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A letter from a Fan about Daniel Levy
By Ryan Gelade
Daniel Levy was eventually made chairman in February 2001.
His initial press garb was that he was a lifelong spurs
fan and before being appointed chairman he had a season ticket at
Tottenham anyway. The press later revealed that he also had a season
ticket at Arsenal and went to both on alternate weeks. Also his eldest
daughter was later to enter a high profile relationship with former
Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein’s daughter which led to their marriage.
His first move was to sack George Graham 72 hours after Spurs
had reached the FA cup semi-final against Arsenal after beating West
Ham 4-2 at Upton Park. This action was taken less than a month after
Levy had taken charge. Graham was never a fan favourite at Tottenham for
obvious reasons but why would a chairman sack a manager after such a
crucial result? Tottenham Hotspur’s reasoning was that Graham was
handed written warnings prior to his sacking for giving out what was
deemed by the club as being private information. This information was
alleged to be the transfer budget for the following season. From my
memory Graham said something along the lines of “I don’t think they’ll
be much difference from the previous regime don’t expect millions and
millions to be spent”
Levy stated:- “I can say, despite speculation, that we do not have a
long list of managers ready to step into the breach here. We will take
our time and think things through.” Yet within 10 days fan favourite
Glenn Hoddle was given the job. Many theorist claim that Hoddle was
sounded out about the job before sacking George Graham. George Graham
sued for unfair dismissal and was awarded £2 million. £910,000 was paid
as compensation to Southampton to release Glenn Hoddle and assistant
John Gorman from their contracts.
That moves swiftly on to Levy’s original summer transfer fiasco.
These were the days before summer transfer windows. Levy had turned down
bids as high as £6 million pounds for then skipper Sol Campbell. He was
happily convinced that Campbell would sign a new contract in the
summer. This wasn’t the case. Graham had already stated in the summer of
2001 that Campbell wouldn’t sign a contract and should be sold and
replaced. The board disregarded this and that pigheadedness allowed our
prized asset to not only leave for nothing but leave to join our big
rivals. Plenty of speculation circulated about who would be bought in. 8
players who were out of contract were released. Spurs
brought in Jamie Redknapp, Rohan Ricketts, Milenko Acimovic, Diego
Bortolozzo (don’t ask!) and Teddy Sheringham on free transfers. Despite
all the players linked (I believe they were quite close to signing
Eto’o) the only cash signing was Robbie Keane for £7m. They later paid
well over the odds for Dean Richards (8.1m) on Hoddle’s insistence to
replace Campbell. So you could argue that appointing Hoddle as manager
cost the club £11 million in compensation and Dean Richards.
Initially he did well we had a good start to his first season and got
to a league cup final after we inexplicably lost to Blackburn. The team
never showed up that day and Blackburn were worthy winners. Hoddle
blamed the lack of fire power in the squad even though it was his
decision to allow both Chris Armstrong and Les Ferdinand to leave on
free transfers and exiled the hot and cold Sergi Rebrov. The following
summer the club addressed Hoddle’s concerns by bringing in Fredi Kanoute
and Helder Postiga for a combined £13.25m. The axe fell on Hoddle on
September the 22nd 2003 after 6 games of the following season brought a
tally of just 4 points. Levy cut short his honeymoon to dismiss Hoddle
with what he called “unacceptable lack of progress and any visible sign
of improvement” Hoddle was paid out for the rest of his 5 year contract
although a 3 year managers contract has long been industry standard!!!!
Levy went back on a promise to fans not to raise the prices of season
tickets like he had the two previous years of his tenure. He went back
on his words and raised the price by a whopping 12% and decreased the
number of cup games included in the season ticket from 5 to 3. He stated
this was due to increased expenditure at the club, possibly down to
sacking 2 high profile managers in 2 and a half years.
Fair enough I and many others thought at the time despite a backlash
in the press for sacking Hoddle too soon into a new season. The time was
right for a new man. As much as we all loved Hoddle as a player he
couldn’t cut the mustard as a manager that was clear for all to see. The
un-popular David Pleat was appointed as a caretaker and flirted with a
relegation dogfight before finishing 14th. The club were linked
extensively to Giovanni Trappatoni who reportedly changed his mind after
initially shaking hands on a deal. Levy was confident Trapattoni was
his man. David Pleat, then director of football, had accompanied
Trapattoni to White Hart Lane, where he watched Tottenham play but
changed his mind claiming his wife was too sick to make the move. The
club waited until June of 2004 to finally replace Hoddle. Now how can a
chairman who accuses his manager of an unacceptable lack of progress and
then wait almost ONE calendar year to replace a manager?
Levy’s argument was that no stone was left un-turned in appointing
Jacques Santini the new manager which is why it had taken such a lengthy
time. He stated that “He was the outstanding candidate because of his
experience, coaching ability and track record at all levels” The saga
threatened to become farcical 48 hours before the appointment when
Tottenham chairman Levy met Claudio Ranieri, the sacked Chelsea manager,
at the Heathrow Hilton, fuelling speculation he might move across
London. Ranieri, however, said he preferred to go back to his old club
Valencia and Tottenham portrayed the meeting as just a courtesy call
(courtesy for what one wonders!). Right from the start it seemed Santini
was doomed to failure. He didn’t speak English and was criticized for a
negative defensive outlook and more crucially for failing to honour the
minutes silence for the Late Great Bill Nicholson after his death. The
press heightened that and he was always on borrowed time after that and
he sensibly walked before he was pushed.
By pure chance the man brought in to be Santini’s assistant Martin
Jol excelled during his caretaker role and was quickly offered the job
on a full time basis. Pride was restored and for the first time in ages
Spurs seemed to be making genuine progress. This seemed to be by pure
chance and perhaps not by Levy’s “No stone unturned search.” Better
players came in and around £51 million was spent on new players with
around £35 million recouped by outgoing players. The criticism still
followed Levy around. The main one his treatment of Darren Anderton
whose 12 year career at Spurs we ended with a letter 6 weeks after he
was told a new deal was in the pipeline. The time was probably right for
Darren to leave but there is a way to conduct oneself in such matters.
There then followed the war of words with Chelsea conducted between the
two clubs official websites over Frank Arnesen. This is the first time
Levy has held opposition clubs to ransom to either increase a fee or
compensation level for a member of staff. The tactic worked well as I
believe the club received £7million compensation for a director of
football whose signings were hit and miss at best. In fact by the time
Arnesen left his role at the end of the August 2005 transfer window only
one of his many signings (Michael Carrick) was a first team regular.
After our best season for years and missing out on the CL by a point
and a dodgy lasagne there was to be more controversy and tough talking
for Levy. First he threatened the hotel and the FA with legal action
regarding said Lasagne. This was of course backtracked due to no
evidence and a stern warning from both the FA and the Premier League to
drop the issue due to no evidence.
Investment in the playing staff continued at a hefty pace after
missing out on the CL by such a close margin the club responded by
spending £34m which again was offset by player sales of £16,650,000. The
club enjoyed a successive 5th place finish and reached the semi-finals
of the League cup and the quarter finals in both the FA and Uefa cups.
Now we come to my biggest bug bear the sacking of Martin Jol. In the
summer before his sacking club secretary John Alexander and Paul
Kelmsley we’re seen wining and dining Juande Ramos offering what Ramos
claimed was a “dizzying offer” thought to be 6million Euros per year.
(Makes a mockery of the wage cap Levy has in place on the playing side
don’t you think?) The club had been caught with their pants down tapping
up a top Spanish manager who was still very much in a job in Spain.
Tottenham claimed the meeting was a chance one and clear the air talks
were held with the undermined Martin Jol. At this meeting Jol apparently
begged the board and Damian Comolli for an experienced center half to
cover the more frequently absent Ledley King and a right back. He
received Younes Kaboul and Pascal Chimbonda. Although he wanted Kaboul
he was seen as one for the future and not ready for the first team in
Jol’s opinion. This was shown in several key errors during the first few
weeks of the season where he had no option but to play Kaboul due to
injuries to King. Chimbonda wasn’t deemed good enough defensively by
Jol. coincidentally this issue was addressed in the next window when
Ramos was allowed to splash out £16m on Jonathon Woodgate and Alan
Hutton.
Even when Spurs fans knew their manager was history, early on during a
Uefa Cup tie with Getafe, they kept chanting his name. Jol knew his
fate, he knew that the moment Levy flirted with Sevilla’s Juande Ramos
that a good man working had become a dead man walking. Somehow, Jol
retained his dignity. Levy would not recognise it but Jol’s decorum
under pressure was real class. As he moved his pieces around a
lilywhite-and-black chess-board, the Spurs chairman should have
understand one reality: Jol was perfect for the club, being an average
coach with a soul and a commitment to attacking football. The Dutchman
was not in the league of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger or Rafa
Benitez but then neither were Tottenham in the same realm as Manchester
United, Arsenal or Liverpool at that time. Fact.
Levy, whose credibility has been shredded over his handling of Jol’s
exit, had delusions of grandeur if he believed Spurs had to dismiss Jol
for Ramos in order to achieve Champions League potential. Jol took Spurs
to the boundaries of their legitimate ambition, to fifth place (twice).
After the sterility of some of his Levy-appointed predecessors, Jol
made Spurs watchable and respected again. Following time-honoured
fashion, the denigrating of the departed begun. Jol will be depicted as
having lost the players. Dimitar Berbatov and Jermain Defoe were clearly
unhappy and at odds with the manager and I’m sure the cold tensions
between Jol and some was like a fridge. No doubt. But no wonder. Levy
had undermined Jol so badly that any minor football-related tensions
were allowed to spread like poison ivy.
The fact that years later when Jol arrived at Fulham he said he
didn’t blame Levy shows the class of Martin Jol. You can blame who like.
Comolli, Kelmsley, uncle Tom Cobbly et al. This decision was rubber
stamped by Levy. Ramos was the man he wanted and he didn’t give a damn
as to his treatment of Martin Jol. Some directors at the club had wanted
to sack Jol in the summer over his apparent satisfaction at steering
the club to their second successive fifth-placed finish in the Premier
League and a slot in the Uefa Cup. Some on the board expected more.
(Hang on didn’t Harry express his delight at us finishing 5th?) This act
cost the club £4million in compensation to Martin Jol and around 6
million euros to Sevilla for Ramos and his coaching staff.
Ramos was an initial success Spurs won their first trophy in 9 years,
and we pulled away from the relegation zone to coast towards the end of
the season. Another £48 million was spent on new players, with a
whopping £67.75m recouped by sales which included Keane and Berbatov.
Both Keane and Berbatov were clearly tapped up by Liverpool and
Manchester United. Another strongly worded club statement was issued by
Levy a few personal highlights :-
“Today’s public comments by Manchester United’s manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is
confident that the deal will go through with time working in
their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference
with one of our players. It is also probably one of the worst offences
by any manager in the Premier League to date and is unbelievably
hypocritical given his recent comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo
and Real Madrid. This comes after a series of events, dating back to
last summer, which have shown Manchester United to be in breach of
Premier League (PL) rules. As a result, we have today made an official
complaint to the PL about the conduct of Manchester United. Benitez made
similar comments in respect of Robbie recently and we made an official
complaint to the PL about the conduct of Liverpool earlier this week.
The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs
very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar,
respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.
Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have
evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the
players away from us, outside of PL rules of conduct. “Our subsequent
position has been severely compromised by both clubs making their
intentions widely known and indeed making contact with the players and
their agents, without the Club’s permission. I have absolutely no wish
to sell either player and to date we have not accepted any offer for
either. However, when a player’s head is turned and their commitment is
absent, particularly when they occupy key positions such as that of
striker, they become a negative influence in a team dressing room in
which they were once a positive addition and influence. This is the
situation we now have on our hands, with both Dimitar and Robbie having
made it clear that they wish to leave for Manchester Utd and Liverpool
respectively.”
Ring any bells? The same thing is clearly going to happen this summer
with Modric and possibly Bale. Which is why I stress to you. Levy’s
word normally doesn’t mean a gospel truth. In the January before Keane
and Berbatov left Levy said “Once again for the record, we are not a
selling club, rather we are building for the future. When we have
players on long contracts we have no need to entertain offers” Oh the
parallels! Levy said this about Bale last December:
“I’ve never deemed us to be a selling club if you look at the big
transfers which have taken place since I’ve been chairman. Gareth has
got a long contract and I can assure you he will not be sold.”
Still both the players who were on long contracts and not for sale
were sold for hefty fees. The strongly worded statements served there
purpose and the fee was bumped up and a large donation was made to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation in return for the retraction of Tottenham Hotspur’s official complaint to the PL.
Once the deals had gone through Head Coach Ramos, the man Levy had
fought tooth and nail to appoint regardless of the fine job his then
current head coach was doing. Whether this was Levy’s decision or on the
advice of his appointed director of football, it was deemed Ramos was
the one to take Tottenham to the next level. They backed him in both the
January and summer transfer windows and then destroyed all that good
work by depleting the squad of 3 out of the 4 strikers. In fact for the
first 5 games the only striker on our books was Darren Bent. A man who
was a bit part player for much of the previous season. The club failed
to score goals. Two points from eight games led to the axe falling
again. Surely the man who bought Ramos to the club who had identified
him as THE MAN, to put Tottenham back with the Elite. The man who had
such a strong CV who had won trophies for fun would have been backed to
the hilt by Levy. No such luck. After 8 months, Ramos was left with an
unbalanced squad and a sacking.
In another strongly worded ‘open letter’ Levy stated:-
“Relieving Juande Ramos, our head coach, and Juande’s assistants, Gus
Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, of their posts is not something I have
undertaken lightly. Unfortunately, our extremely poor start to the
season, led the Board and I to determine that significant change was
necessary as a matter of urgency. The English Premier League is an
unforgiving competition – time was no longer on our side and was a
luxury we simply could not afford. We have quite clearly not performed
to the best of our ability for many months now and our poor run of form
is not something we could allow to continue unchecked.”
Some took the attitude that having made his bed Levy should perhaps
have layed in it for a little longer. At the time of his sacking
Tottenham legend Gary Lineker said “Look how well Jol is doing with
Hamburg now. They should have stuck by him. Generally if you look at the
clubs who have been successful, they are the ones who have stuck by
their manager. Obviously you need the right one. If they think Ramos is
the right guy and knows his stuff then they should give him time. After
having a load of strikers they are now struggling up front. You hope
Roman Pavlyuchenko adapts really quickly – but now he’s out for a while.
It’s just been a really tough start for them. Everything that could go
wrong has done. Defoe has been on fire at Portsmouth. We all know
Berbatov was a different case – if he’s desperate to go then he’s going
to go. And losing Keane was another huge blow.”
In stark contrast to Tottenham sitting bottom of the league, Jol’s
Hamburg side are top of the German Bundesliga for the first time in nine
years. Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer said.
“I don’t know the exact circumstances of what happened at Tottenham,
but it’s hard to believe any team would not want Martin as coach. He’s
doing a fantastic job at Hamburg. Your loss is our gain. It’s another
huge victory for German football over you English.”
Harry Redknapp was given the job and the clubs results over
the past 3 years must have been beyond Levy’s wildest dreams. We finally
got into the promised land of the Champions League. You could argue
that happened in-spite of Levy rather than because of it. His doggish
determination in sticking to a European model with a director of
football and Head coach was hardly a success.
You can clearly see that hardened Spurs supporters dislike for Levy
is not on a whim. He has made several errors of judgement over the past
10 and a half years since he became chairman. Millions have been wasted
mainly on paying off clubs and managers for compensation. Yet we are
told that we can’t afford to compete in the transfer market and wages
etc. Levy has had his time and has made mistake after mistake with his
single-minded my way or no way. It has cost us players, managers and
creditability. This is without mentioning the NDP/Stratford fiasco. A
lot of people who sing his praises now have short memories and think he
appeared on a white horse one day, sacked Ramos and brought in Redknapp
and the next minute we were in the Champions League. It didn’t happen
like that. It took him 10 years and millions of pounds to do this (plus
may I add it was complete accident because he clearly thought the
continental method with a director of football and a European manager
was the way to achieve this) and once he got us there he dragged us back
down to earth by not investing money in the transfer market. This led
to us not building on the prolonged success we could have achieved by
making the Champions League every season. Last season was there for the
taking. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and even Manchester United were not
at their best. We can’t stagnate as a club and rest on our laurels. A
signing of a top quality striker would have made it a near certainty
that we made the top 4 for a second successive season. Instead we are
back in the ‘there or thereabouts section’ that is fifth place. Now if
we were to lose Luka and/or Bale which is possible regardless of Levy’s
commendable stance where are we then? It’s like 2008 all over again and
what are the chances of lighting striking twice and appointing the right
money once Redknapp’s compensation money from the FA arrives?
Is it abundantly clear to me that, from day 1, the medium term plan
of Spurs current owners was always to increase the value of the club and
then sell it. They are not custodians of the club. They are hardnosed
capitalists who care for nothing but money.
In order to maximise the value of the club they would have to
1. Establish the club as a CL side
2. Increase the value of the club’s assets – players, facilities, land, investments etc
And most importantly of all…
3. Improve the stadium
(of course if you can do all of these on the cheap – or with someone else’s money – then you make even more)
By Ryan Gelade
Daniel Levy was eventually made chairman in February 2001.
His initial press garb was that he was a lifelong spurs
fan and before being appointed chairman he had a season ticket at
Tottenham anyway. The press later revealed that he also had a season
ticket at Arsenal and went to both on alternate weeks. Also his eldest
daughter was later to enter a high profile relationship with former
Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein’s daughter which led to their marriage.
His first move was to sack George Graham 72 hours after Spurs
had reached the FA cup semi-final against Arsenal after beating West
Ham 4-2 at Upton Park. This action was taken less than a month after
Levy had taken charge. Graham was never a fan favourite at Tottenham for
obvious reasons but why would a chairman sack a manager after such a
crucial result? Tottenham Hotspur’s reasoning was that Graham was
handed written warnings prior to his sacking for giving out what was
deemed by the club as being private information. This information was
alleged to be the transfer budget for the following season. From my
memory Graham said something along the lines of “I don’t think they’ll
be much difference from the previous regime don’t expect millions and
millions to be spent”
Levy stated:- “I can say, despite speculation, that we do not have a
long list of managers ready to step into the breach here. We will take
our time and think things through.” Yet within 10 days fan favourite
Glenn Hoddle was given the job. Many theorist claim that Hoddle was
sounded out about the job before sacking George Graham. George Graham
sued for unfair dismissal and was awarded £2 million. £910,000 was paid
as compensation to Southampton to release Glenn Hoddle and assistant
John Gorman from their contracts.
That moves swiftly on to Levy’s original summer transfer fiasco.
These were the days before summer transfer windows. Levy had turned down
bids as high as £6 million pounds for then skipper Sol Campbell. He was
happily convinced that Campbell would sign a new contract in the
summer. This wasn’t the case. Graham had already stated in the summer of
2001 that Campbell wouldn’t sign a contract and should be sold and
replaced. The board disregarded this and that pigheadedness allowed our
prized asset to not only leave for nothing but leave to join our big
rivals. Plenty of speculation circulated about who would be bought in. 8
players who were out of contract were released. Spurs
brought in Jamie Redknapp, Rohan Ricketts, Milenko Acimovic, Diego
Bortolozzo (don’t ask!) and Teddy Sheringham on free transfers. Despite
all the players linked (I believe they were quite close to signing
Eto’o) the only cash signing was Robbie Keane for £7m. They later paid
well over the odds for Dean Richards (8.1m) on Hoddle’s insistence to
replace Campbell. So you could argue that appointing Hoddle as manager
cost the club £11 million in compensation and Dean Richards.
Initially he did well we had a good start to his first season and got
to a league cup final after we inexplicably lost to Blackburn. The team
never showed up that day and Blackburn were worthy winners. Hoddle
blamed the lack of fire power in the squad even though it was his
decision to allow both Chris Armstrong and Les Ferdinand to leave on
free transfers and exiled the hot and cold Sergi Rebrov. The following
summer the club addressed Hoddle’s concerns by bringing in Fredi Kanoute
and Helder Postiga for a combined £13.25m. The axe fell on Hoddle on
September the 22nd 2003 after 6 games of the following season brought a
tally of just 4 points. Levy cut short his honeymoon to dismiss Hoddle
with what he called “unacceptable lack of progress and any visible sign
of improvement” Hoddle was paid out for the rest of his 5 year contract
although a 3 year managers contract has long been industry standard!!!!
Levy went back on a promise to fans not to raise the prices of season
tickets like he had the two previous years of his tenure. He went back
on his words and raised the price by a whopping 12% and decreased the
number of cup games included in the season ticket from 5 to 3. He stated
this was due to increased expenditure at the club, possibly down to
sacking 2 high profile managers in 2 and a half years.
Fair enough I and many others thought at the time despite a backlash
in the press for sacking Hoddle too soon into a new season. The time was
right for a new man. As much as we all loved Hoddle as a player he
couldn’t cut the mustard as a manager that was clear for all to see. The
un-popular David Pleat was appointed as a caretaker and flirted with a
relegation dogfight before finishing 14th. The club were linked
extensively to Giovanni Trappatoni who reportedly changed his mind after
initially shaking hands on a deal. Levy was confident Trapattoni was
his man. David Pleat, then director of football, had accompanied
Trapattoni to White Hart Lane, where he watched Tottenham play but
changed his mind claiming his wife was too sick to make the move. The
club waited until June of 2004 to finally replace Hoddle. Now how can a
chairman who accuses his manager of an unacceptable lack of progress and
then wait almost ONE calendar year to replace a manager?
Levy’s argument was that no stone was left un-turned in appointing
Jacques Santini the new manager which is why it had taken such a lengthy
time. He stated that “He was the outstanding candidate because of his
experience, coaching ability and track record at all levels” The saga
threatened to become farcical 48 hours before the appointment when
Tottenham chairman Levy met Claudio Ranieri, the sacked Chelsea manager,
at the Heathrow Hilton, fuelling speculation he might move across
London. Ranieri, however, said he preferred to go back to his old club
Valencia and Tottenham portrayed the meeting as just a courtesy call
(courtesy for what one wonders!). Right from the start it seemed Santini
was doomed to failure. He didn’t speak English and was criticized for a
negative defensive outlook and more crucially for failing to honour the
minutes silence for the Late Great Bill Nicholson after his death. The
press heightened that and he was always on borrowed time after that and
he sensibly walked before he was pushed.
By pure chance the man brought in to be Santini’s assistant Martin
Jol excelled during his caretaker role and was quickly offered the job
on a full time basis. Pride was restored and for the first time in ages
Spurs seemed to be making genuine progress. This seemed to be by pure
chance and perhaps not by Levy’s “No stone unturned search.” Better
players came in and around £51 million was spent on new players with
around £35 million recouped by outgoing players. The criticism still
followed Levy around. The main one his treatment of Darren Anderton
whose 12 year career at Spurs we ended with a letter 6 weeks after he
was told a new deal was in the pipeline. The time was probably right for
Darren to leave but there is a way to conduct oneself in such matters.
There then followed the war of words with Chelsea conducted between the
two clubs official websites over Frank Arnesen. This is the first time
Levy has held opposition clubs to ransom to either increase a fee or
compensation level for a member of staff. The tactic worked well as I
believe the club received £7million compensation for a director of
football whose signings were hit and miss at best. In fact by the time
Arnesen left his role at the end of the August 2005 transfer window only
one of his many signings (Michael Carrick) was a first team regular.
After our best season for years and missing out on the CL by a point
and a dodgy lasagne there was to be more controversy and tough talking
for Levy. First he threatened the hotel and the FA with legal action
regarding said Lasagne. This was of course backtracked due to no
evidence and a stern warning from both the FA and the Premier League to
drop the issue due to no evidence.
Investment in the playing staff continued at a hefty pace after
missing out on the CL by such a close margin the club responded by
spending £34m which again was offset by player sales of £16,650,000. The
club enjoyed a successive 5th place finish and reached the semi-finals
of the League cup and the quarter finals in both the FA and Uefa cups.
Now we come to my biggest bug bear the sacking of Martin Jol. In the
summer before his sacking club secretary John Alexander and Paul
Kelmsley we’re seen wining and dining Juande Ramos offering what Ramos
claimed was a “dizzying offer” thought to be 6million Euros per year.
(Makes a mockery of the wage cap Levy has in place on the playing side
don’t you think?) The club had been caught with their pants down tapping
up a top Spanish manager who was still very much in a job in Spain.
Tottenham claimed the meeting was a chance one and clear the air talks
were held with the undermined Martin Jol. At this meeting Jol apparently
begged the board and Damian Comolli for an experienced center half to
cover the more frequently absent Ledley King and a right back. He
received Younes Kaboul and Pascal Chimbonda. Although he wanted Kaboul
he was seen as one for the future and not ready for the first team in
Jol’s opinion. This was shown in several key errors during the first few
weeks of the season where he had no option but to play Kaboul due to
injuries to King. Chimbonda wasn’t deemed good enough defensively by
Jol. coincidentally this issue was addressed in the next window when
Ramos was allowed to splash out £16m on Jonathon Woodgate and Alan
Hutton.
Even when Spurs fans knew their manager was history, early on during a
Uefa Cup tie with Getafe, they kept chanting his name. Jol knew his
fate, he knew that the moment Levy flirted with Sevilla’s Juande Ramos
that a good man working had become a dead man walking. Somehow, Jol
retained his dignity. Levy would not recognise it but Jol’s decorum
under pressure was real class. As he moved his pieces around a
lilywhite-and-black chess-board, the Spurs chairman should have
understand one reality: Jol was perfect for the club, being an average
coach with a soul and a commitment to attacking football. The Dutchman
was not in the league of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger or Rafa
Benitez but then neither were Tottenham in the same realm as Manchester
United, Arsenal or Liverpool at that time. Fact.
Levy, whose credibility has been shredded over his handling of Jol’s
exit, had delusions of grandeur if he believed Spurs had to dismiss Jol
for Ramos in order to achieve Champions League potential. Jol took Spurs
to the boundaries of their legitimate ambition, to fifth place (twice).
After the sterility of some of his Levy-appointed predecessors, Jol
made Spurs watchable and respected again. Following time-honoured
fashion, the denigrating of the departed begun. Jol will be depicted as
having lost the players. Dimitar Berbatov and Jermain Defoe were clearly
unhappy and at odds with the manager and I’m sure the cold tensions
between Jol and some was like a fridge. No doubt. But no wonder. Levy
had undermined Jol so badly that any minor football-related tensions
were allowed to spread like poison ivy.
The fact that years later when Jol arrived at Fulham he said he
didn’t blame Levy shows the class of Martin Jol. You can blame who like.
Comolli, Kelmsley, uncle Tom Cobbly et al. This decision was rubber
stamped by Levy. Ramos was the man he wanted and he didn’t give a damn
as to his treatment of Martin Jol. Some directors at the club had wanted
to sack Jol in the summer over his apparent satisfaction at steering
the club to their second successive fifth-placed finish in the Premier
League and a slot in the Uefa Cup. Some on the board expected more.
(Hang on didn’t Harry express his delight at us finishing 5th?) This act
cost the club £4million in compensation to Martin Jol and around 6
million euros to Sevilla for Ramos and his coaching staff.
Ramos was an initial success Spurs won their first trophy in 9 years,
and we pulled away from the relegation zone to coast towards the end of
the season. Another £48 million was spent on new players, with a
whopping £67.75m recouped by sales which included Keane and Berbatov.
Both Keane and Berbatov were clearly tapped up by Liverpool and
Manchester United. Another strongly worded club statement was issued by
Levy a few personal highlights :-
“Today’s public comments by Manchester United’s manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is
confident that the deal will go through with time working in
their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference
with one of our players. It is also probably one of the worst offences
by any manager in the Premier League to date and is unbelievably
hypocritical given his recent comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo
and Real Madrid. This comes after a series of events, dating back to
last summer, which have shown Manchester United to be in breach of
Premier League (PL) rules. As a result, we have today made an official
complaint to the PL about the conduct of Manchester United. Benitez made
similar comments in respect of Robbie recently and we made an official
complaint to the PL about the conduct of Liverpool earlier this week.
The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs
very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar,
respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.
Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have
evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the
players away from us, outside of PL rules of conduct. “Our subsequent
position has been severely compromised by both clubs making their
intentions widely known and indeed making contact with the players and
their agents, without the Club’s permission. I have absolutely no wish
to sell either player and to date we have not accepted any offer for
either. However, when a player’s head is turned and their commitment is
absent, particularly when they occupy key positions such as that of
striker, they become a negative influence in a team dressing room in
which they were once a positive addition and influence. This is the
situation we now have on our hands, with both Dimitar and Robbie having
made it clear that they wish to leave for Manchester Utd and Liverpool
respectively.”
Ring any bells? The same thing is clearly going to happen this summer
with Modric and possibly Bale. Which is why I stress to you. Levy’s
word normally doesn’t mean a gospel truth. In the January before Keane
and Berbatov left Levy said “Once again for the record, we are not a
selling club, rather we are building for the future. When we have
players on long contracts we have no need to entertain offers” Oh the
parallels! Levy said this about Bale last December:
“I’ve never deemed us to be a selling club if you look at the big
transfers which have taken place since I’ve been chairman. Gareth has
got a long contract and I can assure you he will not be sold.”
Still both the players who were on long contracts and not for sale
were sold for hefty fees. The strongly worded statements served there
purpose and the fee was bumped up and a large donation was made to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation in return for the retraction of Tottenham Hotspur’s official complaint to the PL.
Once the deals had gone through Head Coach Ramos, the man Levy had
fought tooth and nail to appoint regardless of the fine job his then
current head coach was doing. Whether this was Levy’s decision or on the
advice of his appointed director of football, it was deemed Ramos was
the one to take Tottenham to the next level. They backed him in both the
January and summer transfer windows and then destroyed all that good
work by depleting the squad of 3 out of the 4 strikers. In fact for the
first 5 games the only striker on our books was Darren Bent. A man who
was a bit part player for much of the previous season. The club failed
to score goals. Two points from eight games led to the axe falling
again. Surely the man who bought Ramos to the club who had identified
him as THE MAN, to put Tottenham back with the Elite. The man who had
such a strong CV who had won trophies for fun would have been backed to
the hilt by Levy. No such luck. After 8 months, Ramos was left with an
unbalanced squad and a sacking.
In another strongly worded ‘open letter’ Levy stated:-
“Relieving Juande Ramos, our head coach, and Juande’s assistants, Gus
Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, of their posts is not something I have
undertaken lightly. Unfortunately, our extremely poor start to the
season, led the Board and I to determine that significant change was
necessary as a matter of urgency. The English Premier League is an
unforgiving competition – time was no longer on our side and was a
luxury we simply could not afford. We have quite clearly not performed
to the best of our ability for many months now and our poor run of form
is not something we could allow to continue unchecked.”
Some took the attitude that having made his bed Levy should perhaps
have layed in it for a little longer. At the time of his sacking
Tottenham legend Gary Lineker said “Look how well Jol is doing with
Hamburg now. They should have stuck by him. Generally if you look at the
clubs who have been successful, they are the ones who have stuck by
their manager. Obviously you need the right one. If they think Ramos is
the right guy and knows his stuff then they should give him time. After
having a load of strikers they are now struggling up front. You hope
Roman Pavlyuchenko adapts really quickly – but now he’s out for a while.
It’s just been a really tough start for them. Everything that could go
wrong has done. Defoe has been on fire at Portsmouth. We all know
Berbatov was a different case – if he’s desperate to go then he’s going
to go. And losing Keane was another huge blow.”
In stark contrast to Tottenham sitting bottom of the league, Jol’s
Hamburg side are top of the German Bundesliga for the first time in nine
years. Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer said.
“I don’t know the exact circumstances of what happened at Tottenham,
but it’s hard to believe any team would not want Martin as coach. He’s
doing a fantastic job at Hamburg. Your loss is our gain. It’s another
huge victory for German football over you English.”
Harry Redknapp was given the job and the clubs results over
the past 3 years must have been beyond Levy’s wildest dreams. We finally
got into the promised land of the Champions League. You could argue
that happened in-spite of Levy rather than because of it. His doggish
determination in sticking to a European model with a director of
football and Head coach was hardly a success.
You can clearly see that hardened Spurs supporters dislike for Levy
is not on a whim. He has made several errors of judgement over the past
10 and a half years since he became chairman. Millions have been wasted
mainly on paying off clubs and managers for compensation. Yet we are
told that we can’t afford to compete in the transfer market and wages
etc. Levy has had his time and has made mistake after mistake with his
single-minded my way or no way. It has cost us players, managers and
creditability. This is without mentioning the NDP/Stratford fiasco. A
lot of people who sing his praises now have short memories and think he
appeared on a white horse one day, sacked Ramos and brought in Redknapp
and the next minute we were in the Champions League. It didn’t happen
like that. It took him 10 years and millions of pounds to do this (plus
may I add it was complete accident because he clearly thought the
continental method with a director of football and a European manager
was the way to achieve this) and once he got us there he dragged us back
down to earth by not investing money in the transfer market. This led
to us not building on the prolonged success we could have achieved by
making the Champions League every season. Last season was there for the
taking. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and even Manchester United were not
at their best. We can’t stagnate as a club and rest on our laurels. A
signing of a top quality striker would have made it a near certainty
that we made the top 4 for a second successive season. Instead we are
back in the ‘there or thereabouts section’ that is fifth place. Now if
we were to lose Luka and/or Bale which is possible regardless of Levy’s
commendable stance where are we then? It’s like 2008 all over again and
what are the chances of lighting striking twice and appointing the right
money once Redknapp’s compensation money from the FA arrives?
Is it abundantly clear to me that, from day 1, the medium term plan
of Spurs current owners was always to increase the value of the club and
then sell it. They are not custodians of the club. They are hardnosed
capitalists who care for nothing but money.
In order to maximise the value of the club they would have to
1. Establish the club as a CL side
2. Increase the value of the club’s assets – players, facilities, land, investments etc
And most importantly of all…
3. Improve the stadium
(of course if you can do all of these on the cheap – or with someone else’s money – then you make even more)
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