In evaluating the career of Daniel Levy as Tottenham Hotspur chairman, only one thing can be said with any degree of certainty. If someone reaches a straightforward conclusion, they’re wrong.
Although he took his time, he has undoubtedly transformed the club. White Hart Lane is one of the eternal loves of my life, but it couldn’t cope with Spurs’ popularity, the paint was peeling, the tea undrinkable to the point where I swear it took off a layer of sink enamel when you chucked it away and as often as not, our pre-game ritual included clearing the caked pigeon crap from our seats. Now, we’re amongst the highest earning clubs in the world with a global profile, the stadium is packed for every league game and, finally, we have a European trophy.
Yet the majority of his time as chairman has seen consistent, albeit not universal, disquiet within the fanbase about the quality of his leadership and the direction in which he appeared to be steering the club. This has taken many forms, from grumbling into our beers in the Antwerp to social media whinging and protests inside and outside the ground. Spurs fans have a long and my view proud history of active protest, dating back to complaints in the early 1960s about ticket allocation led by women fans, through to Left On the Shelf, TISA and the AGM protests. Since 2001, as well as ‘Levy Out’ protests with varying degrees of support, we have We Are N17, the superleague, Save Our Seniors, Stop Exploiting Loyalty and last season’s marches, banners and chanting in the ground. For a leader who in some quarters is currently being held up as an exemplary football club chair, that’s some achievement.
These positions appear inconsistent. In fact, they expose the fundamentally contradictory essence of Levy’s time as Spurs chair. If there is anything exemplary about his reign, it is as a model of the nature of contemporary football. Spurs are inextricably involved in a game increasingly dominated by the imperative to generate the level of income required to compete, both on a national and global level. As fans, we can’t avoid engaging in this, but for all the benefits, there are costs too. Levy’s financial acumen placed Spurs in an enviable position competitively but at one and the same time was the chief reason behind both our failure to achieve consistent success on the field and to understand the full impact for loyal supporters.
In the early 1980s, Irving Scholar took over as Spurs chairman, a man on a mission to drag the club kicking and screaming into the modern era by maximising income not only from ticket sales but also from other commercial activities. We had to wait another 30 years before that vision translated into reality. Under Levy’s stewardship, commercial growth improved from £13.6m in 1999-00 to £244.7m in 23-24 (source: the Athletic). Today, the ground is full every week and each matchday generates an estimated £5m. This doesn’t include TV revenue. There is a substantial income stream from boxing, NFL and concerts.
The new stadium, financed within our means, is a fine place to watch football, with stands close to the pitch and excellent sightlines. The seating encourages fans to lean in, be a part of the game, even if like me you’re towards the back of the stands. Also, and the designers don’t get sufficient praise for this, it’s convivial through the simple expedient of being able to walk round the concourse to most parts of the ground, impossible in the old Lane, to meet friends.
Frankly, it is unlikely that the ground will be named the Daniel Levy Stadium, but he deserves full credit for all this. The question remains, though, what was the purpose? Many years ago, I wrote a piece asking the question, what is a football club for? Pretty basic, but seldom made explicit. My answer would be something about aiming for success on the field and at the same time paying due respect to the club’s supporters. I have intentionally chosen the word ‘aiming’. I don’t carry an entitlement to success. What I want is for us to be contenders, to be clear-minded about what it takes to build and sustain club challenging for honours.
Finding the answer was beyond Daniel Levy’s capabilities. Perhaps he never understood the question. Having established a solid, essential foundation in terms of financial stability, he was largely incapable of building upon it. If there is a phrase to characterise his tenure, it’s ‘opportunities missed’. There are many examples. Creating a coach/director of football structure then continually changing manager, then not supporting managers in the market. Doing well in the table, on the up, need a striker, so it’s Frazer Campbell on loan, or Saha on a free, or successive windows without buying anyone. While I realise Pochettino was resistant to change in the squad, not reinforcing the team at that point was an era-defining error. More recently, the low income to salaries ratio and the apparent reluctance to free up money for the wages to snag top quality players.
More than just about the money, it is failure of organisation. Any football at any level revolves around the interaction between three elements, namely coaching, recruitment and finance. The chair’s primary responsibility is to make that interaction functions smoothly and with purpose, that is to do well on the pitch. That’s what CEOs, MDs whatever you call them, do in the commercial world. They take the decisions that enable other people, specialists in their field, to do their job to the best of their ability and Levy was largely unable to achieve this.
This has unfortunately been a consistent feature of his time in charge. Coaches not being given the players they needed. Recruitment at odds with the coach (‘a club signing’) or being marginalised, such as Paul Mitchell being head hunted then leaving. There’s a long list here that could take a blog piece in itself so I won’t go on, except to say that in the last 18 months Levy made efforts to sort this out yet again. It remains to be seen if that forms part of his legacy.
What has always puzzled me is that the opportunities I describe as being missed were themselves created by Levy’s decisions. At successive points, say, under Redknapp or Poch, a couple of judicious purchases could have elevated the team into real contenders. I’m not talking about chucking money at the problem. I’m talking about, for instance, a classy midfielder and striker that we had the means to pay for. After all, in Levy’s terms as a businessman, such purchases become an investment to be repaid through CL and PL revenue.
As fans, we saw this all too clearly, and I’ve never grasped why he or the rest of the board could not. I can only conclude that he is cautious man, and there’s nothing wrong with that, who does not fully understand the game even after 25 years in charge. He never quite understood how to achieve success on the pitch. The appointment of two managers, Mourinho and Conte, unsuited to the club’s needs, to the organization and financial situation that he created, because they had the reputation of being winners, is another example.
Which leaves the question that has dogged his regime. The ‘I’ in ENIC stands for investment, and a club they bought for around £25m is now worth £3 or 4 billon. Nice work if you can get it. Undoubtedly, increasing the return on their investment is a core aim and buying players or indeed lowering ticket prices can be seen as detracting from that. Again though, given the sums of money involved, I’ve never fully understood why they could not find a compromise, that is earn vast profits while still freeing up relatively small sums to buy more players or limit ticket prices. I’m deliberately expressing this in straightforward terms – this isn’t about nuance, it’s about basic questions on how to run a football club.
I don’t believe it is naïve to suggest a better set of decisions in this respect were available and the board opted to go in a different direction. All this exposes the flaw of Levy’s lack of ambition. He seems to be content to participate in tournaments rather than go out to win them, the superleague being another example. Lloris’s story of Levy presenting the players with watches, paid for not by the club but by a sponsor, to congratulate players for reaching the CL says so much. Levy wanted to be at the top table but was at pains not to offend his hosts, by the effrontery of actually winning something.
And what is a club for if not for the fans? Unequivocally, the stadium in N17 is major and lasting achievement. But that’s not the whole story. I do not want to forget, as many media articles this week have, how we got there, with Daniel Levy leading on advanced plans to move the club to Stratford and in the process demolish an Olympic Stadium that for a couple of years at least was a symbol of something that brought the nation warmth and happiness. He speaks of the club’s heritage, yet at that point was prepared to jettison that for the economic benefits of moving to east London.
Neither do I forget that ticket prices are among the highest in Europe. It’s up to me and you if we wish to pay them, but being a fan is about something fundamental to our identity and sense of self. It is about who we are. This is why we keep coming back. Two trophies in 25 years, there are no gloryhunters at Spurs yet up to 250,000 people come into the streets on a working day to celebrate.
The club do not fully appreciate what Spurs mean to their fans. Worse, they think they do but they don’t. I don’t believe they look after us as well as they could. The prices deter many longstanding fans from coming and exclude many others altogether. Our football wins two trophies in 25 years. We hear about the Spurs family, which excludes many young fans, prevents season ticket holders from using spares to introduce family members to our great club and limits the amount of senior tickets available, pricing out fans who have been going for decades. Our chairman was paid £6m in a year when we won nothing and the stadium was 18 months late.
My own research shows that many supporters, while remaining loyal, are becoming disaffected. In particular they feel the club has a poor relationship with the fans. They treat fans in an impersonal way – we are not individuals but are customer numbers, whose needs could be easily accommodated but the club chooses to look away. For example, the allocation of tickets in the new ground gave insufficient value to longstanding supporters and split up long established family and friends groups. High prices mean fans feel their loyalty is a commodity, to be exploited. Premium seating blocks exclude many fans and do not contribute to the best possible atmosphere.
The impact on supporters of these aspects of being a Spurs fan is given insufficient weight. These things matter. They also result from decisions taken by the club. Other options were available, are available, but discounted. These things are the way the board wanted them to be. Plus, on top of which we contend with other parts of the modern game, such as TV dominated fixture schedules, late changes to fixtures and policing in the ground.
In my view, and I’ve never met the man although I know many who have, Levy is a genuine supporter and wants the best for Spurs. However, he was never able to be sure about what that means, and that has held us back. So much promise, so many opportunities, some successes, so many unfulfilled. Rather than entering into interaction and dialogue, he and the board retreated and put up barriers. They fell into a form of groupthink without taking advice from outside. I doubt he has the emotional intelligence to be confident in himself, see how he presented to others and to take on board constructive criticism.
History will continue to explore these contradictions but without, I suspect, ever fully resolving them, because these are the contradictions of the modern game and being a fan. Generate income, find success on the field, but why should that be at the expense of loyalty? The questions remain and in that sense truly, Daniel Levy is a chair of our times.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Sadly the story of his time at Spurs if B had happened instead of A we would have done so much better and won more
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Great article Al! Hope you and the family are well!
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(It’s Rich/AAT)
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Well said Alan! There are two parts to this story Alan. There is the business and there is the club. The business thrives, while the club hopes.Joe Lewis can have no qualms with the business,but he and his kids may well want more at this point in terms of the club especially as Joe is way up there in age and he has everything he and his family need except one thing. That is the kind of success for Tottenham that Joe would have seen those many many years ago. I wonder if this set the ball running for the change. Maybe Daniel Levy with all the flak and maybe a light push was enough for him to say that he has had enough. Levy could only do things in a certain way. Its a way that solidified us but also a way thats been hard to push forward enough. He was brilliant at the business side of the business but the Club side, while not a disaster completely was totally underwhelming. We just let too many teams get between us and success.It was time. How it will develop now nobody knows exactly. A corporation cant run a football team but Thomas Frank and Paratici along with the Lewis Kids if they are interested could take us to the next level…..if the energy and cleverness is there. Im 78 and a supporter for virtually all those years. Tottenham fans on both sides of my family I was born into it. I too want to see the Glory Days again and I think its absolutely doable!!!
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Great, thoughtful article. I think COVID with its negative effect on finances played a part in Levy’s parsimony. I agree wholeheartedly that under Poch around 2018-2019 if two quality players had been purchased it would have made a difference.
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I can’t help thinking that he was burned when, after finally loosening the purse strings, they bought Ndombele and Lo Celso; and both turned out to be underwhelming. he ten turned back to looking for young players who would develop into value over time.
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I went back and looked at the league table for 2000-01, the year he became chairman. A significant number of those teams are gone from the premier league, more have been in and out, very few (Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool and Man City, probably) would trade their record for Spurs. Maybe Leicester would, I don’t know. I would swap with Leicester despite their one glory season. All of this after a pretty dismal couple of decades. I think many younger fans have no idea hoe grim some of those pre-Levy seasons were. Do I wish he had found a way to get better results on the pitch – of course? I hope that the new regime build on his legacy and the position we are in now; and don’t squander it.
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Typo: I wouldn’t swap with Leicester.
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As ever a well presented case with evidence. As much as Daniel wanted to be the poster boy for PSR/FFP he was surrounded by sharks in suits who drove a stagecoach through the rules.
The fact my Customer Reference Number is indelibly burnt into my brain, as much as my National Insurance Number, is not a cause for comfort. Distance & ill health will keep me away from the Lane nowadays but I do not mourn the loss of Daniel Levy
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As ever a well presented case with evidence. As much as Daniel wanted to be the poster boy for PSR/FFP he was surrounded by sharks in suits who drove a stagecoach through the rules.
The fact my Customer Reference Number is indelibly burnt into my brain, as much as my National Insurance Number, is not a cause for comfort. Distance & ill health will keep me away from the Lane nowadays but I do not mourn the loss of Daniel Levy
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If Qatar and Stavely buy the club, I’ll move on…after 50+ years of support. I don’t want Spurs funded with dirty money. I’ll leave that to Newcastle.
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South Coast Spur,
Great article Alan and basically lays it out as it is. I do think though that after the inquestpost mortem of Levy’s tenure has been discussed and put to bed we need to fully focus on the future.
As you have eluded to, we now have a superb stadium that all Spurs fans are justifiably proud of and also a training complex that is second to none.
I also believe that in Frank we have a progressive coach that reminds me in many ways of Keith Burkinshaw and we can only hope that he along with the newly formed senior management team can take us to the next level.
It not only though about spending ridiculous amounts of money to get “that special” player(s), remember what happened to Leeds.
I will now put my trust in the new regime at Spurs and “Hope” that they deliver on their promise of “win more, more often” and that translates to a premier league title. It is a joke and not a funny one at that, that a club the size of ours with it’s rich history has only won the “league” twice and that needs to be put right sooner rather than later.
I am 60 had a quadruple heart bypass a few years back and I am passionate about our club and before I go to pastures new I want to see us win the Premiere League with my son and my grand children as well.
COYS!
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I’ve been waiting for your thought piece for the past couple of days and it didn’t disappoint. Being an older supporter is a blessing and a curse. Almost without exception we remember the good old days and regard current events with contempt. For us, the recent history of the club is awash with regret. Yet our younger supporters don’t care! That was then, this is now. It’s important to put Levy into context but I’m not going to waste any more time fretting about him. Trying to understand recent events is a bit like a blind man trying to pin a tail on a donkey. But I am fairly certain that whatever direction the club goes under the new structure – then I won’t like it. I think my point is, without trying to sound sour, that football is always changing and never to our liking. So I don’t really care that Levy’s reign of terror turned into a reign of error and he paid the price.
Instead, I’ll focus on our heroes and I wondered, Alan, if you were considering a piece on the contributions of Son. I’m ashamed to admit that I was beginning to question his selection. It was either all or nothing with him and we were getting too much of the latter. But I watched a couple of highlights reels and it reminded what a fantastic player he was for us. Maybe we took too much for granted but the quality of his goals from outside the box was stupendous. For me, he scored the best goal I’ve ever seen by a Tottenham player. It might not be the best ever goal scored by a Spur, but of all the thousands of goals I’ve seen, his run from our penalty area and the length of the pitch to score against Burnley was the best. Better than Greaves, Kane, Chivers and the rest. Sail on Sonny, thanks for everything.
Eaststander.
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Good article. Well written.
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Reading the comments by Harry Redknapp this morning underlining Joe Lewis made the key decisions, including financial strategy, Levy carried them out, would like to have seen this in the article to provide a fuller picture
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Hi Alan,
Whilst I cannot match your undeniable passion for the club there are issues that the fanbase do not seem to be able to grasp or perhaps prefer to ignore.
It’s also undeniable that managing a football club in the EPL has become a business; the financial numbers driven by the exorbitant cost of players hold sway and being a business it is not unreasonable to expect that season tickets will be subject to price rises in the same way as any other product when costs also rise. Take a look at the rises other PL clubs have imposed on their fans for this season on ‘givemesport’.
One should also consider that DL, being a minority shareholder in ENIC, would have been obliged to follow the directives of Joe Lewis in all major decisions during his tenure. So when ENIC decide to build a hotel and appartment blocks outside the stadium and a housing project on the sites of the Goods Yard, The Depot and Printworks these are not decisions made by DL alone. In fact real estate figures heavily in the Tavistock Group’s major investments.
The planning and implementation of the new stadium and Hotspur Way did not happen overnight. Take a look at the consolidated balance sheets (on our site) in the years leading up to those projects and in particular that of 2017 when the cumulative spend on planning processes etc had reached £315m so to blame DL for not buying more players or supporting his coaches is erroneus when the cash was obliged to go elsewhere.
I’m sorry Alan but your post only presents one side of the coin when there are always two…
Hibberni.
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You make the key, salient point that Levy has always ultimately been subject to the directives of Joe Lewis and, latterly, the Lewis family (as Joe takes more of a back seat possibly due to his fraud conviction in the U.S?).
The new Lewis narrative is that the family will now open the purse strings, as if Levy has been the impediment to this! That’s clearly never been the case, but our fanbase has lapped it up given his convenient sin-eater position. This allows the Lewis family to present itself, in effect, as a new era. It isn’t, they’ve just chosen to get rid of Levy. To make it seem like they’re with us, they’ve peddled all this ‘family of generational supporters’ bollocks’ as if that makes a difference. Whatever Levy is or isn’t, he’s a fervent Spurs’ fan.
The Lewis PR machine says the club isn’t for sale. What’s true is that the club is open to significant investment for a minority share. Common knowledge that Levy had apparently been trying to secure this for at least eighteen months. I can’t help wondering if he’s gone for failing to expedite it? I actually can’t see any other reason, given the incredible rise in Tottenham’s financial value, why the Lewis family would remove him. They certainly don’t care about the club’s success, in the way that we do. For them the formula’s simple: winning stuff is one aspect that makes the club a more valuable commodity. When it hits the right amount, they’ll cash in. Levy didn’t get them the investment that will ultimately add value to the club. Goodbye.
At the end of the day, if the club spends and brings in the real quality we need I’ll welcome it. What I won’t accept, personally, is dirty money coming into the club (I mean dirtier than Joe Lewis being a convicted fraudster). Newcastle is a disgrace on that front. I don’t want that for us.
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ENIC mention new era perhaps moving the emphasis a bit from business to team with maybe more money for the latter. Seems trust Levy more for business than team, hence the changes made.
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ENIC new era shifting the emphasis a bit from business towards the team with some money put in apparently, seems they trusted Levy more to run business than the team, hence the change…
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trouble registering, signing in, will give up and go anon again !
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Vinai toeing the party line on our site but one would not expect anything else.
Of course the club is not for sale, there’s unfinished real estate business which I have mentioned above.
I forgot to include the Whitewebbs development (only a loan at the moment) but don’t rule out a land purchase in the future and a first class golf club appearing on the site of the old public course.
Hibberni.
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ALAN, beautifully written once again. Well argued took us so far but still short.
Hard to believe the Panto villain has gone. Strange feeling this “no-one to blame!”
Perhaps he will still watch as a fan… is this mentally possible?
Our motto had become TO DARE IS TO DON’T.
Enic have set themselves up, they really MUST Dare Now.
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West Ham 13/09
Well, that was a stroll was it not?
The high-point, MOTM 19 yr. Lucas Bergvall.
The one low-point, crosses; only 5 out of 31 deemed successful by Sofascore.
Hibberni
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Villarreal 16/09.
Still using far too much wing play for my liking & even then we only managed 14 crosses this time. It’s not that I dislike wing play it’s the imbalance it creates by dragging players away from the centre when there is an over-reliance on the tactic. Look at the heatmaps (WhoScored) for Sarr & Bergvall for confirmation. We did not manage a single through ball & only one shot on target…
Villarreal played in much the same way with even less success (Vicario did not have to make a single save) so I suppose the tenor of the match was to be expected.
Hibberni.
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B’ton 20/09
Well that display of dominance & determination perhaps deserved more reward but at least has put another nail in the S____y coffin.
We had 44 touches in the B’ton box and 32 crosses and I have to question why we were unable to score more. Was it because only 3 of those crosses were deemed successful by SofaScore which maybe was predictable given that Verbruggen is 6’ 4, Dunk 6’ 3 and Van Hecke 6’ 2?
The first time we get into the B’ton box from a central build-up we score, 5 players in the box, beautifully orchestrated by Bentancur (my favourite player) from the front of their box.
TF said in his review that on another day a performance like that will lead to more goals. On va voir…
Hibberni.
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Doncaster 24/9
Given that we were afforded space & time in the 2nd half I was somewhat disappointed that we could not maximise that advantage until the end of the game. indeed, Doncaster managed more accurate passes and more final third entries than us during that period.
Hibberni.
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Wolves 27/09
Okay, so using the wings to stretch the low-block is an accepted tactic & was on show once again yesterday &, in particular, the left wing but here’s the rub…
The one stat that I have been highlighting in previous comments; of 32 crosses yesterday only 9 were deemed successful by Sofascore & neither was our high press much in evidence. It’s important that there are at least 3 players in & around the box for crosses to have any chance of success. For example Guardiola would use Aguero & Jesus to occupy the centre-backs & the full-backs by positioning them between the two with Bernardo hanging around the D to act as a pivot or to pick up loose balls.
I’m starting to think that Xavi Simons is being wasted on the left wing, especially after his efforts yesterday, & that our N° 9 needs a partner up front.
Hibberni
P.S. why are we so bloody awful at throw-ins?
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Bodo/Glimt 30/09
If the first half was an example of TF’s tactics then I don’t fancy our chances in the CL or did the team take fright?
Same old story; attempts to play down the wings although Bodo (in general) restricted our forward play to the mid-field.
Which brings me to my next obsevation; we had minimal mid-field presence in the attacking third. The initial camera shots in games (at this point) tend to focus on the referee, who is generally in a central position so, when our attack is in progress, I always make a point to see if we have at least one player in & around him (the ref.).
All I saw last night were yellow shirts…
Hibberni.
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There’s a kind of chicken and egg question with all this. Without the money how do you finance the squad to beat all the others who do have the money ? Without the stadium where does the money come from ? The answer in the article seems to be to pretend that it really wouldn’t have taken much money at all, you can spend a lot less than everyone else and still somehow win. Given what Liverpool have spent in the summer that seems ridiculous. Clubs like Brighton do spend more effectively but it doesn’t make enough difference to beat the clubs with the deep pockets. Spurs don’t make the financial rules, they can’t opt out of the game if they want to win anything.
jod
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Leeds 04/10
Grity performance and just what was required. Another nail in the S——y coffin methinks.
A much more balanced attack (only 10 crosses today) and with pace, ably supported by the hard work that Paulhinha & Bentancur put in to break up Leeds in midfield.
More importantly one can see the beginnings of the players getting to grips with TF’s tactics and, at the same time, working cohesively as a team.
Hibberni.
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Aston Villa 19/10
There are some issues that should have been addressed by now, in other words, I’m still seeing a repeat of stuff I’ve highlighted before.
1) Our throw-ins continue to be a problem; too slow, an absence of players showing for the ball. Apart from Kevin’s throws we turned over the ball to AV every time.
A throw-in is a set piece, we have a coach for that so what the f… is he doing about it?
2) The N°10 position. On evidence so far Simons can’t play that position, the first half passed him by & most of the second half. Why, TF, did it take you so long to replace him? If Simons can’t adjust to the EPL then bench him!
3) Vicario? Time to play Kinski. I could expand on the former’s faults but they continue to be evident each
match; slow recycling of the ball & bad positioning. He spends more time flapping at his teammates rather than focusing on his responsibilities.
4) Do we really have to witness this painfully slow approach to the attacking third yet again especially as the results are the same?
When I see supporters leaving for early departure you need to take heed TF.
Hibberni.
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A. Villa addendum.
I’ve just looked at our attacking map on Sofascore.
The lowest concentration of our play is in the attacking third in front of the AV goal and therein lies our biggest problem and why I continue to argue against this reliance on wing-play.
I’m not against wing-play but I also want to see us populating the area from where the highest percentage of goals are scored…
Hibberni.
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Monaco 22/10
Firstly I have to metephorically ‘eat my hat’ given Vicario’s display last night (see previous comments).
The stats, though, are no different from previous games so I see no reason to repeat aforementioned observations.
It’s concerning that TF’s post match comments failed to address our shortcomings.
I foresee troubling times ahead…
Hibberni.
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The blogosphere has started pointing the finger at Bentancur & Palhinha as part of our midfield problems.
What midfield I ask myself…
It’s clear that TF has adopted the same route to goal as the Imposter as is illustrated in today’s Sky Sports article on this issue.
Our 2 DM’s are only doing what they’ve been asked to do which is to recycle the ball out to the wings.
One only has to recall the number of times Romero brought the ball forward out of defense & then had to stop because there is no forward pass available & the number of times Maddison had to come back into our half to get on the ball.
This is a tactical issue, not a player one, & at some point TF has to get to grips with it.
My own view I have made clear many times & having two wing-backs & two wingers is, at least, one too many wide players.
Hibberni.
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Everton 27/10
At last a tactical change; Kudus moved to N° 10 area (I won’t say position just yet), no genuine left winger and an overload the right side providing extra cover against Grealish and leaving more space on the left which unfortunately we didn’t take real advantage of.
Our attack map shows an increase in our presence in central MF and in front of the Everton goal.
Our crossing accuracy improved to 27% whereas Everton’s success rate was only 9% (3/34).
So, improvements in the right areas but, as TF said in his post-match comments, still plenty of ‘stuff’ to work on.
Hibberni.
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Newcastle 29/10
Much effort but little reward.
Richey was seeing more of the ball than usual so not sure why he was subbed. Why not play 2 N°9’s up front for the last 15 minutes TF? Audere est Facere is it not?
Although Kinski was at fault for their second goal the range of his distribution is noticeably superior to that of Vicario’s.
Hibberni.
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Chelsea 01/11
The news reports & those on the blogosphere say it all, no need for me to add further to the misery except to say we had two N° 9’s on the field (at one point) so why push one out on the left wing when they should both be pressurising the Chelsea CB’s?
Hibberni.
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F.C. Copenhagen 04/11
Let’s not deceive ourselves, the Danish team allowed us too much space nevertheless a win at this point was a much needed tonic for both players & fans.
Here are our results so far (all games except Super Cup)…WWLW WDWD DWLD WLLW.
This is probably what we should have expected when a new coach arrives; a period of discovery, adjustment & re-building so are 16 games sufficient for this process to come to fruition?
The next 4 games will test our resolve & answer that question…
On va voir…
Hibberni.
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MANU 08/11
For the first 70 minutes or so everything about our performance was amateur; all the basic skills of football were absent!
It took two of our youngsters to inject that much needed spark into our performance which says much about the performance of our seniors…
Porro, once again, is failing in his defensive duties. Why on earth is this guy taking our free kicks in the attacking third when Xavi has already shown a better touch. It’s these mistakes that our costing us…
As for that wimp Johnson, enough is enough. Sell!!!
Neither was I impressed with Romero’s performance today. Of course the international break can’t have influenced that can it? Next time he demands a private jet for his return put him in economy class!
Frank talked about stroking ego’s in his presser! Maybe learning to stroke a decent pass would be more appropriate…
Hibberni.
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Arsenal 24/11
That was nothing short of humilating; to allow that player to score a hat-trick beggars belief…
At my age (73) I have come to the conclusion that my emotional involvement with THFC must come to an end. I see no reward in watching a bunch of overpaid, spoilt brats who simply can’t be bothered to compete.
My support for THFC has now ended & this is my last post.
Thanks Alan & all the best for the future.
HIbberni.
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Just read this now @HIbberni.
Please don’t disappear on us or our team. Just watch with one eye open…like I think most of have been doing over the past couple of months. I’m sure I am speaking for many of us, but I really appreciate your insights into the game…..albeit, they have been pretty bleak recently.
I am not one of the Frank haters. I refuse to be. Managers need time and given a couple of windows to get their footballing ideas across. Just look at the patience given to Arteta to slowly build. He signed many duffs on the way, but then got rid of them and replaced them with something better.
I am sick of this quick fix attitude that Spurs have had firing managers at regular intervals, which just creates disjointed teams. Enough with the Sack, Reset, Repeat attitude. Let’s hope with a new chairman (or whatever he is) the approach is different and they have the patience and foresight to work together with a manager, rather than against.
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