Has Daniel Levy finally engaged his brain and put the Spurs team first?

 

Has Daniel Levy finally engaged his brain and put the Spurs team first?

By Don Scully

Twenty years in charge of one of the world’s greatest football teams, and all he has to show for it – as a footballing chairman – is one minor league trophy. However, as a businessman, he has a lot to show for his twenty years in charge of our football club. The destruction of our old White Hart Lane stadium, a new, spanking rebuilt amphitheatre that is a money machine, which also can host concerts, boxing, rugby, American football and a lot more. So, full credit to Daniel for that. But it is the football we are concerned about, not the owners/ directors filling their pockets.

When Daniel came to our club, he promised so much to the fans but as yet to deliver.  Nevertheless, Antonio Conte becoming our manager is the most significant step we have made with regards to the football club side,  rather than Tottenham Hotspur the business side.

As we all know and have witnessed first-hand, Daniel has made some poor decisions during his time at the club, and the fans always make sure he knows about it (and the roar gets louder every year). Other poor decision he has made was when joining a group of renegade chairman – along with European colleagues – to create a Super League or even a lack of investment in the squad, our fans are always there to yell their discontent.

To his credit, Levy is regarded as one of the most demanding owners to negotiate within the world of football (but then good business chairmen regard the pennies as always that bit more important). Even Ferguson had described dealing with Levy as more painful than having his testicles squeezed to ecstasy… oh, sorry, that should be ‘more painful than my hip replacement’.

He is also stubborn, but not always to the benefit of the club, more for himself. His stubbornness comes across most noticeably when dealing with player outgoings. Bale, Carrick and Berbatov are three good examples, which were subjected to Levy’s tough negotiations.

Thoughts

Because so many managers have come and gone in quick succession, has Levy finally swallowed his pride and made a more thoughtful and intelligent decision – not based on just saving money – by appointing a top-class manager in Conte?

Some say that sacking Nuno was the final straw… or should that be hiring Nuno was the final straw. Nuno only lasted 124 days.

When Levy makes huge cockups, we – the fans who have invested their/ our soul into the club – show their anger forthwith. And rightly so. However, we should also praise him when we believe that he has learned the lessons of past mistakes (hopefully, he has learnt them!) and discovered the errors of his ways.

Nuno was never a suitable appointment for our club. Levy and Paratici made a wrong decision by appointing him; however, I think we need to respect that they have rectified their mistake by pointing Conte (providing they also give him sufficient funds for the transfer window).

Levy and his sidekick went for one of the top five managers in the world of football. For the first time in over a decade, have we seen our club finally show some level of ambition? The appointment of Pochettino was never ambitious at the time, and appointing him was a risk, but was cheap in Levy’s eyes.

What we know of Conte is that he would never have accepted this appointment if it was not for a promise of a substantial financial backing. Therefore, one can assume that we will see some noteworthy faces joining us within the next two transfer windows.

Let us hope that Levy has finally shown some genuine desire to put the club back to where it should be; with the elite of English, European and world football.

I just hope that we will now get the monetary backing we deserve, and we can now get back to fighting for that  Champions League place, and maybe, just maybe, win a trophy or four.

However, Conte isn’t going to turn things around overnight, and it will take probably a season or two; the first step is to get rid of some of our deadwood and buy-in quality.

Fingers crossed, COYS!

Don Scully