There is a lot of anger towards Daniel Levy among Spurs fans. I’ve even seen the first @ENIC_OUT account on Twitter. Some were even comparing him to Venky’s. Their points of argument seem to be that Levy sells all our best players, is only in it for a profit, promised us a new stadium but won’t give it to us etc.
I completely disagree with that. I think Levy has done an excellent job at Spurs. A lot of people seem to have forgotten where we were under Sugar and where we were when Levy took over. That’s right, mid-table mediocrity. Players like Doherty, Perry, Acimovic etc. dotted around the team. Since Levy took control we have been gradually rising up the league and we got our first shot at Champions League football in 2010-11, getting to the quarter finals, after Levy paid a lot of money for Modric, Crouch, Van der Vaart etc. As Redknapp said, we’d never had it so good.
Now we have slightly dipped below the heights of Champions League football. But that’s not really to criticise Levy for. He sold Bale and bought in 7 players – at the time everyone said what marvellous business it was. He clung on to Modric when he wanted to leave and got another excellent season out of him. VdV left as AVB didn’t rate him/he wanted to return to Hamburg.
And re. the stadium. The foundations are in place, but Levy wants to get it right. You can’t just splurge £400m on a new stadium overnight – it has to be done correctly. ENIC want to sell the club for the highest possible price and the stadium is an absolute necessity in that; it will be done at some point. If someone had asked you 10 years ago if you would take the current state of the club you would have undoubtedly snapped their hand off. We are financially stable, having a young squad full of potential and challenging for top 4. Obviously there is a lot of angst surrounding our manager but that is a temporary problem, not a permanent one. AVB burnt so many bridges that he had to go but no-one was available; anyway, Sherwood has done a very tidy job so far, with 5 league wins, 1 draw and a solitary loss against the champions-elect.
And re. Levy only being in it for profit. I’m not going to complain if our Chairman takes us from bottom half to top 5 in 10 years whilst making money and keeping the club within the new FFP rules.
A lot of fans seem to be taking what we have achieved in the last 5 years for granted. For them, the benchmark is no longer mid-table but the benchmark is top 4. That’s a dangerous game to play. Without a larger stadium, we should not be competing with the Arsenals, the Citys, the Chelseas, the Liverpools, the Uniteds. But we are. Without a larger wage budget, we should not be competing with the Arsenals, the Citys, the Chelseas, the Liverpools, the Uniteds. But we are.
At the end of the day, Spurs are punching above their weight, and Daniel Levy is a large part of that.
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