I'm as Levy out as you now Don
I defended him for a long time, but he's been abysmal since 2017 when we actually had the chance to kick on and establish ourselves as a top club.
ENIC out
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
Get this slap headed fack out of our club. ENIC out!
Oh great, another Levy out thread
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
Can't get the article to load, which is annoying since it sounds like it'll be a satisfying read
comment by South Side (U20009)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah. It is the guardian. Surprised it didn’t read “he, she, they, them, it, Apache Attack Helicopter” - just to cover all bases.
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
did you not know Levy reads this forum mate
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 28 seconds ago
comment by South Side (U20009)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah. It is the guardian. Surprised it didn’t read “he, she, they, them, it, Apache Attack Helicopter” - just to cover all bases.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yup, getting so boring now.
As far as I'm concerned he's always been abysmal. We just didn't notice when the sun shone through the clouds occasionally. Pochettino was a second choice appointment after Van Gaal so he nearly got that one wrong. Poch was so good he masked the financial restrictions Levy placed on the club. Same, to a lesser extent, with Redknapp, who only got the job as a man known to be capable of getting teams out of trouble.
Every financial decision restricted. Every good manager appointment stumbled upon.
The Lewis / Levy obsession with financial control has meant that those clearly more capable of making sound football decisions are being pushed aside or silenced by the hierarchy for fear of making financial commitments beyond the clubs' purse.
It's a trust issue. The Amazon documentary gave us a scary glimpse of just how little Levy knows about the game, yet he talks like he thinks he does. He's the bloke down the pub that's convinced Lampard can't play with Gerrard or that the 'players don't fit the system' despite the fact that far more experienced ex-pros in the dugout think differently. We've all done it but when that ego sits alongside complete control of transfer policy, it's a major problem. His enthusiasm for the team is almost his undoing. He needs to loosen the shackles and trust more. As good as Bale was last year at times, Jose didn't want him but Levy pushed the button anyway. That much is clear. That cannot happen and probably wouldn't happen at a successful club.
Levy /Lewis ARE the problem. There's no doubt about it. They repeat mistakes over and over again and wait for a manager to come in that can mask those mistakes for a short while, lying dormant, before rearing up again. It will continue to happen all the time they're at the club.
comment by Phenom - you're a wizard Graham (U20037)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
did you not know Levy reads this forum mate
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He needs all the help he can get
Absolutely, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has been treated as an investment opportunity for the past 30 years, and on the rare occasions the on the pitch stuff got close to achieving something, the owners froze every single time, preferring instead to protect a healthy balance sheet.
I am sick and tired of saying it, but Spurs will not win silverware under ENIC, it is not their primary goal.
As for all the Levyistas and ENIC fan boys, they are just suffering with a clear case of Stockholm Syndrome, after years of ENIC`s misery they are now starting to think like them.
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 23 minutes ago
As far as I'm concerned he's always been abysmal. We just didn't notice when the sun shone through the clouds occasionally. Pochettino was a second choice appointment after Van Gaal so he nearly got that one wrong. Poch was so good he masked the financial restrictions Levy placed on the club. Same, to a lesser extent, with Redknapp, who only got the job as a man known to be capable of getting teams out of trouble.
Every financial decision restricted. Every good manager appointment stumbled upon.
The Lewis / Levy obsession with financial control has meant that those clearly more capable of making sound football decisions are being pushed aside or silenced by the hierarchy for fear of making financial commitments beyond the clubs' purse.
It's a trust issue. The Amazon documentary gave us a scary glimpse of just how little Levy knows about the game, yet he talks like he thinks he does. He's the bloke down the pub that's convinced Lampard can't play with Gerrard or that the 'players don't fit the system' despite the fact that far more experienced ex-pros in the dugout think differently. We've all done it but when that ego sits alongside complete control of transfer policy, it's a major problem. His enthusiasm for the team is almost his undoing. He needs to loosen the shackles and trust more. As good as Bale was last year at times, Jose didn't want him but Levy pushed the button anyway. That much is clear. That cannot happen and probably wouldn't happen at a successful club.
Levy /Lewis ARE the problem. There's no doubt about it. They repeat mistakes over and over again and wait for a manager to come in that can mask those mistakes for a short while, lying dormant, before rearing up again. It will continue to happen all the time they're at the club.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No doubt about it. I could see his failures years ago. Thankfully apart from the odd blinded few on here, Spurs fans are all in agreement that Levy needs to f** off along with ENIC. The ground will be toxic next season.
Like it or not Spurs as a football club need new owners who will invest hard in the playing team. But will that happen? Will ENIC sell? I personally can't see it for at least another 5yrs and that's being optimistic.
The pandemic could not have come at a worse time for our club make no mistake. The stadium was meant to have held concerts, fights, NFL, rugby etc etc. It was meant to have generated £££ and then I think ENIC would have invested but looked for an exit strategy at a £££ profit.
Levy & Co have absolutely delivered and smashed it with the stadium and training ground. But they have truly lost sight of the the main bread & butter. The playing squad.
But I digress, Joe Lewis will NOT sell his "asset" for a loss. He knows he can ask top dollar for Spurs but right now any new ownership seems bleak. So we will have a few long years yet
comment by LukaBrasi Ryan's mate #FreePalestine (U22178)
posted 4 hours, 41 minutes ago
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So you can copy and paste, we'll done Son
comment by Dave&Danny (U4428)
posted 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
comment by LukaBrasi Ryan's mate #FreePalestine (U22178)
posted 4 hours, 41 minutes ago
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So you can copy and paste, we'll done Son
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Did it for dumb peeps like you pal. You're welcome
This is the problem Levy faces now......
"any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice."
Levy will have to pay through his nose to get anyone worthwhile to manage this club.
And you can guess what Levy will try to do.
Conclusion: No manager worth a dime next season.
Odds on Mason to stay. Kane & Son to leave.
And God only knows where we will be in the Prem table, not top for sure, but maybe bottom?
Levy is just a ticking time bomb. Things might go well for a period, but you always know that sooner or later, one way or another, Levy is going to fack it up and be the architect of the next downfall.
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Guardian article on Levy
Page 1 of 1
posted on 8/6/21
I'm as Levy out as you now Don
I defended him for a long time, but he's been abysmal since 2017 when we actually had the chance to kick on and establish ourselves as a top club.
ENIC out
posted on 8/6/21
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
posted on 8/6/21
Get this slap headed fack out of our club. ENIC out!
posted on 8/6/21
Oh great, another Levy out thread
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
posted on 8/6/21
Can't get the article to load, which is annoying since it sounds like it'll be a satisfying read
posted on 8/6/21
comment by South Side (U20009)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah. It is the guardian. Surprised it didn’t read “he, she, they, them, it, Apache Attack Helicopter” - just to cover all bases.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
did you not know Levy reads this forum mate
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 28 seconds ago
comment by South Side (U20009)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Genius of Nielsen (U9059)
posted 7 minutes ago
“ Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him”
Mess. Mess. Mess. Mess
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling with Spurs at the minute. Not a lot to cling onto.
He or she? Was that in the article?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah. It is the guardian. Surprised it didn’t read “he, she, they, them, it, Apache Attack Helicopter” - just to cover all bases.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
posted on 8/6/21
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yup, getting so boring now.
posted on 8/6/21
As far as I'm concerned he's always been abysmal. We just didn't notice when the sun shone through the clouds occasionally. Pochettino was a second choice appointment after Van Gaal so he nearly got that one wrong. Poch was so good he masked the financial restrictions Levy placed on the club. Same, to a lesser extent, with Redknapp, who only got the job as a man known to be capable of getting teams out of trouble.
Every financial decision restricted. Every good manager appointment stumbled upon.
The Lewis / Levy obsession with financial control has meant that those clearly more capable of making sound football decisions are being pushed aside or silenced by the hierarchy for fear of making financial commitments beyond the clubs' purse.
It's a trust issue. The Amazon documentary gave us a scary glimpse of just how little Levy knows about the game, yet he talks like he thinks he does. He's the bloke down the pub that's convinced Lampard can't play with Gerrard or that the 'players don't fit the system' despite the fact that far more experienced ex-pros in the dugout think differently. We've all done it but when that ego sits alongside complete control of transfer policy, it's a major problem. His enthusiasm for the team is almost his undoing. He needs to loosen the shackles and trust more. As good as Bale was last year at times, Jose didn't want him but Levy pushed the button anyway. That much is clear. That cannot happen and probably wouldn't happen at a successful club.
Levy /Lewis ARE the problem. There's no doubt about it. They repeat mistakes over and over again and wait for a manager to come in that can mask those mistakes for a short while, lying dormant, before rearing up again. It will continue to happen all the time they're at the club.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Phenom - you're a wizard Graham (U20037)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 27 minutes ago
Oh great, another Levy out thread
----------------------------------------------------------------------
did you not know Levy reads this forum mate
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He needs all the help he can get
posted on 8/6/21
Absolutely, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has been treated as an investment opportunity for the past 30 years, and on the rare occasions the on the pitch stuff got close to achieving something, the owners froze every single time, preferring instead to protect a healthy balance sheet.
I am sick and tired of saying it, but Spurs will not win silverware under ENIC, it is not their primary goal.
As for all the Levyistas and ENIC fan boys, they are just suffering with a clear case of Stockholm Syndrome, after years of ENIC`s misery they are now starting to think like them.
posted on 8/6/21
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 23 minutes ago
As far as I'm concerned he's always been abysmal. We just didn't notice when the sun shone through the clouds occasionally. Pochettino was a second choice appointment after Van Gaal so he nearly got that one wrong. Poch was so good he masked the financial restrictions Levy placed on the club. Same, to a lesser extent, with Redknapp, who only got the job as a man known to be capable of getting teams out of trouble.
Every financial decision restricted. Every good manager appointment stumbled upon.
The Lewis / Levy obsession with financial control has meant that those clearly more capable of making sound football decisions are being pushed aside or silenced by the hierarchy for fear of making financial commitments beyond the clubs' purse.
It's a trust issue. The Amazon documentary gave us a scary glimpse of just how little Levy knows about the game, yet he talks like he thinks he does. He's the bloke down the pub that's convinced Lampard can't play with Gerrard or that the 'players don't fit the system' despite the fact that far more experienced ex-pros in the dugout think differently. We've all done it but when that ego sits alongside complete control of transfer policy, it's a major problem. His enthusiasm for the team is almost his undoing. He needs to loosen the shackles and trust more. As good as Bale was last year at times, Jose didn't want him but Levy pushed the button anyway. That much is clear. That cannot happen and probably wouldn't happen at a successful club.
Levy /Lewis ARE the problem. There's no doubt about it. They repeat mistakes over and over again and wait for a manager to come in that can mask those mistakes for a short while, lying dormant, before rearing up again. It will continue to happen all the time they're at the club.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No doubt about it. I could see his failures years ago. Thankfully apart from the odd blinded few on here, Spurs fans are all in agreement that Levy needs to f** off along with ENIC. The ground will be toxic next season.
posted on 8/6/21
Like it or not Spurs as a football club need new owners who will invest hard in the playing team. But will that happen? Will ENIC sell? I personally can't see it for at least another 5yrs and that's being optimistic.
The pandemic could not have come at a worse time for our club make no mistake. The stadium was meant to have held concerts, fights, NFL, rugby etc etc. It was meant to have generated £££ and then I think ENIC would have invested but looked for an exit strategy at a £££ profit.
Levy & Co have absolutely delivered and smashed it with the stadium and training ground. But they have truly lost sight of the the main bread & butter. The playing squad.
But I digress, Joe Lewis will NOT sell his "asset" for a loss. He knows he can ask top dollar for Spurs but right now any new ownership seems bleak. So we will have a few long years yet
posted on 8/6/21
comment by LukaBrasi Ryan's mate #FreePalestine (U22178)
posted 4 hours, 41 minutes ago
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So you can copy and paste, we'll done Son
posted on 8/6/21
comment by Dave&Danny (U4428)
posted 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
comment by LukaBrasi Ryan's mate #FreePalestine (U22178)
posted 4 hours, 41 minutes ago
Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, or the sound of no hands clapping, the prospect of Antonio Conte not joining Tottenham Hotspur has a certain paradoxical quality to it. Conte joining Tottenham: on some level, I suspect we all knew how this would pan out. The initial fire-streak of success; a brief title challenge; the inevitable implosion and acrimonious divorce, leaving only bittersweet memories and a squad packed with unshiftable 29-year-old wing-backs.
But Conte not joining: somehow this feels meaningful and epic in itself, a mini-tale of clashing egos and competing ambitions and insecurity and longing all packed into a week-long heavily briefed news cycle. And for all the disputed details of their courtship – are we really to believe Tottenham pulled the plug on one of the world’s best coaches out of concern for the development of Oliver Skipp? – there is a sense that even this apparent non-event has subtly wrinkled the fabric of the universe.
Conte, of course, will be fine. Though he may be short of options right now, he has successfully positioned himself as the gold-embossed, club-class option for the next ailing superclub with a trophy drought and a Nasa-sized transfer budget. The sabre-rattling, the lavish demands, the fixation on instant success: for his part the last couple of weeks have just been a brand-burnishing exercise, a reminder to oligarchs the world over that the Conte luxury marque is still in business.
The more interesting question, really, is where this leaves Tottenham. Almost two months after José Mourinho was sacked Daniel Levy is still searching for his replacement. The chairman’s preferred option, Julian Nagelsmann, went to Bayern Munich. Hansi Flick took the German national job. Brendan Rodgers seems quite happy at Leicester for now. An eye-catching flirtation with Mauricio Pochettino appears to have come to nothing. In the midst of which, and seemingly at random, a new director of football (Fabio Paratici) has been hired from Juventus.
Now Conte has also spurned their advances, any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice. And, more tellingly, that Levy’s stated commitment to “free-flowing, attacking football” and youth development extends only as far as the next superstar coach who makes eyes at him. In many ways this is the tension that has defined the modern Tottenham: a club eternally caught between long-term processes and short-term obsessions, a team that for all its moderate success on the pitch still has no real idea what it wants to be.
Levy is the common denominator here, the common signature at the bottom of two decades of eclectic, reflex managerial hires. Mourinho’s confrontational pragmatism was a reaction to the inclusive idealism of Pochettino, which was a reaction to the British bluntness of Tim Sherwood, which was a reaction to the gnomic intellectualism of André Villas-Boas, which was a reaction to the homespun wisdom of Harry Redknapp, which was a reaction to the continental technocracy of Juande Ramos, and so on. Even the current farce has its own precedent from 2003-04, when the promised “thorough search” for Glenn Hoddle’s replacement – with names like Vicente del Bosque, Klaus Toppmöller and Martin O’Neill all mooted – ended in the caretaker manager David Pleat remaining in charge for nine months.
Clearly Levy has a fine instinct for commerce. And yet in any normal business there would be some sort of reckoning for the serial errors that have occurred on his watch: a hierarchy to answer to, consequences to confront. Even the much-maligned Ed Woodward at Manchester United has to face the shareholders every few months. Levy, by contrast, operates a small circle of loyal nodding dogs, with an absentee owner in Joe Lewis who may as well be propped up by pillows and sticks. With fans locked out and largely ignored in any case, Levy basically has untrammelled power to keep messing up and getting away with it. How curious that the ninth richest club in the world has somehow ended in a position where the major footballing decisions are being taken by a guy who – with the greatest of respect – does not really seem to know that much about football. This much is evident from the club’s Amazon documentary, in which the normally reclusive Levy is clearly at pains to present himself as some superior footballing intellect, only to come across as the bloke who sits next to you on a plane and tells you about how he won the Champions League with Bolton on Football Manager.
And so the search goes on: led by Levy, assisted by Paratici or perhaps by Steve Hitchen, the head of recruitment who has just been demoted by Paratici’s arrival. Meanwhile Harry Kane drifts towards the exit, Son Heung-min will turn 29 without a club trophy to his name, Érik Lamela still collects a weekly wage and the under-23s lost 6-1 to Manchester City last month.
Is there a theme to any of this? Maybe caprice and human error: the inevitable product of tying your club’s fate to one man’s vanity. Together with the doomed European Super League, it is hard not to see Tottenham’s pursuit of Conte as their last shot at leveraging whatever remained of their Big Club status.
The pandemic has bitten hard; the stadium still needs paying for. And whether it is Erik ten Hag or Graham Potter or Roberto Martínez at the helm, Tottenham’s world feels just a little smaller this week, a little darker, a little less hopeful. A bright new dawn that turned out to be another illusion: insofar as the modern Tottenham does have an identity, this might just be it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So you can copy and paste, we'll done Son
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Did it for dumb peeps like you pal. You're welcome
posted on 8/6/21
This is the problem Levy faces now......
"any prospective new manager will know that he or she is – at best – fifth choice."
Levy will have to pay through his nose to get anyone worthwhile to manage this club.
And you can guess what Levy will try to do.
Conclusion: No manager worth a dime next season.
Odds on Mason to stay. Kane & Son to leave.
And God only knows where we will be in the Prem table, not top for sure, but maybe bottom?
posted on 8/6/21
Levy is just a ticking time bomb. Things might go well for a period, but you always know that sooner or later, one way or another, Levy is going to fack it up and be the architect of the next downfall.
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