch under Levy's control is somewhat bizarre, to me.
I have issues with various parts of what the club does, especially with regard to ticket prices and fan treatment, but we've done pretty well in football terms.
We're regularly outspent by City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal with others chipping in occasionally, so finishing above any of them would be hard.
My main issue would be with our lack of trophies, but given the way that the media and some sections of the fanbase react to poor league runs, perhaps that's not a surprise?

What Levy does need to set right is the overall attitude at the club and their view of fans as customers.
Ensuring that more youngsters can attend games and that the fans that do attend games are less likely to get pissed off at the first misplaced pass would definitely help the manager and the team.
A lot of people currently think that they're not getting good value for money and with the tickets costing as much as they do, I can't say that I blame them.
The atmosphere at WHL is often verging on toxic because of it.

 

They are undefendable . The toxic , divided atmosphere will always remain while they
here , no matter how much the apologists defend them. A club constantly divided
will always fail . Everywhere the people have had enough , open your eyes being ripped off by these
Greedy great pretenders . If this is the future then this is Spurs . Yes change is nearly
impossible but to walk with these despots is not the answer.
Outside his core fan base Levy is most ridiculed , disliked and considered a footballing
failure .
"Accountability " no chance .

 

"Outside his core fan base Levy is most ridiculed , disliked and considered a footballing failure."

Whoever they may be.

As with players, I can only only compare the chairman to their predecessors.
So how is Levy measuring up against Irving Scholar and Alan Sugar then ??
Please feel free to define the measurement criteria ...

 

Why is it that we constantly hark back to the most recent pre-ENIC owners to make comparisons when this thread isn't about finances; it's about appointments and the structure that affects our footballing performances. If we're constantly looking to the past, how are we ever going to move forward? This is about measuring Levy's hit or miss rate in terms of managerial appointments, back-room staff, Directors of Football, scouts and the constant merry-go-round we have where he lays the blame at everyone else's feet except his own!

If we can use the old excuse of how previous regimes nearly bankrupted us then if I lose my business tomorrow, can I blame Tony Blair? (although i hasten to add I am no fan of the war criminal)

 

Like it or not, and not springs to mind, we are following a professional football club in a highly lucrative, money orientated league.To call these teams clubs is a real misnomer when in reality they are more like small corporations.We as fans are merely consumers and customers there for our allegiance to be used for their benefit. There is no pretence of concern for the fans when you consider the cost of watching your team play or the the huge rip off prices for a cheap polyester shirt.

Against this background Levy is actually not too bad. Compare him to other chairman in the league like those at Cardiff, Hull, Fulham, Southampton, Portsmouth, Leeds,Newcastle, Man United and so on. From changing the cherished colours or names to blatantly creaming off money the record is not great. Have no ilusions the game we follow is first and foremost about MONEY.

Levy has shown respect for the 'club' and its traditions and has as you say placed it on firm financial foundations with new training facilities and a new stadium in the pipeline.

This is as good as it gets in the present climate, who knows what we would get with the next chairman. It is in his interest to get the team right and he is trying, clearly like the whole sport, emporor's new clothes passes for expertise and we will continue to spend millions on 'Managers' with little experience or understanding of what managing is, but you never know he might get lucky, Pochettino might be the next Maureen or Fergie, in which case he'll be off to a 'bigger' club anyway.

That I'm afraid is the game we love.

 

"Why is it that we constantly hark back to the most recent pre-ENIC owners to make comparisons when this thread isn't about finances"

Then define your measurement criteria.
If you are not able to do so, feel free to say so and I will suggest some to you.

 

Something has gone badly wrong somewhere, that's for sure. Still, we don't have anybody put their hands up and accept responsibility for pissing the majority of the Bale money up the wall. I find it very hard to believe that some scout(s) are responsible entirely. Surely, either Baldini or AVB must accept the blame. Neither has. Levy does have to look at himself as he hired them both. Not to mention the succession of disastrous managerial appointments and clumsy firings that preceded them.

 

Some joined up thinking on transfer targets would be good. Kids in a sweetshop is not really the right approach is it.

 

Exactly. We behaved like thick lottery winners. Spend, spend, spend!..

 

I like how the Fail says we're the most political team in the Premier League when there's all manner of political manoeuvres happening at Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea every single season.

 

Not to mention Newcastle...

 

Or that club that were involved in all manner of backroom deals with Newham Council and the Olympic Park Legacy Company...

 

Because being the chairman of a football club is an incredibly hard job which almost no-one does well. In particular appointing managers is very hit and miss and Levy is no worse than anyone else. I know from my own business that getting 52% of decisions right makes you one of the best performers in the world. I think Levy does that. There is no other chairman in the league that has improved his club to the extent that Levy has. And its infuriating to be called an 'apologist' by you and Sidney. There is nothing to apologise for. Our club has underperformed in the league since 1961. Levy is the first chairman to have us finishing consistently above the likes of Liverpool which is an amazingly good outcome. Which other chairman has lasted for that long and taken his club from mid-table to the CL.

 

" Which other chairman has lasted for that long and taken his club from mid-table to the CL."


....and all the way back again!...

 

You know where we are going to finish? If not you are judging 15 years of good work on 9 matches which is hardly fair.

 

Don't understand why we are having a disagreement about cl football.considering we don't have the income of other clubs we done well to get there once,when we get a new stadium and bigger crowds then we can expect to do it more often,even then we won't have a devine right to it as the mousers have proved

 

Why does everyone think that 'backing a manager' means trusting him with the transfer budget? Is there any evidence at all that the best person to select the players is also the best person to chose them. Why should someone with one skill automatically have the other? It seems a total nonsense to me - aside from anything else its going to take watching upwards of 20 matches to be sure there is a real difference between a player you want to sign and the one you already have and the manager clearly doesn't have time to do that.

 

Man City fans might be able to answer this one...

 

That's why managers have scouts they know and trust.