Clive Allen, a former player and coach for Tottenham Hotspur FC, is quoted today as saying that the club's chairman, Daniel Levy, is an "incredible" businessman but is "not a football man". I've seen similar comments elsewhere.
Sadly, I think Mr Allen has got it wrong. Not only is Levy "not a football man", he's an appalling businessman. Tottenham are not a poor club and they have the backing of a reclusive billionaire owner, Joe Lewis, whose 'ENIC' investment company bought a majority shareholding in 2001, when Levy replaced Alan Sugar as Chairman. Since then, the club has had a succession of managers, both 'permanent' and 'temporary', and has won nothing of real note; it's one League Cup victory in 2008 can hardly be called major silverware.
The sad truth is that Levy's understanding of football is poor and his understanding of its management even poorer. Within a month of taking control, Levy sacked the then manager, George Graham and has since appointed and sacked 7 more; additionally, the team has had to endure 3 spells of acting managership, 2 with David Pleat and one with Clive Allen. With the ludicrous sacking of Tim Sherwood after only 5 months in post, Tottenham face yet another management upheaval in advance of next season.
At the same time that he's been busy sacking managers, Levy's also been busy making sure that those same managers lost their best players and were given unsatisfactory replacements. Carrick, Modric, Berbatov and Bale all exited, admittedly for large amounts of cash, but the cash has then been squandered on a mish-mash of players who have almost all failed to make the grade. In the last year, Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela were bought for a combined total of around £60m, neither proving much use to the team. Etienne Capoue and Nacer Chadli have hardly played and Paulinho has faded somewhat after a bright start. Only Christian Eriksen has really been a success although Vlad Chiriches has certainly had his moments. The final result is that a team full of expensive foreign stars, and peppered with some excellent home-grown talent too, has been slaughtered by the top sides and has struggled to beat the minnows.
Given the length of time he's been in the job, one would have thought that Levy would, by now, understand that managers need time to build their own sides; a few months or even a couple of years are simply not enough to mould success from a disparate group. Sadly, he has not learnt this and his shameful treatment of the hapless Sherwood is just the latest in a long line of appalling acts.
That he does not understand football is a given. If changing manager every year or 2, selling your best players and buying others for whom the manager has no desire is good business, then he's a good businessman. I see it as wasting vast amounts of money on paying off a succession of managers, selling off the family jewels and wasting the proceeds on buying into speculative ventures that usually fail. Looked at in these terms, Levy has been an abysmal failure as a businessman. He has ruined a great club and it's time he went.
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