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