I don’t think you can talk about our history since 1882 when judging ENIC , The PL and CL changed the game beyond recognition , the biggest casualty being Everton, who have been a basket case for most of the years ever since .
It has meant the bigger clubs have left others miles behind , bar a Leicester blip. Levy deserves some credit for us getting to the top table initially, I type through gritted teeth . He has fired , not lost to a bigger club the 3 managers most responsible for that, now we are where we are
1]. Do you think hiring Santini on false promises ,( Santini stated this when swiftly resigning ) so Jol could take over was strategically planned by Levy all along?
2 ). Jol is sacked in the most shoddy manner possible and is strategically replaced as we know by Ramos . Ramos admittedly delivered ENIC’s only trophy at any club they have owned I think . Ramos has us fighting relegation after 8 games in a team that has Bale and Modric . Do you think Redknapp was hired to take us to the promise land of CL football , or was he strategically hired to solely stave off relegation at time of hiring?
3 ) Do you think Levy had an element of luck that his chosen , preferred strategic candidate Van Gaal reneged on a verbal agreement the way Levy is often alleged to do , thus creating the opportunity for Poch , who he then sacked , starting a downward spiral.
4 ) Do you believe hiring a DOF to oversee the club who was well known to be under investigation was a good idea when you fire managers like I change my socks
First of all, you want me to be drawn on speculation without addressing the core argument I raised. Again, you won’t say whether you believe he is responsible for the football side or not. If he is then you HAVE to give him credit for all the good things. You can’t keep looking for alternate explanations for the good but stick him with the bad. That is not fair.
If you’re hopelessly biased then just say so and we’ll be done with it.
The one tangent I will allow is your comment about the PL changing everything. Your comparison with Everton is particularly good.
Trophies won by Everton pre PL - 14
Trophies won by Spurs pre PL - 15
We were the same size club. Except Everton had been clearly more successful in the decade before the PL. We had won an FA cup and a UEFA cup, they had won 2 league titles, an FA cup and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup.
The difference between our clubs now is a difference in leadership. Everton have been poorly run and we’ve been well run. The bulk of the difference between the clubs has opened up since ENIC were in charge.
With poorer owners we are Everton.
But the key effect of the PL was to create more inequality - and inequality has the effect of concentrating power and money into the hands of a few. In the old first division there were 4 winners in the 6 years before the PL was created. In the PL it took 13 years for us to have a 4th winner.
The first 12 years was a duopoly of Man Utd and Woolwich exclusively with only Blackburn interrupting that in the third year of the PL. The PL became extremely uncompetitive. It was only Abramovic’s spending that changed that.
In the first 19 years of the PL there were just 4 winners: Man Utd, Woolwich and Chelsea won 18 of them.
So. Uncompetitive.
Who was the new team to break into that in the 20th edition?
Man City - again with obscene spendingz
Blackburn, Liverpool, and Leicester City have each won 1 premier league title. The other 27 leagues have been won by just 4 teams.
The best analogy, is that the PL is a balloon with lots of little dots on. Over time the balloon gets blown up and the dots become further and further away. Without the backing of a state it’s now basically impossible to break the hold of these big teams.
And yet we have managed to become competitive in that time WITHOUT the backing of a state. That is a remarkable achievement. I cannot understand why some Spurs fans are not immensely proud of that.
Still happy for you to let me know to what extent you think Levy is responsible for on-field matters.
