👨🏼‍💼Daniel Levy - Chairman | Page 18 | Vital Football

👨🏼‍💼Daniel Levy - Chairman

I hope Levy reads these articles. It's not about their accuracy, more the current media narrative that focuses on his leadership as an individual. Even if he feels the public perception of him is unfair, tough. Suck it up and do something about changing it. That is what leadership is about.

His leadership is undoubtedly in question. But that article was weak.

And TBF to Levy, he has appeared to address his leadership shorfalls.

The question is will he GTFOOTW? That is THE question for Spurs.
 
His leadership is undoubtedly in question. But that article was weak.

And TBF to Levy, he has appeared to address his leadership shorfalls.

The question is will he GTFOOTW? That is THE question for Spurs.

Levy doesn't get to declare victory just because he's made some changes. He gets to declare victory if those changes work down the line.

He needs to keep driving past The Lodge on his way to work at Lilywhite House.
 
Levy doesn't get to declare victory just because he's made some changes. He gets to declare victory if those changes work down the line.

He needs to keep driving past The Lodge on his way to work at Lilywhite House.


Or better yet play polo in Florida without a cell phone.
 
So what has Levy been up to lately? The man is always working on something.
 
Also don't think "Levy" has had much to do with it, at least not in the traditional unilateral sense.

The stance on Kane was defined and agreed by all in the "New Structure", and was further cemented by the additional voice of Big Joe, you know, once he got pissed off.

This is playing out just as the Consortium has always claimed. The player and his "Agent" have not covered themselves in glory, and actually appear to have grossly misinterpreted the situation.

.
 
Although I am not happy with the ambition shown by our owners especially the seasons we finished 2nd and 3rd. In January with the right transfers we could have won the league. We just needed a proper backup for Harry and a good cdm to replace moussa. We would have won the league and a trophy.
The only thing I can say is he has invested in training facilities better than anything I have seen or trained in and the best stadium in the world. We have to judge after this season. Once we have got a full season with fans then we shall see how ambitious they are.
 
It seems City net spend over the same period is over 1 billion, Utd just under 1 billion, Arse and Chav close to half a billion and Pool over 300 mil. Out of the 6 we are around half of the fifth highest spender.
 
Where Levy has nowhere to hide is the 2 things he said publicly.

The first is that the football and stadium finances were mutually exclusive.

The second was that the intention was to get regular champions league football by the time the stadium was opened.

So after Poch had given his chairman 3 bonus years of CL revenues before the stadium opened, where did the money go? Levy actually only sanctioned any proper spend until he had the CL final revenues in his pocket. That is why it is difficult to defend the lack of spending in most of Poch's tenure. The downward tumble from the summer 2017 was shocking and catalysed by Levy's financial strategy. A record profit year in the middle of that.
 
Although I am not happy with the ambition shown by our owners especially the seasons we finished 2nd and 3rd. In January with the right transfers we could have won the league. We just needed a proper backup for Harry and a good cdm to replace moussa. We would have won the league and a trophy.
The only thing I can say is he has invested in training facilities better than anything I have seen or trained in and the best stadium in the world. We have to judge after this season. Once we have got a full season with fans then we shall see how ambitious they are.

The stadium is on a loan. Guess who is paying that back? It ain't ENIC.
 
The stadium is on a loan. Guess who is paying that back? It ain't ENIC.

I don't know how they have structured the loans. I would have thought the money has to come from somewhere. Ticket sales and merchandising must go someway to paying the loan. Like I say I don't know how they have structured.
 
I don't know how they have structured the loans. I would have thought the money has to come from somewhere. Ticket sales and merchandising must go someway to paying the loan. Like I say I don't know how they have structured.

My point is it's all on credit. They haven't paid for it. So I couldn't give a damn if he helped design the stadium.

He has paid himself very handsomely in the process whilst taking 2 decades to achieve his project.

He needs to deliver trophies before I give him praise.
 
My point is it's all on credit. They haven't paid for it. So I couldn't give a damn if he helped design the stadium.

He has paid himself very handsomely in the process whilst taking 2 decades to achieve his project.

He needs to deliver trophies before I give him praise.

The Club put around £350-£400 mill of retained profit into the Academy (final costs around £290 million) and Stadium projects; the stadium and related developments cost just shy of £1 billion, and we now have a 'mortgage' of around £750 mil against it, of which £250 mill was raised against it to off-set the absence of stadium revenues for around 18 months.

That is what has happened to the profits the club has generated over the last 10 years.

Incredible financial achievements given where we once were; what you can be sure of is without those profits no group of financiers would have come near us, Levy's financial management ability instead had them queuing up to join in, even when the covid disaster derailed our plans completely and utterly.

The downside?

Fairly obvious, but as Levy would always tell us, his vision was to lead us into the top table and provide an infrastructure and finances that would keep us there, he's done that, but the price has been that he's been so single-minded that he remained for too long 'penny wise and pound foolish' as I said he was 10 years ago and would be until he could pass on his legacy.

I don't blame him entirely; in the background, we've had a billionaire that's refused to invest any cash into the club worth talking about; some clubs get 'lucky' enough to become a billionaires playground, we didn't. We've had to build the greatest infrastructure in the PL through our own resources and smarts.

We can't change the past, but I've loved the journey and been proud that we weren't a billionaires plaything. I'd have greatly preferred some silverware along the way but we can't change the past, but what he leaves behind may well change our future.

We've had to fight billionaires who've crashed and burned their short-held clubs in the PL or who've spent too much time fighting amongst themselves and European clubs who've been supported by their governments in a form of financial doping, just as we've had to contend with unheard-of financial doping in the PL; I have no respect for the clubs in the PL who've lied, cheated and had a massive backdoor investment to enable them to win silverware.

For me, it's time to look to the future and I think that's what Levy is doing now. For those who prefer to look back and point fingers, I'd say you need to look dispassionately how you'd have run the business differently...it's an incredibly difficult competitive landscape where incoming revenues would never have met the salary demands for longer than a season or two before we went tits up, as 18 others did over the last 20 years.
 
The Club put around £350-£400 mill of retained profit into the Academy (final costs around £290 million) and Stadium projects; the stadium and related developments cost just shy of £1 billion, and we now have a 'mortgage' of around £750 mil against it, of which £250 mill was raised against it to off-set the absence of stadium revenues for around 18 months.

That is what has happened to the profits the club has generated over the last 10 years.

Incredible financial achievements given where we once were; what you can be sure of is without those profits no group of financiers would have come near us, Levy's financial management ability instead had them queuing up to join in, even when the covid disaster derailed our plans completely and utterly.

The downside?

Fairly obvious, but as Levy would always tell us, his vision was to lead us into the top table and provide an infrastructure and finances that would keep us there, he's done that, but the price has been that he's been so single-minded that he remained for too long 'penny wise and pound foolish' as I said he was 10 years ago and would be until he could pass on his legacy.

I don't blame him entirely; in the background, we've had a billionaire that's refused to invest any cash into the club worth talking about; some clubs get 'lucky' enough to become a billionaires playground, we didn't. We've had to build the greatest infrastructure in the PL through our own resources and smarts.

We can't change the past, but I've loved the journey and been proud that we weren't a billionaires plaything. I'd have greatly preferred some silverware along the way but we can't change the past, but what he leaves behind may well change our future.

We've had to fight billionaires who've crashed and burned their short-held clubs in the PL or who've spent too much time fighting amongst themselves and European clubs who've been supported by their governments in a form of financial doping, just as we've had to contend with unheard-of financial doping in the PL; I have no respect for the clubs in the PL who've lied, cheated and had a massive backdoor investment to enable them to win silverware.

For me, it's time to look to the future and I think that's what Levy is doing now. For those who prefer to look back and point fingers, I'd say you need to look dispassionately how you'd have run the business differently...it's an incredibly difficult competitive landscape where incoming revenues would never have met the salary demands for longer than a season or two before we went tits up, as 18 others did over the last 20 years.

You're right in that we can only look forward acknowledging the good and bad leadership of Levy in the past. RD is also right in that we only accept Levy's increase in personal fortune when us fans are getting regular trophies. Otherwise it is a one sided arrangement.

For me, the journey stopped being fun in the middle of the 2017/18 season. 86 points the season before and falling from that glass ceiling at a rate of knots. We could all see each and every decision that was creating it. I wasn't fooled by the CL final run. Not one bit.

I'm hoping that can change now and we build something more permanent. Fabio is a big part of that. His equal focus on outgoing and incomings in the squad and his natural football networking skills will help us to get to yes or no quicker in each transfer engagement. I just hope he sticks around for a while and doesn't get frustrated with Levy. It seems a lot of football people do.
 
You're right in that we can only look forward acknowledging the good and bad leadership of Levy in the past. RD is also right in that we only accept Levy's increase in personal fortune when us fans are getting regular trophies. Otherwise it is a one sided arrangement.

For me, the journey stopped being fun in the middle of the 2017/18 season. 86 points the season before and falling from that glass ceiling at a rate of knots. We could all see each and every decision that was creating it. I wasn't fooled by the CL final run. Not one bit.

I'm hoping that can change now and we build something more permanent. Fabio is a big part of that. His equal focus on outgoing and incomings in the squad and his natural football networking skills will help us to get to yes or no quicker in each transfer engagement. I just hope he sticks around for a while and doesn't get frustrated with Levy. It seems a lot of football people do.

Part of accepting that you don't own a business is that the owners will make the key investment decisions - and you have to hope that they know what they're doing, few in this business seem to. Clubs have just gone from one rich dumb ego driven owner to the next - with few exceptions.

It has always amazed me how many smart business people lose their sanity and smarts when it comes to football clubs. Many have literally almost bankrupt themselves on the alter of their ego's.

Levy isn't one of them. I accept and appreciate his smarts for not being sucked in, in a way that most fans who've never run a decent sized business are.

Hindsight always seems in plentiful supply in this business as well as passion, Levy stands aloof from both.

The one who will greatly enrich himself from Levy's vision is of course Old Joe - how and when he enjoys the fruits of his investment is the great unknown; he's getting on and every year now is a bonus for him, his daughter is the buisness brains behind Tavistock now and she's known not to give three hoots for football.

Levy has done a great job in as far as his capabilities could take him, the shame is he's fallen short on the footballing side because of his prudence and unwillingness to take silly financial gambles as so many others have done in the premier league era and got burned for it.

He thinks multi-generational and I still recall how passionate he was that his goal was to break into Europes elite - but not by burning money on wages we could never sustain whilst our income base was so small.

It isn't anymore, and in my mind only covid has derailed his vision now - he's stepped back from the daily footballing decision making level now - Rebecca deals with all contract negotiations and now Paraticci heads all football operations - it's a well planned structure designed to deliver success - and that's exactly what I believe that's what it will do.

At some point Joe will want his exit, but don't think that means Levy will go too, if anything we may well find that he oversees all for the next 20 years.

Before covid I was aware of a genuine approach led by the city, what didn't surprise me is that the hedge fund who wanted to buy control/buy in were insisting that Levy had to stay for at least 5 years....if they gained control. So what's always been certain to me that as football matures and sucks in genuine investment from non-football funds, they have a deep appreciation of what he's had to contend and compete with and that makes him a very valuable asset.

Our last 5 years net spend and our 10 year spend:


The 5 years look significantly different to our 10 years...

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/fuenfjahresvergleich/wettbewerb/GB1
 
Last edited: