I recall his interview at the univeristy last season, he did mention them being top of the league as something or other but that's just talk, he hasn't competed with them in the transfer market.
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Transfers Summer Transfer Thread 2023! - Closed (Maybe)
- Thread starter Fattynomates
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Sorry but this is extremely naive and overly simplistic. In 'real life', trophies are actually pretty much irrelevant for the vast majority of clubs, so it might be more wise to say that the primary sports-related* goal for any club is to exceed it's expectations of footballing success over the medium to long term (or at least something like that).
Why do I say 'exceed expectations' rather than 'win trophies'? Well, surely the sports-related target of the management should be to do better than expected, or maybe better than resources would suggest is possible. Hence if Man City win the PL this season and Luton finish 2nd, surely we'd all agree that Luton deserve more congratulations than Man City, they would have had more relative 'success' when you factor in the context. Well that's the way I see it anyway - you're welcome to disagree and say that you'd think City more deserving of praise in that scenario if you wish, that's your prerogative - but I suspect most would say Luton had been more successful there.
Why do I say 'medium to long term'? Well, any team with a bit of good form and/or good luck can have a good season or a good cup run - a bit like with investing, there will always be short-term ups and downs - but it doesn't really make sense to judge the management's overall tenure on a single season.
What's my point here? Well, Levy will be trying to balance financial success with footballing success. He may not always do it well, but that is surely what he will be trying to do. Hence, going back to the origin of this conversation, he will naturally want to get good value for money when buying players, as would any business buying any asset. Yes you might sometimes pay over the market price, but only if you were confident that the asset would have some attribute that you could exploit better than others, thereby still making it good value for you. If it was only about 'winning trophies' - i.e. if money was irrelevant - then yes he should spend £500m on the best player - but money isn't irrelevant, it is both relevant and finite, so Levy will do whatever he thinks right in terms of investing in the football side at a level he believes will also ultimately benefit the business side. Does he always get that right? Of course not, no one does - but that is what he will always be trying to do, and should be trying to do.
So for me, even we do buy a player for £150m, we should only be doing so if we consider that to be 'good value' for us.
Side-note:
* I say 'sports-related' as, whether you or other football romantics like it or not, football clubs are businesses, and for many of them, the owners if they are honest are more interested in growing the value of their asset than footballing success. Now of course the latter may assist the former, but that's not the point - the point is that owners might well consider asset value as more important than footballing success, and it would be wise for fans to remember that. This of course is the owners' right - contrary to what many fans seem to think, the owners by definition own the club as an asset, hence within reason and law, they can run it however they wish, focus on whatever they want etc. That is their right earned by achieving sufficient wealth to purchase the asset. If you have or save up enough money, you can do the same.
Daniel, yes understand when you put it like that.
Just a shame you didn't stump up a few years ago when we seemed to be on the cusp of glory. Surely therewas little to loae in what would have been a low risk strategy
And in your thinking, business or fan, should we expect to see 2/3 more signings in this window or best to book.a last minute holiday?
But super piece.
Knows his system - yes
Knows what works previously in various leagues - yes
Knows what players at his current disposal work in his system after 3 friendlies and 1 match? No change
Knows if his system works in the premier league where he's never worked and never faced as much competition - not yet.
My hope is that he is flexible enough to drop or move players if they're not succeeding at what they're doing and flexible enough to change his system if it becomes exploitable.
It doesn't make a lot of sense outside of betting on the ESL making ffp a non issue or Saudi buying players every year. They are not being clever or conning they system, the system just takes a little bit of time to catch up..That's what makes it even more backwards, to stand a chance of optimising their income streams they have to be getting into Europe, and obviously the spending spree is designed to get into Europe too as that's the most obvious measure of success alongside trophies (which bring Europe anyway).
So if they're not getting into European competition then this spend has failed essentially, not even considering the financial necessity for it.
And yet, this splurge does not fall in line with the rules of the European competitions that they're doing it to get into... seems like a case of not just shooting yourself in the foot, but blowing your entire lower leg off with a shotgun.
I'd laugh so much if after spending all this money to get back amongst it in the CL, they qualify and are immediately told to fuck off by Uefa and expelled from the competition, thus unable to keep up on their payments, falling into administration and finally (FUCKING FINALLY) expelled from the league and wound up entirely.
Tottenham Hotspur FC have the best stadium in Europe, the best training facilities, a history of winning before our current owners, one of the highest revenues in world football, one of the best profit margins in world sport, we used to have the best striker in the world….
“The level below” is an excuse. If the fans accept that winning isn’t a priority target, then that’s a conscious choice to accept the owners goals because winning has been a realistic goal for this club for some time.
Our worst rivals up the road have clearly set winning trophies as their goal from to to bottom of the club. What’s Levy’s excuse?
From Levy's point of view, we've already used it. Full transfers completed for Porro (£40m) and Kulusevski (£25m), Maddison (£40m), Vicario (£17m), Van der Ven (£43m), Veliz (£13m) and Phillips (£2m).
Yeah agree.
But the idea that we knew whether those players are going to work in his system already, when he’s clearly still figuring it out himself, that’s what I’m saying is fucking mental.
All he needs to do is say that we need to get players out before we bring any in and he doesn’t even need to explain to fans that the Kane money has already been spent.From Levy's point of view, we've already used it. Full transfers completed for Porro (£40m) and Kulusevski (£25m), Maddison (£40m), Vicario (£17m), Van der Ven (£43m), Veliz (£13m) and Phillips (£2m).
Yep, interest rates are soo high, we get a 3% yield over £100m of debt coverage.
Levy and Lewis are absolutely delighted at the deal.
Yep, right time right place is a determining factor...wind the clock back 1 season with someone like Zaha on a free he probably comes to us due to the attraction of him wanting to play in the CL during his career.
As it turned out we finished 8th and the only chance of playing in Europe involved a pre season friendly.
So we might not be getting any more new players this transfer window.
Never heard of him.....though his name rings a bell.
Again, if you are talking about winning the league, then I suggest we agree to disagree - despite coming close a couple of times when punching above our weight, it's a very long time since we started a season in (say) the top 3 favourites to win the league. So I'd argue it has not been a realistic goal for a very, very long time.
If you mean cups, I would argue that we have simply been incredibly unlucky in the last 10 years or so. Statistically it's bonkers that we've been good enough to get to so many finals and semi-finals, yet haven't had the bit of luck or good performance on the day that we needed to win one.
Is there any reason that we should have less expectations than the gooners though?Again, if you are talking about winning the league, then I suggest we agree to disagree - despite coming close a couple of times when punching above our weight, it's a very long time since we started a season in (say) the top 3 favourites to win the league. So I'd argue it has not been a realistic goal for a very, very long time.
If you mean cups, I would argue that we have simply been incredibly unlucky in the last 10 years or so. Statistically it's bonkers that we've been good enough to get to so many finals and semi-finals, yet haven't had the bit of luck or good performance on the day that we needed to win one.
Plus we also have in excess of £400 million FFP leeway to play with....unheard of and unparalleled. And this is without the transfer fee received for our star player!!!
Which ever way you look at it, it's an absolute scandal. A scam.
Serious questions need to be asked about where the fucking money's going
Entirely possible.
No major investments coming in is probably the most likely outcome now.
Very sensible question. In the medium to long term, no. I don't have the stats easily available, but how many times have we finished above them in the last say 5 or 10 seasons? Yes they have won cups, but as per my last post, we've arguably been very unfortunate not to win a couple of cups in that period too.
Again, if you are talking about winning the league, then I suggest we agree to disagree - despite coming close a couple of times when punching above our weight, it's a very long time since we started a season in (say) the top 3 favourites to win the league. So I'd argue it has not been a realistic goal for a very, very long time.
If you mean cups, I would argue that we have simply been incredibly unlucky in the last 10 years or so. Statistically it's bonkers that we've been good enough to get to so many finals and semi-finals, yet haven't had the bit of luck or good performance on the day that we needed to win one.
Let's do this. Because for me it's a choice from Levy that he can't financially compete with woolwich.
Then it's a poor season ahead or certainly an average one.