Daniel Levy along with his partner Joe Lewis has owned Tottenham Hotspurs since 2001, they bought a 27% stake in the club for 22 million pounds. When he became the chairman of the club Spurs were dabbling in mid-table mediocrity. In 2007 ENIC bought rest of Alan Sugars shares for 25 million pounds. Eventually ENIC owned 85% of Tottenham.
Since Levy acquired Spurs one thing no one can argue about is that financially Spurs have grown exponentially, they are now the 10th richest club in the world with a market value of 2.3 billion. Under Levy Tottenham league and European performances have also improved considerably. They are consistently battling for champions league places, which provide huge revenue for the club and they were the finalist in the 2018-19 champions league campaign.
But for all the success Daniel Levy has achieved since the acquisition of Spurs there is a feeling of “what could have been”. He is notorious for being a fussy spender in the transfer market and leaves deals to be done till the last moment. He is also a tough negotiator as chronicled by Sir Alex saying that “negotiations with him were more painful than his hip replacement” and getting a world record 85 million pounds for Gareth Bale. In today’s market where owners of rival clubs are oligarchs and prince of oil-rich nations, it can prove to be a little difficult to compete with them in the transfer market for the top talents. Over the last 5 years, Spurs net spend is 43 million pounds which is 18th in the Premier League behind the likes of West Ham, Brighton and Watford. Whereas the net spend of Man City was 493 million pounds, Man Utd net spend was 401 million pounds and Spurs arch-rivals Arsenal spent 222 million pounds.
Levy is known for being less patient with his managerial appointments, 12 managers have worked for him. He has appointed some incredible managers like Harry Redknapp and Jose Mourinho but one of the best decisions taken by him or by any chairman or owner for that matter of fact is the hiring of Mauricio Pochettico in the summer of 2014. For many years Spurs were trying to get into the champions league places, but they couldn’t break that glass ceiling. Pochettino was a perfect match for Spurs, they both had the same principles: playing attacking, attractive football and developing young talents. Under Pochettino Spurs regularly competed for titles, finished above Arsenal 4 years in a row (this feat wasn’t achieved for 20 years before Pochettino’s appointment) and developed genuine superstars like Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Heung Min Son. The only blemish during this era of relative success was that Poch and this wonderful squad couldn’t win a trophy, they always fell at the last hurdle like losing in the champions league finals, losing to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to hand Leicester City the title and losing numerous semi-finals. This was nothing new to the Spurs fanbase, Spurs were given the infamous moniker of “being spursy” which meant bottling it at the last moment. But people didn’t realise that Pochettino was overachieving given the budget he had to work with in the transfer market. Spurs made some absolute bargain buys for the likes of Dele Alli (bought for only 5 million pounds) and Heung min Son (bought for 22 million pounds), but they did not compete for the best talents in the market. Still, they competed with the likes of Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea in the league. In the summer of 2018 Spurs did not buy a single player in both the transfer windows, this was a first in the premier league era and still Spurs finished fourth in the league and played in the finals of champions league. This period left Spurs fans thinking what could have been if Levy backed Pochettino in the transfer market? It is safe to say that appointing Pochettino as the manager was one of the best sporting and financial decision taken by Daniel Levy.
Under Levy, Spurs have gradually become one of the top football clubs in the world. Opening of a brand new training base in 2013 was just the beginning after that a brand new state of the art stadium was opened in 2019 which cost over a billion dollars, both the training base and stadium are considered one of the best in the world. More importantly, the new stadium retained the atmosphere and soul of White Hart Lane. This facet of changing stadiums is challenging because the new stadium doesn’t quite retain the atmosphere or the vibe of the previous stadium and that has a huge impact on the fans, just ask Arsenal or West Ham fans. But it’s a pity that this world-class stadium hasn’t hosted a north London with fans present to witness the match. After the coronavirus pandemic fans weren’t allowed to go to the stadiums and this was a huge blow for Levy and Tottenham board because they were missing out on revenue that would be generated from ticket sales and if the revenue couldn’t come in, the club could not afford to pay the loans to the bank that were borrowed for the stadium. Above that sacking of Mourinho would be a significant financial undertaking because he was on 15 million pounds a year. Tottenham are in a precarious position financially with debt amounting to 39% of the total value.
With all this financial burden, the board of directors decided to join the European Super League which led to huge fan protest against Levy and ENIC. Most of the owner of other clubs were foreign owners and hence they didn’t care about the rich cultures all the other clubs had but Levy was a childhood spurs fan and this was pretty disappointing decision by Levy and it would be an understatement that the fans were frustrated with all the impulsive decision making, shoddy financing and lack of activity in the transfer market. The Super League debacle was the last straw for many spurs fans and that led to fan protest outside the stadium before the Southampton match with fans holding ‘ENIC OUT’ banners.
The Spurs supporters and the management are at a crossroads, the fans want significant activity in the transfer market to back the next manager who comes in and Levy would like to be careful in the market and balance the books and look to gain some profits with now fans looking more likely to attend home games from next season. This summer is by far the most pivotal period in the club’s history with key decisions to be taken like appointing the next manager and a manager who meets the club’s style and expectation, and key players looking for an exit this summer with the likes of Kane and Dele Alli. The question Spurs fans keep asking is whether Levy is ambitious to led Spurs forward? And the answer is yes, but the other question is whether Levy is willing to spend large sums of money to take Spurs to the next level?
The Football Bull 