Funny how these things turn out. I’m bashing out my post-match piece after the Liverpool game, usual routine except I was hitting the keys so much harder than normally, castigating Villas-Boas, blaming Levy for a decade or more of lousy decisions and predicting our manager’s sacking, at the very moment AVB was indeed being dismissed.
It’s happened before, many, many times before, but still comes as something of a shock. This follow-up should be a proper review, a look back at his time at Spurs. But it’s not about analysis, it’s about emotion. At least it is for Spurs fans. For others, it is much more straightforward – Tottenham are a laughing stock. Eight managers in twelve years, close to £100m spent in the summer and four months later the guy who spent it was gone.
It’s provoked different reactions amongst the fans, as you would expect. Many are delighted, some ghoulishly gleeful that their negative assessment of his ability has been proved right. My blogging pal Greg is angry and tearful in this fine Dispatches while Martin Cloake and Adam Powley separately (they are not joined at the hip after all) glory in the absurdity of it all. You have to laugh or else you’d cry.
I should be worked up about it. Long ago having sold my soul to the devil, I’ll be watching Spurs ’til the day I die regardless of who is in charge and who is playing, so rejection, the rational response to the mess the club is in, is out of the question. Rationality and supporting Spurs – really? What am I thinking?
But I invested in what I thought was happening at the club. I wanted Villas-Boas to succeed because I like the idea of a young, progressive and driven manager taking the club forward with a squad of similarly able and upwardly mobile players under his protection. I felt protective because of the way sections of the media and those within his club rubbished him at Che***a. He was ours now and White Hart Lane would be a safe home for him. We Is Us 18 months before it was said out loud.
He’s gone and I wish him well. I’m left feeling not angry, sad or happy, but numb. Hollow and distracted that once again my club, should be left in such disarray as supporters look on powerless. However difficult any life event is, human beings develop strategies for dealing with any repeat. Life goes on. Time and again our hopes have been raised only to be dashed once more. One step up and two steps back. We’re always regrouping, starting again. A endless loop of transitional seasons. It has to stop. Some clichés deserve repeating because they are perfect encapsulations of reality. We can cope with the despair, it truly is the hope that gets you.
I guess I don’t ever want the hope to be extinguished. Life isn’t measured by the passing of the years, it’s how enthusiastic you feel about the things that matter. Once that enthusiasm withers, so does body and mind. That’s why football supporters are such lovely, wonderful people to know. I mean real supporters, measured not by how many games they go to or their knowledge of the inside-out passing stats of Latvian second division false-nines, but supporters who feel rather than spectate. They hold these two diametrically opposed emotions in happy, blissful equilibrium, the cognitive dissonance of despair and hope that protects us from collapse. We moan, wring our hands and kvetsch in our frustration but we know what’s important. And we will turn up next week because good times are just around the corner. It’s a fundamentally decent, buoyant outlook on life that I love and would never be without.
It’s a good way to be but damn hard to maintain with a club that takes every opportunity to trample those positives into the mud beneath layers of cowpats. Uncomfortably numb, in fact, although the thought of a Pink Floyd song is the surest way of driving me completely over the edge.
I’m a keen student of Spurs’ history. If you asked me right now to sum it up in a sentence, I’d say something like: ‘none of the people who have run this club in my lifetime knew what they were doing.’
Daniel Levy has presided over a period of financial stability, and rightly deserves praise for that achievement. Yet he is totally unable to put into practice those same principles of sustainability and continuity on the field. A CEO in any business is not responsible for the detail. That is a waste of her or his time. Rather, they should establish a framework to implement clear goals that everyone signs up to. They set the parameters and the plan, the way the organisation will go about its business. Above all, their job is to pick the right people at senior level to put the plan into action.
This is how Levy has been successful in business. When it comes to football, that flies out of the window. This is what I can’t understand. I would rather a bad plan than no plan at all. To my mind, the club has had a consistent strategy over the last few years, to buy young(ish) players who will develop at Spurs. They come with more potential than experience. Develop together, we have a future in the long-term. the risk that they will leave is balanced to some extent by their increased value in the transfer market.
This long-term strategy is the best option for a club like ours, without a big stadium or recent success to generate income or a rich investor prepared to buy success. (we have a rich investor not prepared to buy success). It’s worthless without a coherent, stable senior management because this development takes time. Time is the most precious resource at the chairman’s disposal. No successful enterprise would dream of making so many changes. yet Levy cannot find the right man and does not know where to look.
Never mind all this speculation, we all know that Levy has no idea who to appoint. None at all. I wish Sherwood well. People I respect rate his coaching abilities and knowledge but if he succeeds it will be by accident not design. Levy has a record of appointing men at odds with the English game – Santini, Ramos – then folding to give anyone who happened to be around a chance – Martin Jol. He allows infighting within his management team – Jol actively undermining Santini with the players, Poyet the same with Ramos. Redknapp came as a panic measure to fight some raging fires, the success was unexpected. He invests millions in giving Villas-Boas the job, a huge risk given his recent CV, then refuses to back him in the market, the Moutinho deal going down the pan and playing an entire season with only two strikers.
I’m numb in the face of this because I have heard it all before. Much sighing and head-shaking annoying everyone around me this week. It’s real but the anger has gone. Not totally – it erupts to the surface as it did when I wrote my last piece. Sugar – Graham, Gross, Francis. Scholar – brought the club to the edge of bankruptcy. Burkinshaw’s parting shot: “there used to be a football club there.” Sidney Wale dynasty: Terry Neill, failed at one club and Ars***l to the core. It has to stop.
Monday was my birthday. It was nice to get wish-you-well messages. My good friend Adrianna, who tolerates but doesn’t get it, asked me if I had a good day. ‘Lost 5-0, lost a manager’ I replied. She hasn’t got back to me. My son knows me well: ‘Spurs in disarray, there’s a birthday present’ was all he said.
It is a shameful catalogue of wasted opportunities stretching back for over forty years. However, I am a supporter, a stupid sucker maybe but a committed sucker undoubtedly, so I find grounds for optimism always, and it is this: the players. This is a decent squad of footballers. Some obvious gaps but the potential is real. Healthy organisations need a goal: ours should be, whoever is in charge, to start next season with this same group of players. Without direction or some sniff of Europe, they will leave. It’s imperative that we keep them. Add to them, sure, but build on what we have.
Levy should look for someone with evidence of enabling talented, skillful players to create the right patterns of attack. In other words, to do what AVB couldn’t do. And whatever happens, I’ll be there to see it.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
‘Happy’ Birthday. We have 2 Liverpool fans in our office so it was an equally bad day here. They seemed aghast we sacked AVB. I just shrugged my shoulders. Back to Yr1 of the 5 yr plan.
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Glad AVB has gone,I didn’t feel like this until Liverpool trounced us but we have a team of very very good players, even without time to gel we shouldn’t be getting hardcore beatings regularly. i can live with not winning alot or even finishing outside top four this season if there are some clear signs that theres good times ahead but We looked like there was no goals coming we didn’t even challenge Liverpool,there was not even a glimpse of a future fluidity, AVB had one way of playing football and our players don’t seem compatible,thats not to say hes no good but just no good for us with our current crop.For example Lennon isn’t known for his shooting ability yet AVBs tactics were to play him inverted which creates shooting oppurtunities but inhibits passing oppurtunity when he isn’t all that great with his final ball it seems ridiculous to make it harder for him, but he is flat out fast,being so fast we can stretch teams but we were ponderous and pedestrian through midfield so his speed makes no difference. It was a matter of time before we got another spanking and our team would have started losing confidence in their ability.i hope he does well in the future but im not upset hes gone. We need a manager who is inbetween Arrys run around a bit tacticts and AVBs laminated statistics sheets. Although its not looking likely Laudrup would be great. Although Levy is taking a bit of flak over this we will never know for sure if it was the right or wrong decision but we should remember when lots moaned that arry had gone Levy brought in a manager who improved our win ratio so ultimately we cant say for sure it was the wrong decision, before we get carried away we should patiently wait to see if the next guy improves on AVBs tenure!!!!
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Thanks pete – but which five year plan have we gone back to? Feels like 1850…
Regards, Al
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It is exasperating isn’t it? Glenn Hoddle? Why? He failed the first time. Ardiles has endorsed him? But he failed too? I seem to recall that George Graham was sacked after we beat WHU in an FA Cup 1/4 final and Hoddle was his replacement? Why sack GG? Because he was a Gooner? I wanted AVB to succeed too, but losing 0-5 at home to Liverpool was a bridge too far. I don’t care who comes in now because, whatever happens, they will be sacked circa 2015/2016 at the latest. In my most irrational moments I used to think that I followed Spurs because I was a loser. Why wasn’t I a Gooner, or a ‘Pensioner?’ It’s all part of being a Spurs fan, I guess?
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Yeah I have been following Tottenham since 2002, I felt as an American I had no in to get into club football but I loves Robbie Keane and followed him to Tottenham and now just adopted the club.
Now I am wondering why I hang on. I am very excited to see who comes on but all I know is I feel they Levy has taken us as high as his incompetent self can. 5th is now the standard, when I came on board 7th,8th,and9th was the standard.
I think when we get the stadium things will change for the best because Tottenham will get sold or another investor will come in.
Hope I don’t have to wait that long though.
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Not a loser, my friend, just loyal. An endless list of limited managers but one difference is that none were fully supported with players investment, so not all their fault. Two decades of being half-hearted.
Regards, Alan
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This article encapsulates for me what it is to be a modern Spurs fan. I have been a Spurs fan since the mid 90’s. I have only ever known false dawns and like you said its the hope that kills you. But I wouldnt change it for all the trophies as I find its the struggle that makes the story exciting not the end. I hope to have a Spurs golden era like the team of the 60’s and 80’s which I can only enjoy on youtube, one day and Ill be there to support the team through every bit of “mismanagement”, “disappointment” and “false dawn”.
On that note isnt it romantic to think that Sherwood MIGHT be the answer, a former player who bleeds Lilywhite surrounded by former players bringing back the glory glory days…. I’ll say it again its the hope that kills you!
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Sherwood leading the Tottenham revolution would be poetic!!
I really hope he is the answer.
Levy has given him 2 games
Hopefully those games can turn into years!
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At least I have seen some success – supporting since the nineties, that’s been tough most of the time. Romantic indeed but the football world is cold and heartless. Let’s hope it works.
Regards, Alan
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I’ve read more than once about AVB being sacked after “spending all that money”. He didn’t spend that money, the club spent it within the context of a structure which includes a Director of Football and in which AVB was “Head Coach”. The club spent the money, I hope, according to a certain vision which is not dependent on who the coach is…. the new coach will have the same players at his disposal and I imagine that if we spend in January the amount will be the same amount as it would have been had AVB remained in charge….
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It’s been part of the debate – who chose the players? AVB has been implying he did not want certain of them, that’s been denied. I agree re buying for a structured plan but if the current and at the time medium to long term manager was not consulted, that is dreadful. For the implementation of the plan, I mean.
Still, there is real potential for whoever takes over.
Regards, Alan
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What a superbly written article and being a Spurs fan myself for 43 years I agree with you entirely. I also feel that whoever we get in to replace AVB, that they will be continually looking over their shoulder to see if Levy is stood behind them holding an axe – after all he will be coming to work in a Hire & Fire Environment. The most annoying thing is now we go back to the begin and start again – a new manager, new players, new tactics, new formation, new style of play. Successful clubs do not keep on sacking their manager, just because the going gets a little tough, Sir Alex had to wait a couple of years before he got his first trophy success at Old Trafford, but they stuck with him and have achieved great things with him at the helm. The Ars***l have stuck with Mr. Whinger (sorry Wenger) and they have been successful, I know that they haven’t won a trophy for 8 years or so, but for 13 or 14 seasons on the trot they have been in the Champions League – so they have stuck with a manager and gained success – its such a pity that Mr Levy doesn’t have the awareness or ability to do the same.
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Glad AVB has gone,I didn’t feel like this until Liverpool trounced us but we have a team of very very good players, even without time to gel we shouldn’t be getting hardcore beatings regularly. i can live with not winning alot or even finishing outside top four this season if there are some clear signs that theres good times ahead but We looked like there was no goals coming we didn’t even challenge Liverpool,there was not even a glimpse of a future fluidity, AVB had one way of playing football and our players don’t seem compatible,thats not to say hes no good but just no good for us with our current crop.For example Lennon isn’t known for his shooting ability yet AVBs tactics were to play him inverted which creates shooting oppurtunities but inhibits passing oppurtunity when he isn’t all that great with his final ball it seems ridiculous to make it harder for him, but he is flat out fast,being so fast we can stretch teams but we were ponderous and pedestrian through midfield so his speed makes no difference. It was a matter of time before we got another spanking and our team would have started losing confidence in their ability.i hope he does well in the future but im not upset hes gone. We need a manager who is inbetween Arrys run around a bit tacticts and AVBs laminated statistics sheets. Although its not looking likely Laudrup would be great. Although Levy is taking a bit of flak over this we will never know for sure if it was the right or wrong decision but we should remember when lots moaned that arry had gone Levy brought in a manager who improved our win ratio so ultimately we cant say for sure it was the wrong decision, before we get carried away we should patiently wait to see if the next guy improves on AVBs tenure!!!!
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I too was left feeling numb, and I too see this as a bit of a waste.
But, no, no matter how disillusioned anyone gets over an inability to create continuity on the pitch, there are two things we need to consider that should alter that.
1) The lack of continuity on the pitch is partly illusory and partly due to unrealistic expectations.
Illusory because a lot of the work done behind the scenes since Frank Arnesen was hired has been specifically geared to this end. The focus on the youth set-up, the fruits of which we are beginning to see, that should see a steady production line of players comfortable with the club, comfortable with the club, and with staff who know them well. The creation of jobs at coaching level focusing on smooth integration and transition through the squads, from academy up. It’s this work that is rarely seen that is the bright future of the club IMHO.
Unrealistic expectation because continuity on the pitch, to have any value, would entail keeping our best players. But, firstly, we have not risen so high as to keep our star players – some may say we never will. If players like Bale and Modric really, really, really want to move to Real Madrid and Real Madrid want to play their vile tappy-uppy/unsettly games, we are really quite limited as to what we can do. I’m afraid that is the cold hard truth. Other than one thing, the one thing we can do. For quite a while, we were a club with one or two star turns and a lot of mediocrity, including high price, high wage, high maintenance stars on the downward slope of their career. Sell the superstar, buy five players of potential, two become very good and one a superstar, and we have a team of one superstar, two very good players, and eight mediocrities. Sell the superstar, buy five players of potential, one becomes a superstar, two become very good, and we have a team of one superstar, four very good players and six mediocrities. Sell the superstar, buy five players of potential, two become very good and one becomes a superstar, and we have a team of six very good players, one superstar and only four mediocrities. and on and on.
This is, of course, a gross simplification, but, ultimately, no matter how anyone tries to portray it, we have gone from having a team with a couple of very good players to almost an entire squad of very good players with, potentially, some real superstars in the mix. In the long run that is better than the continuity of having a team with a couple of very good players, even if we could force the one superstar to stay.
Sorry if this isn’t what you meant – just how I interpreted it.
There is no disguising the fact that, no matter how disappointed we are, the quality of our squad is massively improved, our aggregate league finishing position is greatly improved and our finishing points tally is greatly improved. Even if the lack of managerial continuity is frustrating the hell out of us.
Ah well, Tim Sherwood is in charge for now – I am totally easy with the fact that if he is successful he may get a longer tenure, and why the hell not? Him being successful is the club being successful, and at least he seems to have a good and ongoing relationship with Levy before he starts out, because part of the problem always seems to be hiring of a manager who seems perfect for the moment on paper whose relations with Levy deteriorate rapidly.
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A few points to consider:
1, Under Levy’s guiding hand we’ve had our most consistent run of form for many years. Regularly in European competitions and we even made the Champions League. Go back 10 years and any Yid would have snapped your arm off for that kind of form.
2, We have a Director of Football in Franco Baldini. He would have made the player acquisitions instead of it being AVB. Andre was our Head Coach, not manager. That means he coaches the team and would hopefully have an influence on which players are bought in. But ultimately that lies with FB.
3, The way we’ve been playing under AVB has always proved hard to score goals. The main reason we did so well last year is down to the heroics of a Welshman. The strikers weren’t banging in the goals, it was one man. Without the 20+ league goals Bale scored, we were mid table at best.
4, When you take into consideration point 3 and the continued lack of goals this season, add then the hiding at City and the home thumping from Liverpool not to mention the 3-0 home loss to West Ham who played with no striker, it’s not such a stretch of the imagination that Levy had had enough.
5, If you have a lot of new players to break into a team. Pick a team and stick with it. Cohesion is the goal. Rotating on a game by game basis does not build the report required to play with the best. Watch the amount of misplayed passes due to players not knowing if the other will make the run or not. Stick with a team and let the others earn a place. If after a few games things need changing, make 1 or 2 changes, not 6.
6, I appreciate our team has been fraught with injuries this season which made AVB’s job harder. However, this too compounded the requirement for consistency. And why do we only have 1 left back. BAE was loaned so we had arguably one of the best CB’s in the league playing LB virtually all season so far.
I was really pleased when we signed AVB. I too thought he would be the long term future of Tottenham. Unfortunately though, I feel there has been several key issues that has helped cause his downfall. And most of them could easily have been avoided.
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Well said my friend. Personally I am sick of people applauding Levy for all the great moves he has made. He does not invest in the team and Champions League escapes us year after year because all we needed another player in the January window the last 2 years.
We will reach heights when Levy sells the team after we get our stadium.
But it is an exciting time to be a Spurs fan that’s for sure.
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Sorry to repost from Jimmy’s blog Alan, but i’m all written out with this latest mess.
It seems clear that AVB has struggled badly to integrate so many new players. While I was happy at the time as all these good young and up & coming players were on their way, I was wrong and a more judicious 3-4 in areas where they were most needed would have been better.
I think he needed more time and hoped he would get it, though Sunday was such a return to bad habits I was wobbling a great deal. But, obviously, the dwindling support for him within the club made it unlikely he would have the conditions to do this, even if he could adapt some of his ways. Which he needed to.
Sherwood was a player I could not abide when at Spurs, one of the very few in 40 years of support. But he has my full support and I hope he is still there in 3 seasons time as it means we will have been successful
Though reports of Sherwood’s manoeuvrings behind the scenes are disappointing. As is the tendency of Levy to get rattled and lose his nerve at the first sign of sustained difficulty.
Time to put up or shut up Iago Sherwood.
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To be honest, feels like I am all written out too. I had high hopes, based on the evidence – it seemed after the first season that we had a plan and were getting somewhere. I said then as now that time is important but we are starting again.
Re Sherwood, I wish him all the best because he’s the Spurs manager. Fact is, no one has any idea how good he will be, not even Tim himself. The club should not be in the position of allowing a coach to learn on the job.
Regards, Alan
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Oh, and happy birthday too Alan.
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My dad first took me to the lane in 1959 and for years I have watched my Spurs and win or lose it has been largely entertaining. Sunday was my 60th birthday and the only thing that I can say is that I have found it very difficult this season to gain any real pleasure from the games. At the beginning of the season I looked at the team we had and was really looking forward to us slowly but surely put together something really good. I have five boys, all firm Spurs supporters and all agree that we have been boring, even when we have won there has been little pleasure to be gained. where was the attacking play, Its not about grinding the opposition down, there are plenty of other teams prepared to do that.
I just hope now that in this next rebuild, win or lose we Play football that entertains.
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As long as Levy is chairman this will keep happening. One league cup and a supermarket in 13 years speaks for itself.
Everyone at the time knew it was a massive gamble, but there is no accountability, only scapegoats. I don’t feel sorry for AVB, his mistaken self worth is such that he probably does believe that nothing was his fault. I now see him as just another manager to walk away with millions of pounds of the club’s money (a large slice of it coming from the fans).
Good luck to Sherwood and whoever gets the job full time. With Levy in charge, they’re going to need it.
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Personally, I’m glad that AVB went, despite wanting him to do well since he arrived. I had seen enough when we lost 6-0 at City – not that one result makes a season, but the manner in which we performed and responded that day. At half-time, AVB put on Adebayor, who had not had any Premiership gametime at all this season, instead of injecting some pace on the wings to try and give City a counter problem. AVB was visibly lost on Sunday too, from the moment Liverpool took the lead. We had Townsend, Lamela and Defoe on the bench and instead of making a positive change to try and give Liverpool something to think about, he swapped LB for LB!! Maybe now we can get our Tottenham back (and not the one other fans laugh at!!).
I remembered a quote from Harry yesterday that completely angered me at the time, but now it seems right to mention it again – just before our unfortunate capitulation at the end of the 2011-12 season run-in, he said that we Spurs fans had “never had it so good”. I think he was right, as at that point we were playing attacking football, we still had 3rd spot in our own hands and were only denied CL by a ridiculous final surge by the Goons and then the Chelsea penalties in Munich. I’d rather Spurs failed giving it a real go than surrendering like we did against City and Liverpool….
As a season ticket holder for the past 18 years, I’ve seen a lot of transition, but can still remember the days when we had players, even though they weren’t worldbeaters, who had a real passion for the shirt and for the game itself. Hell, the season we flirted with relegation with the useless Gross in charge, the likes of Ramon Vega and Alan Nielsen still stepped up and showed more heart than we’ve seen for quite some time!
I agree with some of the earlier comments that we need continuity in the team – not that I’m a Harry disciple (but might sound it in this post!!) but he found his best side and played it as often as possible. The problem Harry had was that he burnt most of the players out that way, as the quality of backup wasn’t there to step in. We now have the best squad colectively the club has ever had, but I can’t see what thought went into the actual recruitment for each position.
Job 1 has to be to get Benny back from his loan ASAP, revert to two strikers at home, save Dawson for the more physical away games at Sunderland, West Brom etc and actually play our best CB at CB (Jan)!!!! Like him or loathe him and if fit, Adebayor should be in the starting line-up alongside Soldado/Defoe, until we replace him with another forward with similar qualities. Oh and Lamela should be playing as often as possible in his preferred position – how else is he going to adapt and become the player we spent £30m on??
I wish Sherwood all the best and hope that his introduction creates an immediate positive response, avoiding the need to recruit yet another foreign coach with another new backroom team that will no doubt wish to overhaul half the squad we’ve assembled!!
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I think we bought some cracking players.Soldado,Paulinho,Eriksen Chiriches all have wonderful talent and Im hoping with a restrictive system gone that they will grow along with the Holtbys and Sandros..Was ite really restrictive? I dont know but we will find out in time.We have a great squad.Couple of tweaks and some free flowing football,solid defence and will should be fine.
Please dont play the off side trap…JUST MARK!!!!
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ooops forgot Lamela…looks like he has it but needs to get stuck in
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Well said krisjeffreyxxx, I agree getting Benny back off loan from Rangers should be a priority in January, we should never have let him go there in the first place, especially not after selling Caulker, (as well as getting another striker – preferably a Premier League proven one – Hernandez/Dzeko for example). Play 2 up front, even if it means reverting to the tried, tested & successful 4-4-2 formation. Hopefully we can beat West Ham tonight (we owe them a hiding), and get something at St Mary’s on Saturday, then West Brom & Stoke at the Lane, before taking on Man Utd at Old Trafford.
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We obviously need a competent left back, Benny isn’t the answer.
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As you know Alan, I was never a fan of AVB but I do not rejoice in his sacking although, after the debacle which was sunday afternoon I suppose it was inevitable. So now over to Mr Sherwood. I say lets give him a chance until the end of the season. There are no decent managers available at the moment as their clubs won’t let them go mid season and a hasty appointment now could prove catastrophic in the long term. If Tim does well we can give him a longer contract as the new manager, if not, we can thank him for the effort and let him go back to the development squad and bring in a more experienced manager in plenty of time for pre season next year. Stability is what’s needed at the club right now and its only Tim Sherwood that can give us that
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I’ll support Sherwood as I would any Spurs manager. My problem is that he does not know how good he is because he’s never managed before, so no one knows how it will turn out. 100m spent and no one has a scooby about what is happening at the club. That is just a terrible, terrible place to be. All the time, money and effort we’ve put into supporting the club, we have been badly let down.
Happy bloody Christmas, Steve…
Alan
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Happy Xmas to you and your family too Alan. Lets just hope that somehow we can scramble 8 points from the next 4 games before going on to slaughter that mob from down the road in the Proper cup
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Levy is astute enough to know that he can’t take the club any further.
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I like your blog, Alan. It’s more from the heart and without an agenda than many others, but (it was obvious a but was coming, wasn’t it?) the Tottenham literati banging out all too considered opinions is wearisome.
When did fans become so diplomatic and scared to call a spade a spade?
LEVY OUT!
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And I like your regular comments. You’re right, the blog is from the heart. It’s how I see things. I’m not afraid to criticise, I think, but there has to be both a reason and something constructive to say, over time at least. That is actually how I am as a person, so that’s how the blog comes out.
I’ve given credit to Levy for what he has done well, castigated him for what he’s done poorly. There are plenty of blogs racking up the hits because they are celebrating what’s happened this week but that’s not me.
Problem with Levy out is that we don’t know what the alternative is. There are plenty of rich people like Tan at Cardiff who would see Spurs as a perfect chance to make money, like Sugar did.
But rest assured, Levy will be heavily criticised for this shambles.
Regards, Al
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Superb. As a long-time fan of Spurs I could not agree more. Levy said back in 2001 that he is “one of us” – had followed the club for 30 years, used to come to games with his Dad, wear rosettes and would prefer to be back in the stands with the “rest of us”. What a load of self-serving hypocrisy. Observing him over the recent past it is impossible to reconcile his behaviour with what he professes as a “fan”.
His meddling in our player signings is constantly undermining whichever manager we happen to have. Levy desperately craves some sort of recognition as a benevolent footballing dictator. Watching him in the Directors’ box he looks more like a malevolent Caligula than the divine Augustus he would have us view his.
Like a great deal of us, he is absolutely crap at football management and should stay well clear of anything to do with player signings and defining the first team ethos. Let the manager and the DoF (if we must have one) do their jobs.
Levy should stick to what he is role really is – prising a few hundred million quid more out of Joe Lewis so that perhaps then we can get the bloody stadium built.
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What pisses me off is that the collective failure of team, manager and chairman has reduced my team to a punchline. An Arsenal supporter gloats that my team is, ‘the gift that keeps on giving” and I struggle to disagree. Our miseries are all self inflicted. I don’t mind getting a tonking if my team puts up a fight but the supine performance against Arsenal and then laying down against City and Liverpool was too much. I don’t know too many fans who actually wanted to keep the manager after the weekend’s calamity as long as something better was forthcoming. But this time Levy’s heart ruled his head and he bounced AV-B without having a surprise Ace card up his sleeve to present to the fans. Levy is a crafty fox who realised something or someone had to be held accountable for the latest shambles on Sunday – and it wasn’t going to be him. I don’t think Sherwood is the answer. In candour, I feel much the same way about him as I do with AV-B. Not the full package yet and certainly not ready to compete with the Mourinho’s of this world. There’s a dearth of headline names to take on the job, especially given that they’d need to work with Baldini and Levy. There are a hundred reasons why Harry would tell him to get lost, but you never know. We all thought that Mourinho would never return to Chelsea, yes? But never mind, it’s always worse somewhere else. We could be suffering from those clowns at Hull and Cardiff.
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We should be grateful for the clowns at Hull and cardiff because they are keeping our troubles out of the headlines this week. I listened to Fighting Talk this week – they don’t need to make any jokes, they got a laugh every time they mentioned Spurs. A laughing stock and we deserve to be. Chairman protected from it, once again it’s the fans who get it both barrels.
Regards, Al
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