Daniel Levy

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Not sure if this article has been shared or if people have read it or not, but I feel it hits the nail on the head in terms of Levys strengths, weaknesses, the messes he has made of certain things and why he should remove himself from such an active role in football matters and employ someone who really has the managers and first teams best interest at heart, be that Luis Campos or whoever...


Pretty simple for me....

Scouting /player identification & strategy matters: Rather no Levy involvement.
Financials/Contracts etc: Happy with him Levy at the helm of such matters.

My desire to see a DOF installed is routed in the former; not the latter.
 
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Pretty simple for me....

Scouting /player identification & strategy matters: Rather no Levy involvement.
Financials/Contracts etc: Happy with him Levy the helm.

My desire to see a DOF installed is routed in the former; not the latter.
Well I doubt Levy himself is involved in scouting players, so probably nothing to take away from him there.
 
Well I doubt Levy himself is involved in scouting players, so probably nothing to take away from him there.

I doubt he is to a large degree, but the most vociferous fan complaints revolve around things like "Sissoko was a Levy purchase", "Poch didn't want player X" and complaints of that ilk. On the flipside, those who's opinion amounts to "Pay the man", "Just pay the asking price" etc. I have little time for.
 
I doubt he is to a large degree, but the most vociferous fan complaints revolve around things like "Sissoko was a Levy purchase", "Poch didn't want player X" and complaints of that ilk. On the flipside, those who's opinion amounts to "Pay the man", "Just pay the asking price" etc. I have little time for.
Sissoko was a bit of a van der Vaart type signing whereby he was available, was rated by someone at the club (Levy or otherwise), we needed a player in his position because we had missed out on other targets, so we pulled the trigger. The broader issue with our recruitment of players is much more of an problem though.
When we had Pochettino, I think it was a case that we had the best manager by a long distance of ENICs time here, but the club and Levy simply didn’t do enough to build the structures in regard to recruitment to properly support him and maximize the teams potential under him. I think our recruitment model is designed to sign players the club want and deem appropriate, not what the manager wants or players that best suit the managers needs and philosophy, and until or unless that changes, we will never reach our potential in relation to properly challenging. Perhaps if we get Campos in this Summer that will change and Mourinho will have the scouting structures to really get the players he wants, but I’ll have to see it to believe it...
 
Sissoko was a bit of a van der Vaart type signing whereby he was available, was rated by someone at the club (Levy or otherwise), we needed a player in his position because we had missed out on other targets, so we pulled the trigger. The broader issue with our recruitment of players is much more of an problem though.
When we had Pochettino, I think it was a case that we had the best manager by a long distance of ENICs time here, but the club and Levy simply didn’t do enough to build the structures in regard to recruitment to properly support him and maximize the teams potential under him.

It was in place.... Poch said he wanted rid and they all left.

I think our recruitment model is designed to sign players the club want and deem appropriate, not what the manager wants or players that best suit the managers needs and philosophy,

...But you just said that Levy has minimal/no input at this level, so who is?

and until or unless that changes, we will never reach our potential in relation to properly challenging.

We did properly challenge under that model though... 2 legit title challenges and a CL final.

Perhaps if we get Campos in this Summer that will change and Mourinho will have the scouting structures to really get the players he wants, but I’ll have to see it to believe it...

Why so cynical? Levy showed no problem in deploying a DOF when it came to Baldini & Connoli....


One thing worth remembering however..... A DOF coming in doesn't mean that the spending levels will change.
 
Sissoko was a bit of a van der Vaart type signing whereby he was available, was rated by someone at the club (Levy or otherwise), we needed a player in his position because we had missed out on other targets, so we pulled the trigger. The broader issue with our recruitment of players is much more of an problem though.
When we had Pochettino, I think it was a case that we had the best manager by a long distance of ENICs time here, but the club and Levy simply didn’t do enough to build the structures in regard to recruitment to properly support him and maximize the teams potential under him. I think our recruitment model is designed to sign players the club want and deem appropriate, not what the manager wants or players that best suit the managers needs and philosophy, and until or unless that changes, we will never reach our potential in relation to properly challenging. Perhaps if we get Campos in this Summer that will change and Mourinho will have the scouting structures to really get the players he wants, but I’ll have to see it to believe it...

Poch best coach

Manager includes other responsibilities such as recruitment/squad management/youth development etc.....and those are the bits where his shortcomings have been shown up.

BTW I doubt Levy ever scouted a player - Spurs have always employed scouts and former manager David Pleat was always good at ID'ing youth prospects and Levy will almost certainly taken their advice - Pleat is well known for breaking down Levy's door to ensure Spurs signed Dele Alli for example.

But we definitely need a DoF (what ever title he has) and an Analytics department - sad that one of our better set ups has now been established at Liverpool for the last 6 or so years and is responsible for some of the best recruitment seen in PL - so proof Levy is not against that kind of professional appointment
 
It was in place.... Poch said he wanted rid and they all left.



...But you just said that Levy has minimal/no input at this level, so who is?



We did properly challenge under that model though... 2 legit title challenges and a CL final.



Why so cynical? Levy showed no problem in deploying a DOF when it came to Baldini & Connoli....


One thing worth remembering however..... A DOF coming in doesn't mean that the spending levels will change.
I appreciate this isn't my argument here but these title challenges are a bit of a myth really because the reality was that we never got close enough to exert any sort of pressure and or challenge, but we kept going until the inevitable collapse all as for the CL we had more than a fair share of luck other than that I get what your saying.
 
It was in place.... Poch said he wanted rid and they all left.
Don’t know what you are referring to here? Who’s they? If it’s Mitchell you’re talking about, I think you’ll find Poch certainly wasn’t the reason he left.

...But you just said that Levy has minimal/no input at this level, so who is?
I know I did? Levy is running the company, don’t know if it’s actually his personal opinions. Even look at our business this January. Rather than actually addressing issues in the squad we sign two young players with resale value.

We did properly challenge under that model though... 2 legit title challenges and a Champions League final.
Yeah we did. And then we failed to actually push on and achieve our potential under the manager responsible for said challenges. I would argue we challenged in spite of our recruitment model, certainly not because of it.

Why so cynical? Levy showed no problem in deploying a DOF when it came to Baldini & Connoli....


One thing worth remembering however..... A DOF coming in doesn't mean that the spending levels will change.
Lol actually mentioning Comolli as a defense. I assume you haven’t forgotten the laughable discord between him a Jols ideas? Baldini I will admit was a bit different as AVB wanted him, but alas he was fired after one transfer window in which there was massive squad transition, and we will never know if they could have worked successfully together.
There is a huge difference between employing a DOF, and employing one that actually works properly with the manager.
 
Don’t know what you are referring to here? Who’s they? If it’s Mitchell you’re talking about, I think you’ll find Poch certainly wasn’t the reason he left.

Our recruitment team was disbanded at the request of Poch because upon being promoted to "manager" he wanted full control over it.

This isn't a new revelaton.

I know I did? Levy is running the company, don’t know if it’s actually his personal opinions.

I don't really get your point; you're 'drifting'..... But for the record: Poch wanted GLC, Sess & Ndombele.

Much like players are on record stating that Poch personally convinced them to join. Eg Serge and him personally scouting Jansen.

Even look at our business this January. Rather than actually addressing issues in the squad we sign two young players with resale value.

If the right striker was available we would have bought one.... Bergwijn we'd previously been linked with and helped boost numbers in AM after CE left. Gedson was a loan in an area that again needed a boost thanks to Sissoko's injury and Ndombele's fitness being a shambles.

If you're gonna get preoccupied with price tag then this discussion is a waste of time.

Yeah we did. And then we failed to actually push on and achieve our potential under the manager responsible for said challenges. I would argue we challenged in spite of our recruitment model, certainly not because of it.

Dele, Son & Toby (& Vic) were big factors in our challenges.... Their purchase was no accident.

The veil is rapidly falling off your position here...

Again, talk to me about scouting and DOF operations, not money and how much we didnt splash.

Regardless of whether you want to hear it or not; us being prudent at certain times has funded much of our new stadium.

Lol actually mentioning Comolli as a defense. I assume you haven’t forgotten the laughable discord between him a Jols ideas? Baldini I will admit was a bit different as AVB wanted him, but alas he was fired after one transfer window in which there was massive squad transition, and we will never know if they could have worked successfully together.
There is a huge difference between employing a DOF, and employing one that actually works properly with the manager.

In your eagerness to stick the boot in you've missed my point; which was a statement about Levy's willingness to employ a DOF; not to sit and rate how successful they were.

Btw tho', for the record, the Conolli era put in place much of the squad that got us top 4 for the first time ever.

If all you really want is 'more and better' when it comes to players, I don't think a DOF will be the magic solution for you.....
 
5th biggest net spend worldwide over the last two transfer windows:


-181 Real Madrid

-169 Aston Villa

-166 FC Barcelona

-151 Manchester United

-141 Tottenham Hotspur

-121 AS Monaco

-111 Internazionale

-94 Juventus FC

-93 ACF Fiorentina

-92 Hertha BSC

-85 Woolwich FC

-84 Brighton & Hove

-81 Manchester City

-80 SSC Napoli

-77 Sheffield United

-71 Bologna FC

-71 Parma Calcio

-68 Bayern München

-65 Bayer Leverkusen

-65 West Ham United
 
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"Tight bald cunt"

-141 Tottenham Hotspur

- 68 Bayern Munich

Even if we take into account the summer people love to slate us about, the summer of Grealish we still on average spent double than Bayern did the last two windows. I think it's safe to say we have made up for those shortcomings and anyone with any rationale can see that. Over twice as much spent as Bayern in the last 12 months, that's some going for a chairman known as tight fisted.
 
Not sure if this article has been shared or if people have read it or not, but I feel it hits the nail on the head in terms of Levys strengths, weaknesses, the messes he has made of certain things and why he should remove himself from such an active role in football matters and employ someone who really has the managers and first teams best interest at heart, be that Luis Campos or whoever...

There is nothing to disagree with what's been written here.

The only area of context that needs to be applied is in order to get the manager of his choice he's had to back the wishes of said manager. I believe it's fair to say that Levy's prefered structure is to have a DoF, he was one of the first to implement one in PL Club (more than one in fact). However, when you identified your next manager and they refuse to operate with one what do you do? This was the case with hiring Redknapp, he refused to work under one, he's gone on record several times to state this fact. So, in order to bring him in we had to sack the then incumbent DoF who was Comolli.

He has since hired Baldini and Mitchell, whilst nothing was confirmed publicly and contrary to what perception is held with Poch and Mitchell, I think the evidence supports the fact that Poch didn't want Mitchell and that's why Mitchell left and Poch got promoted from "Head Coach" to "Manager". This is by and large Levy supporting Poch with a set-up that he wanted.

For me, this still shows a lack of conviction to a module that you want. If you believe that a DoF is required why are you hiring a manager that refuses to work under/with one? I think with Poch period it's perhaps understandable as to why he got rid and didn't replace Mitchell, as clearly Poch was being converted by Utd., Chavs, Real Madrid, Bayern at the time and if you wish to keep him then something might have had to give, plus at that time things were working well, so this would have given confidence.

What has surprised me is that he hasn't appointed another one, Jose has worked under one all of his career if I'm not mistaken, so it's likely there wouldn't have been any opposition to one being appointed.

The bit that I find infuriating is the back and forth between the two systems, for each one will no doubt want to breakdown and restart what went before it. Just as hiring a manager there are risks associated when appointing a DoF, some work out some don't, but as a leader, you have to ensure the cornerstones of your philosophies on how you want the club to function should be in concrete and hires made should be aiming to support implement and develop those. If they fail then you move to the next one, all trying to build on the work of the previous hire, rather than tear it all up and start all over.

The other thing is a DoF role can be huge or it could be more siloed and specific, so an obvious hole we have right now is having anyone able to sell players in a timely fashion, for all of the criticism that can be laid at the door of Baldini for what we spent after selling Bale, he actually did a great job in his last summer getting rid of a bunch of shite like Chiriches, Paulinho, Soldado and then Capoue who simply wasn't performing but actually was a decent player IMO. His job at this point was to sell these players and Mitchell and Rob McKenzie were already in place scouting the like os N'jie and Tripps LOL.

So, we could have done with Baldini again just focused just on player sales which would have benefitted our recruitment so much more as we have struggled to shift GKN, Rose, Eriksen, Wanyama possibly Dier, Vertonghen and Toby (confusion on the last bunch's true intentions on these players). None of these players were on overpaid salaries and could arguably still have been sold for more than we paid for them (although with player amortisation we would have turned a profit on them anyway).
 
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Sissoko was a bit of a van der Vaart type signing whereby he was available, was rated by someone at the club (Levy or otherwise), we needed a player in his position because we had missed out on other targets, so we pulled the trigger. The broader issue with our recruitment of players is much more of an problem though.
When we had Pochettino, I think it was a case that we had the best manager by a long distance of ENICs time here, but the club and Levy simply didn’t do enough to build the structures in regard to recruitment to properly support him and maximize the teams potential under him. I think our recruitment model is designed to sign players the club want and deem appropriate, not what the manager wants or players that best suit the managers needs and philosophy, and until or unless that changes, we will never reach our potential in relation to properly challenging. Perhaps if we get Campos in this Summer that will change and Mourinho will have the scouting structures to really get the players he wants, but I’ll have to see it to believe it...

Disagree with that. Weve actually overperformed for years in part due to our transfer policy. We are tge best performing club in the league on transfers. That wont change.

We buy talented youngsters at 20-22 and sell at 29-30.

Only difference between now and 10 years ago is we buy the best youngsters in the world , not the championship.
 
There is nothing to disagree with what's been written here.

The only area of context that needs to be applied is in order to get the manager of his choice he's had to back the wishes of said manager. I believe it's fair to say that Levy's prefered structure is to have a DoF, he was one of the first to implement one in PL Club (more than one in fact). However, when you identified your next manager and they refuse to operate with one what do you do? This was the case with hiring Redknapp, he refused to work under one, he's gone on record several times to state this fact. So, in order to bring him in we had to sack the then incumbent DoF who was Comolli.

He has since hired Baldini and Mitchell, whilst nothing was confirmed publicly and contrary to what perception is held with Poch and Mitchell, I think the evidence supports the fact that Poch didn't want Mitchell and that's why Mitchell left and Poch got promoted from "Head Coach" to "Manager". This is by and large Levy supporting Poch with a set-up that he wanted.

For me, this still shows a lack of conviction to a module that you want. If you believe that a DoF is required why are you hiring a manager that refuses to work under/with one? I think with Poch period it's perhaps understandable as to why he got rid and didn't replace Mitchell, as clearly Poch was being converted by Utd., Chavs, Real Madrid, Bayern at the time and if you wish to keep him then something might have had to give, plus at that time things were working well, so this would have given confidence.

What has surprised me is that he hasn't appointed another one, Jose has worked under one all of his career if I'm not mistaken, so it's likely there wouldn't have been any opposition to one being appointed.

The bit that I find infuriating is the back and forth between the two systems, for each one will no doubt want to breakdown and restart what went before it. Just as hiring a manager there are risks associated when appointing a DoF, some work out some don't, but as a leader, you have to ensure the cornerstones of your philosophies on how you want the club to function should be in concrete and hires made should be aiming to support implement and develop those. If they fail then you move to the next one, all trying to build on the work of the previous hire, rather than tear it all up and start all over.

The other thing is a DoF role can be huge or it could be more siloed and specific, so an obvious hole we have right now is having anyone able to sell players in a timely fashion, for all of the criticism that can be laid at the door of Baldini for what we spent after selling Bale, he actually did a great job in his last summer getting rid of a bunch of shite like Chiriches, Paulinho, Soldado and then Capoue who simply wasn't performing but actually was a decent player IMO. His job at this point was to sell these players and Mitchell and Rob McKenzie were already in place scouting the like os N'jie and Tripps LOL.

So, we could have done with Baldini again just focused just on player sales which would have benefitted our recruitment so much more as we have struggled to shift GKN, Rose, Eriksen, Wanyama possibly Dier, Vertonghen and Toby (confusion on the last bunch's true intentions on these players). None of these players were on overpaid salaries and could arguably still have been sold for more than we paid for them (although with player amortisation we would have turned a profit on them anyway).

Pushing out Michael Edwards in 2011 was the big mistake, Michael had been the man behind the scenes for our transfer successes under Redknapp, he was the money-ball whizkid who identified the 'right' player based on metrics and statistics ... when Redknapp left he should have been made DoF but Liverpool came calling (Comolli) and he left, he restructured their performance analysis, their academy, and then became a member of their transfer committee, which was based on the one at Spurs, since then he has become their Technical Director and many see him now as the most important man at the club ...

Hindsight is easy but we had the makings of Liverpool's success only for Redknapp and Levy to miss the opportunity ... no question we want, need a top DoF but they are like hen's teeth, having no DoF under Poch was a feckin' disaster it left us playing catch up with serious under-staffing in the technical set-up ... in modern football you need a full-time DoF with a full team, Mourinho and Levy are not even close to being able to fulfil that role, luckily I suspect they both know that.

If they didn't know the very fact that Poch leaving meant going back to square one with players would have highlighted that complete lack of professionalism. Mourinho is temporary all managers are, Levy will not want to fall into that hole again when Mourinho goes ... Luis Campos maybe, stealing Edwards from Liverpool, yes please, or some other highly qualified individual ... whoever it is it can't happen soon enough.
 
Disagree with that. Weve actually overperformed for years in part due to our transfer policy. We are tge best performing club in the league on transfers. That wont change.

We buy talented youngsters at 20-22 and sell at 29-30.

Only difference between now and 10 years ago is we buy the best youngsters in the world , not the championship.
The only years you can really say we’ve ‘overperformed’ are the years Pochettino was in charge.
 
The only years you can really say we’ve ‘overperformed’ are the years Pochettino was in charge.
You could argue that every year from 2010 to 2015 we over-performed - ranked sixth behind Utd, Woolwich, Chelsea, Liverpool and City financially we still managed better than sixth five times out of six .... we just got even better in the next four years.
 
-141 Tottenham Hotspur

- 68 Bayern Munich

Even if we take into account the summer people love to slate us about, the summer of Grealish we still on average spent double than Bayern did the last two windows. I think it's safe to say we have made up for those shortcomings and anyone with any rationale can see that. Over twice as much spent as Bayern in the last 12 months, that's some going for a chairman known as tight fisted.

We banked nearly 100 mill from our CL run to the final and we didn't spend a penny in our previous two transfer windows before the summer of 2019. The club has had to reinvest the way it has and has had more than enough cash to do so.
 
Pushing out Michael Edwards in 2011 was the big mistake, Michael had been the man behind the scenes for our transfer successes under Redknapp, he was the money-ball whizkid who identified the 'right' player based on metrics and statistics ... when Redknapp left he should have been made DoF but Liverpool came calling (Comolli) and he left, he restructured their performance analysis, their academy, and then became a member of their transfer committee, which was based on the one at Spurs, since then he has become their Technical Director and many see him now as the most important man at the club ...

Hindsight is easy but we had the makings of Liverpool's success only for Redknapp and Levy to miss the opportunity ... no question we want, need a top DoF but they are like hen's teeth, having no DoF under Poch was a feckin' disaster it left us playing catch up with serious under-staffing in the technical set-up ... in modern football you need a full-time DoF with a full team, Mourinho and Levy are not even close to being able to fulfil that role, luckily I suspect they both know that.

If they didn't know the very fact that Poch leaving meant going back to square one with players would have highlighted that complete lack of professionalism. Mourinho is temporary all managers are, Levy will not want to fall into that hole again when Mourinho goes ... Luis Campos maybe, stealing Edwards from Liverpool, yes please, or some other highly qualified individual ... whoever it is it can't happen soon enough.
Loads of ifs buts and maybe's.

Edwards and Liverpool's transfer committee was completely and utterly derided for many years (I'd say about 7yrs!), especially under Rodgers, when they overpaid buying half the Southampton team that Poch made into stars (Lambert £5m, Lallana £30m, Lovern £20m, Clyne £15), Borini for £10m, Joe Allen for £15m, Sturridge, Luis Alberto, Mingolet, Sakho £20m, Ings £15 after comp deal, Benteke £35m, Balotelli £20m, Moreno £15m.

Under Klopp:
Grujic £10m, Steven Caulker (to be played as CF!!), Grabara, Karius, Klavan, Manninger, Solanke, Sahquiri £15m.

There have been a total of 67 players bought, for a total pf £842,048,500. Taking them to the 2nd highest wage bill in the league.

This isn't to deride him in any way, but it wasn't until Klopp things were no different at Liverpool than they were anywhere else. Just like Spurs, they choose not to sign anyone in the summer, will this backfire on them? If it does the fingers will be pointing at Edwards and the committee for fucking it up. This is how it works.

They also took Alex Inglethorpe who's the Academy Director and also on the transfer committee.

Utd took Kieran McKenna who had been at Spurs for 15yrs as an academy graduate, Jose made him assistant manager after Rui left. Utd had also taken our long-standing highly regarded Company Secretary (to replace the retiring one, also an ex-Spurs Co-Secretary).

Southampton was regarded to have one of the best scouting systems in the Country, we went recruited it and the magic black box and we hired Tripps, N'Jie, N'Koudou and Wimmer. Turned out that it was probably Les Reed was the guy we should have gone for??

Leicester's David Walsh was the other hailed as the "genius" of the scouting scene, snapped up by Everton spunked hundreds of millions on players and got the boot within 18months.

The ying and yang of football transfers and their committee's. Too many places to hide behind when things go tit's up and a lot of spin when things are going right. When should they be measured? When they first start, when the budget and objective is to breakeven? When they win the league? When they "do a Leeds"? Look hard enough and you can dig up a ton of shit, look hard enough and you can see brilliance.
 
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