You Got Levy'd šØ
šAKA: Levy's Legacy?
So our old mate Danny Levy is a goner (not a gooner - phew). The pantomime villain has exited main stage and is instead a spectre in the wings of White Hart Lane, as he still owns a considerable portion of the club. The new pantomime villain will be a faceless organisation in the form of ENIC. #ENICOUT?
To me thatās the crux of the so called change.
I wonāt be popping any champagne corks and I donāt think I will be seeing any major difference in the way the club will be run. Iād love to be proved wrong but I donāt think I will be (this sentence may age badly but hey, itās my blog and Iāll write what I want).
Timing wise I think it is perfect as the club can pretend thereās a change when there isnāt any change. The reason they can do this is that the transfer window is SHUT. The wages are SET. The long shot bets on non proven players have been placed.
If Daniel was to have left prior to or during the Transfer Window then fans would be salivating at the prospect of a MEGA SPEND and SPIRALLING WAGES. Instead fans will be fed the same old story in January about āTRYINGā to sign this player or that player. So no change from the Levy era (we shall see).
So whatās Dear olā Dannoās legacy then?
Well, despite me tending to look at him as a non football man who is ENICās mouthpiece I sincerely think that he has improved this football clubās standing in an era when it seems football clubs are judged by how rich they.
It cannot be denied that Levyās job was to come in to an ailing old giant and make it run like a Mega Club without the abundance of silverware.
Thatās exactly what he has done. Heās made sure that his employers get the best bang for their buck and end up with the best profits that you can hope for in an industry that doesnāt seem to care for such things.
Thatās why he has been at the helm for 25 years. Heās really good at getting his bonus sorted. Whether thatās by scrimping on wages, arguing over pennies in transfer negotiations or cutting OAPs adrift, heās really good at ensuring the project plan and budget remain in line.
Chairman donāt win trophies, good managers with well organised teams do. I wonāt judge him on the success on the field and if Iām honest if you were to judge him by the teamās performance on the pitch you would probably say that the amount of money invested has probably equated to about the right amount of silverware.
Imagine thinking in 2001 that Tottenham would get to a Champions League Final 18 years youād be laughed out of the pub. But Tottenham did that (no credit to Levy for that though as the team needed urgent investment and DID NOT get it!)
What does that actually mean for his legacy then? Well heās taken a club that was run on sticky tape and turned it into a behemoth in financial terms. Heās overseen a club that is now the owner of a nameless stadium that is one of the best in the world and the famous home of Beyonce & The NFL. He has got Go Karts to play with, a cheese room and a brewery (rumours are that a caviar cave is being built as we speak). Heās got a lovely training ground to have breakfast at. Heās also made Spurs one of the biggest estate management companies in the UK.
Most important of all though he now has a phrase that he has inadvertently created āGetting Levyādā is a term that many have used during his tenure at Spurs. You canāt deny that some of his negotiations over the years were actually pretty damn good.
Iām thinking when we got Van Der Vaart for Ā£8 million in 2010!
Aaron Lennon for Ā£1 million in 2005!
Robbie Keane - Tottenham to Liverpool for Ā£20 million in 2008 and then Liverpool to Tottenham for Ā£12 million in 2009!
But surely Sir Alan selling his 29.9% stake in Tottenham to ENIC for 22 million pounds defines being Levy'd!?
Nah, itās got to be the fact he made a profit on Mido šØ
<500k Profit in the back pocket>
P.S - Tottenham Hotspur are the 7th most successful English football club over the last 25 yearsā¦
#LEVYCOMEBACK
āWe have built this club into a global heavyweight competing at the highest level.ā
Daniel Levy