My take is that there's heaps of nonsense being thrown around. Everyone has a take that's immediately contradicted in its entirety by someone else. Also, Joe Lewis is pushing 90 years old and it's clear that his heirs have started to assume direction and control over his assets. He's probably half dead.
Accepting that we probably won't know the story until someone writes a book one day; I think Lewis' heirs want to have a go at it, or at least they feel that a period of success on the pitch is required to justify the lofty price tag attached to the club. I'm sure Levy received his due recognition and reward for his completion of the stadium - he is after all a nearly 1/3 owner of the club and in the event of its sale he may become a billionaire outright in his own name - but in addition to the stories and rumors of how difficult he is to deal with on matters of player transfers, it's also been about 5 years and there's still no naming rights deal for the stadium. Moving on, for the past year there were persistent rumors that the club was put up for sale, and the Qataris were strongly reported to be interested but balked at Levy's supposed insistence on remaining on as Executive Chairman with effective control over the club.
My assumption is that the case has been building for a few years now behind the scenes that Levy has lost his touch. Couldn't ink a naming rights deal, couldn't sell the Club, most of the league doesn't want to do business with him, we barely avoided relegation last season, we're very far down the list of clubs that top coaches want to manage and he's fired half of them. For a club that holds itself out as one of Europe's top clubs, we haven't competed as such and although the summer came together in the end, we flirted with outright embarrassment and it must have reinforced any perception that Levy has outstayed his welcome. We've heard for a long time that Son made up a huge proportion of our financial revenues and commercial opportunities, and we've seen that with the Club's choice of conducting pre-seasons in South Korea, and subsequently of reports that Son's jersey at LA Galaxy was the world's top grossing sports jersey following his transfer. With Son's departure it begs the question of where the club's commercial revenues will come from when the club really lacks any clear-cut superstars for the first time in nearly 10 years. Absent a strong performance in the league or Europe this season, at present we don't have a first 11 that generates massive excitement and attracts commercial opportunities or brings us any closer to a competitive naming rights deal or club sale that ranks among the top in Europe.
For all of that, I believe Levy was forced to step down. As we've been fond of saying for many years now, he built a magnificent platform, but routinely showed that he lacked the vision to fully realize the potential of the Club through his own means and direction.