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Daniel Levy bottled it. Again.

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Re-wind to a year ago – Tottenham Hotspur are flying high in third place in the Premier League and Champions League football looked almost a certainty. We had just comprehensively beaten Wigan 3-1 and found ourselves seven points ahead of Chelsea 13 points ahead of Arsenal – surely far too much ground for them to make up?

Spurs were only five points off the two Manchester clubs and with a couple of additions, Spurs could actually be challenging for the title for the first time in my life time. We all know how that turned out but surely if we got into such a good position again, our great chairman wouldn’t make the same mistake twice would he?

After the Joao Moutinho debacle in the summer, injuries to key players and an extremely poor start, it is quite remarkable how we are still in the position we’re in. With the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal stuttering, Andre Villas-Boas has guided the side to a very respectable 4th position. Although the title was well out of reach, 3rd place, our highest ever premiership finish and the lucrative rewards of a place in the Champions League were once again a real possibility as things stood on transfer deadline day.

However, as was the case in August, Daniel Levy has once again failed to put his money where his mouth is. After the astute purchase of Holtby, the final piece or two of the Tottenham Hotspur is once again missing. Like a bit of a mug, I tuned into Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day, wondering which rabbit Levy would pull out of the hat this time, anxiously waiting for Jim White to announce we had just smashed our transfer record to nab Leandro Damiao from Internacional – something that would arguably get him more excited than the prospect of a one-night stand with Natalie Sawyer.

As is all too often the case though, it was another case of “so near, yet so far” and Spurs were made to look a laughing stock on deadline once again.

Of course you have to give Levy credit for the work he has done with the training ground and new stadium, and he does genuinely have the club’s best interest at heart. However, recent history suggests that if you want to be a success in modern day football, you need to throw caution to the win and spend some decent money. United, Chelsea and most recently City haven’t won the league with a positive balance sheet!

For too many years now Levy has been too afraid to be bite the bullet on a £20m striker to fire us to the next level. The squad has improved so much in recent years and we’ve been only one or two players away from mounting a title challenge for the past couple of seasons.

While the likes of City and Chelsea get stronger with the obscene amounts of money pumped into the clubs by billionaire sugar daddies, our story is becoming an all too similar one as our north London neighbours, with the priority of both clubs to keep the shareholders happy and make as much money as possible out of those who have shown loyalty for so many years. Our vision is a positive one off the pitch with a fantastic new stadium on the horizon, but you’re not going to attract the type of players designed for such a stage without Champion’s League football.

Mr Levy; I will always be grateful for the work you have done. You’ve helped transform us from a team of Andy Sinton’s and Paulo Tremezzani’s into a team of Gareth Bale’s and Aaron Lennon’s that have played some of the best football many of us have seen at Tottenham in recent years.

However when it came to the crunch of doing something really special and potentially firing Spurs to the summit, you absolutely bottled it. Again.



28 thoughts on “Daniel Levy bottled it. Again.”

  1. No he didn't 'bottle' it. He tried to negotiate a deal we could afford for the player AVB wanted.

    Would you rather he mortgaged the future of the club by purchasing players at over inflated prices?
    We just posted a £4.5m loss. We have financial fair play to deal with. These are real issues affecting the club, not make believe wishes of a spoilt brat who wants £20m+ players. We thought he was worth X. The seller didn't agree. We move on.

    There are no shareholders you total retard. We were de-listed remember.

    Sick of people like you.

  2. I was under the impression that he was trying to sign Damiao – how much of the failure to do so was his fault? I'm guessing you don't know that answer to that, so this is a bit harsh.

  3. I have said over many years how canny is our chairman. Well the last year has left me with a feeling that maybe canny is not the word. We need a striker, wow that is news! we have now missed the chance to sign a number of players who would have helped our CL chances, but Mr Levy lets it go to the wire and then uses the excuse that time ran out!!!!!!
    Has time run out on MR Levy???????????

  4. Runningaclubisnteasy is a retard

    People like him are why Levy thinks he can get away with making bids for Leandro every window he knows won't be accepted

    In addition the latest accounts were before the sale of Modric/VDV

    But by all means continue to believe spending money on several average strikers like Crouch, Pav, Saha and Dempsey is better than buying one top class striker

  5. Interesting how you said that Chelsea get stronger, when then fell several places last season… Despite heavy investment (due to vastly higher revenue than us), this time around they are OUT of the champions league when theynwon it last year. They are merely four points above Spurs, including 3 points gained at White Hart Lane earlier this season… Spurs NOT just Levy should have sorted out strikers in summer. A lot of this is down to AVB. Why blame Levy. The manager say who he wants, and the owner tries to get him. It was the wrong target. If AVB wanted Hooper, Levy would have got him. We offered Leandro what he was worth, and his clubs and third party owners were trying to take us to the cleaners. No deal. Why blame Levy for that? He paid over the odds for Bent, Bentley, Pav and got nothing for it. He is not going to fall for that again. How can Similar Sturridge be sold to a rival in this window for 12m, yet Leandro be worth 20m? If Internacional want to do that, it is their right, but we won't be buying. Villareal rejected 30m bids for Rossi, and later sold for 8m… It is their choice. AVB needs to line up his striker targets, and realistic ones. Get one or two in summer. AVB is to blame for our striker scenario, and it was him who urged us to go for the unrealistic Moutinho bid too.

  6. Bottled it.. F****ing grow up and get real. Damiao is not worth £20mill plus the ridiculous wage he wanted, Levy if anything kept his nerve and refused to pay over the odds for an unproven forward. Its done get over it move on and get behing the f****ing team. All you whingers are starting to piss me off. We're in 4th and what currently constitutes a “bad run” is being undefeated for 8 games, mad, I remember when this club was over the moon with 7th. Levy is building to keep us strong for the long haul, not an over night sensation only to be left broke and tumble down the league as we can't sustain wages.
    We have a 17 goal 11 assist striker not too long from coming back from Afcon, Ade has has a wretched season so far, mainly due to missing pre-season and most the start of the season with injury and suspension, but if we actually support our players he may actual rekindle last years form.
    Can we move on now please

  7. 6th highest revenue in the English game, 4th in the league. We are punching above our weight on and off the pitch. People like you just don't understand basic economics. We spend what we generate. The Leandro deal clearly didn't work financially. Even with him, why should we finish above Arsenal and Chelsea, with their resources. Have you seen Chelsea's squad? Have you seen their wage budget? Have you seen ours? No competent chairman would gamble on qualifying for the CL when up against clubs – including Liverpool by the way – which have significantly greater resources than ours.

    Your blog isn't a balanced piece of analysis, it's just a rant from someone who thinks football is about getting what you want whenever you want it. As for you headline, I suggest levy, a man born with nothing who has got very rich through taking calculated risks, has a lot more bottle than you.

  8. Don't forget he cud of received 15m for hudd an sigurson so surely that wud of made sense!
    Levy should of backed AVB gonna hard to finish top 4 espcially with the injury to sandro who was our best performer this year we needed to replace him we now have Europe Starting again an Parker can't handle 2 games a week an of u see how bad hudd an sig were yet again against Leeds then an lack of quality in midfield will cost us! We can manage up top with Defoe dem an ade aslong as he gets back on form should of paid for moutinho if we lose dembele like earlier in the season them for help us! AVB is doing a great job with the sqaud he has levy does the deals don't forget we lost our 2 most creative players in the summer

  9. delboy is a wanker..

    Personally I'm impressed Levy even got close to signing Damiao considering he is owned by about 4 different commercial entities. We have Harry Kane back as well so if we can't get one of Defoe, Ade or Kane firing as our loan forward I think its more of a problem needs AVB to sort out.

  10. This is an article written by a mug, for mugs. Levy has given us Holtby for beans and you call him a failure. You'd beg to be the failure he is.

  11. Sometimes i cant believe what I read, moaning about Levy after what he has achieved. He is a shrewd business man and is delivering a new stadium and an increasingly competitive squad put together piece by piece at the right cost. He doesn't waste fans money of panic buying and has got maximum value for every player going out.

    Remember the Alan Sugar days?…….. How can you even post this crap. Get a grip and pull your head out your a*s, this is why people call us fickle Spurs fans because of nonsense like this.

  12. It's all well and good talkin about who's to blame on personal opinion but I agree with alot of other writers on this site saying that Levy is to blame because we have been in similar scenarios before like last year. We maybe in contention for a champions league spot but not even that is a guarantee as we tend to get ahead of ourselves. January transfer window remains a time where teams like spurs need to bolster in certain striking areas to secure champions league computing thus attracting even better players and more revenue, so in all yes I do think Levy is to blame as he does not like to offer the agents the money they actually want for the player wither it was Damaio or anyone else Levy is. Bargain hunter but your not going to get a bargain with a player that's on the rise like Damaio… Having damaio would have given spurs the lift we need to keep up the pace within the top four- me personally I think Damaio would not have easily adjusted straight away to the English game he would have taking time… At the end of the day Spurs have to show ambition yes fair enough we lost money but that all started when we missed champions league to a Team like Chelsea that never deserved it… It's all over now but I fear my team will suffer the latter stages of the premiership… All top teams should have cover in all places why haven't spurs and where's all the money gone from mod and van? Levy sort it out otherwise your going to run the risk of failure….

  13. Hackney Hotspur

    Ur a twat adebeyor is not a good striker! He's a good player. I know that 17 goals sounds good but if u actually look at his conversion rate he's terrible last year with the amount of easy chances he had he should of had 25 goals easy, but he is not a clinical finisher. Same as Defoe! Defoe has never scored 20 goals in a season for any team he's played. And he's now not scored in 9 games. So we have good reason to whine as we are fucked! 7th is more likely now.

  14. John smith…..what a total fucking douche.

    So you expect the next terms statements to reveal a profit do you? No, because we are on the limit of what our turnover will allow. To fund Damaio would have required the sale of a couple of players(Hudds money to QPR would have been used to offset Daniao transfer). But we didn'thave the extra £5m. Borrow it and hope?

    You think 'keeping up' with Chelsea & man c is a birth right? It takes skill to negotiate the market the way Levy does you moron. Just look at the turnovers of the other clubs. Just look. In black and white. We. Don't. Have. The. Same. In……..come. Understand???

    Totally fucking backwards.

  15. Hi I would like to say that some of you have some decent points but the fact from my point of view is that I would like to see my team win the league in my lifetime and I am 52 years old and been supporting Spurs for over 45 years.There has never been a better opportunity than the last 2 years since the 80's to win the title and I believe that a top striker should have been the target this window and because we didn't get one I can't see us finishing in the CL positions with a half fit defoe.Levy needs to stop pursuing players who don't want to come and I am really fed up of us going for Dalmiao for the past 3 years after all I have seen him play and he's not all that.There are other strikers we could have gone for and it is time we start behaving like a big club and not have a small clubs mentality.The CL is where the money is and even if we are slightly in the red the CL money if we qualify would wipe that out.Also all the money realised from the summer sales has hardly been touched.

  16. KieranLad do us a favour and 'support' Arsenal. We DON'T need so called 'supporters' who, at the first sign of a 'problem', start pointing the finger at people within the club. Wake up to yourself!!!!! What GOOD is writing an article, designed to make a scapegoat of the very man who has helped drag this club out of the doldrums, going to do? WE'RE 4 POINTS OFF THIRD, NOT 4 POINTS OFF RELEGATION!!!!

    p.s Techinaclly, Levy WASN'T the reason we didn't qualified for the CL last season anyway, CHELSEA winning the competition was.

  17. We missed the boat with Berbatov in the summer. I am not bothered about Dalmaio. Berbatov has a proven pedigree in the prem and was available for buttons.

    If Berbatov had been signed and Defoe had been sold, to pay Berbatov's wages, I think our points total would be looking a lot better at the moment. Defoe misses easy chances. He missed one against Man United and one against Norwich. He does get a few but he is not in the same bracket as Berba. Defoe has no physical presence and poses no threat in the air. With two of the best wingers in Europe playing Defoe up front makes no sense to me. Adebayor has to play up there with him which leaves us short in midfield and the supply is cut off.

    Defoe is the problem, regardless of his 14 goals.

  18. There are ONLY 15 or so games left in the EPL. Surely two strikers, plus Dempsey who CAN perform a poacher-type role upfront, IS more than enough to secure the CL place we all desire.
    Arsenal had ONE striker last season (Van persie, who was hardly renowned for being injury free in the past) and STILL finished above us despite being 13 points behind!

    So I’m not sure why there is so much doom and gloom surrounding us all of a sudden, especially considering what we have done so far this season with the same amount of players (bar Sandro).
    We have just completely dominated the champions elect at WHL the other week, currently sit 4 points off third and just signed one of the brightest creative prospects in Europe!!!

    Despite what some seem to think, running a club with 36,000 stadium capacity, without CL income and a yet remaining EXTREMELY competitive is NOT easy.
    Panic buys last night would have been a HUGE mistake as most Arsenal supporters would testify, as it LOWERS the standard in quality, while leaving your club with a HIGHER wage bill!

    The club is CALM and UPBEAT, so maybe some of you doom mongers should learn to do the same, instead of managing somehow to portray an image of a club in crisis.

    So, your disappointed, I understand, but GET OVER IT!!!

    Whats done is done, and we would be a whole lot better for rallying around our squad/team/chairmen instead of allowing a FEAR-BASED NEGATIVITY to engulf the club we love and potentialLY ruin our season.
    THIS IS A TIME FOR UNITY, DEFIANCE AND SUPPORTNOT DIVISION, DISSENT OR UPROAR!!!

    People overcome the odds everyday, and I can assure you that they don’t do it by WHINING, COMPLAINING or GIVING UP when things get a little tough.

    I think we can ALL agree that our GREAT club has become unrecognisable, in terms of stature, reputation and ambition since Levy took over!

    We are without question a club on the up, and its about time a few of you remember that!!!!

    HOLD YOUR FAITH AND KEEP YOUR NERVE!!!!!!!!!!

  19. Damiao was never a realistic option… he should've gone for Negredo… Everton seem ore clued up on which players to go for. If we maintain top 4 I will be amazed!

  20. Quite a few people here have said Levy TRIED to get Damiao. We put in an offer ON THE 31ST OF JANUARY! He tried playing his usual game and got found out. He should have tried to do business earlier and if he failed get Remy instead! For £8m FFS!

  21. what most on here dont realise is that spurs are where they are thanks to levys financial accumen but levy also has a big a problem everything is about the bottom line money he will screw the last penny out of every deal , this is commendable but there are times in buisness that getting the deal done is much more important ,
    and we are talking about 2 or 3 mill either way but levy wont budge and the deal dies , levy knows what hes doing he knows fans will blindly follow their team , he knows that fans exspect to have top players signed so every transfer window top players names are leaked to the press with amounts that we have offered , this is to excite and appease the fans who hang on every last snippet of info on their team it happens every window but those players will never be signed unless they are ridiculously cheap vdv a prime example , . levy is an accountant and its all about money and it will always be , he has no football accumen he doesnt look at a player and think he can do this for my team he looks at them and thinks i can sell him on a prfit and make y if to old he doesnt want them as no resale value even though the value to the team outweights the cost , scott parker a prime exAMPLE , wether damio would ever be any good or worth the 20 mill they wanted i am not sure but wether it would have been is not the point we are talking about 3 mill if he really was trying to sign him the difference in money was small so the deal should have been done but levy didnt want to for reasons known only to him . this will cum bACK TO HAUNT HIM IN THE SUMMER HE SIGNED CHEAP alternatives to the players asked for they havent exactly work out as he hoped sigurson a prime example almost selling cus hes not upto the job . many players have gone out this window huge wages have also been saved on these tranfers champions league football could bring 40 mill in next season premiership money increases by 20 mill the transfer differance i beleive after the summers after selling and buying players is 3.5 mill so the money now and in the future would have been there to buy the players so stop using the no money argument its there but levy wasnt ever going to spend it . i feel sorry for avb as the players he asked for he hasnt got he has been given lesser players instead but is still exspected to get top 4 avb is worried hence the recALL of kane a player not good enough for the championship let alone our first team if this carries on we will fail but we will have a nice stadium our top players will leave and we will be know as the nearly team , growsa sum balls levy , and before yu all start talking on here that i dont know what im talking about , i am a very well of person who sold his company for a lot of money my head accountant was always telling me not to do a deal cus it was too exsensive but i decided wether it was good for my company , on the whole i was right i took a calculated risk it worked i sold up for a huge amount of money , accountants will always be that way that it levys plus point and his downfall it needs a chairmen above him to make key decisions or it will always be about the money not the football . coys

  22. To all those who think that spending big is the cure for all things bad: Torres, Berbatov, Andy Carroll …, are examples of “proven” players who could not establish themselves after big money moves. Even our beloved Luka cannot get a decent run after being touted as the missing piece to Real Madrid's puzzle. Do you even know what the final figure demanded for Damiao was? Or was it Negrado, or Hooper, or whatever new name the media pulls out of the hat? If the selling clubs held you to ransom because you were desperate, would you pay if it were your own money? It's getting tiring reading these negative articles. You just know it that if a big money signing was done and didn't work out 6 months later you'd be criticising Levy for the exact opposite reason – that he'd bought the wrong player and didn't know how to run a club. You're like dead leaves drifting wherever the media wind blows. Real Spurs supporters, if you want Levy out then be prepared to welcome oil money from the M.E. To all the others just stirring up trouble, PSS OFF!

  23. I agree with the article; avb has done a good job with what he's got, but levy hasn't backed him fully. The striker situation is a joke – can't believe he's serious about Leandro or we'd have him by now. Its almost as if levy goes through the motions each transfer deadline day then makes the excuses to give the impression that we were unlucky. Some idiots even believe him! what scares me a bit is that avb was serious about us not needing a striker; I honestly thought that was a bargaining tactic!!
    Bottom line is we're not as good as last season and starting to fade early. We've got half a striker on steroids and another whom avb can't seem to man-manage like 'arry did, Ditto with Walker. We won't get CL so we ARE getting worse, despite a lot of money being spent last summer. I think there's a good chance we'll finish below everton, arsenal (I hate saying that) and possibly even liverpool too. Brendan Rogers has done a better job than avb and he's been backed well, he's brought in just the right players fro positions that need strengthening and he hasn't got an £8 mill player who hardly ever plays like we have.
    Goalscoring will be our problem. Its all very well quoting every other stat under the sun – but at the end of the match they don't matter one jot. Some wozzocks out there seem to think we're doing just fine and dandy because we're dominating possession or winning most tactics etc. Dreamers !

  24. We have been chasing Damiao for a long time now. Is he that good, I ask out of curiosity having only seen You Tube videos and you could make me look good for 3 minutes on You Tube.
    Can anybody tell me if he is a world class striker then why does it appear that we are the only team constantly chasing him?

  25. everton seem more clued up. By signing a Barnsley player and no one else? (by the way, Everton have an excellent team who are in the same class as us…..but i hardly think they've just shown anything incredible in the last window?)

    Damiao is a player that a few people saw at the olympics. How many people have seen him play live? How many people have even watched him on TV? I'd wager not very many. So why is he suddenly a player so many people are desperate for? I trust AVB but I have no reason to any opinion about what he's worth. Something in my gut says we've dodged a bullet.

    We try to sign our players at the start of the season these days. Then Levy tries to do a late deal to save money. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt (VDV vs Moutinho). Thats life. We cant afford £22m for him so he tries to pay what we can afford. Its really that simple.

  26. we do need a striker but I think the sleeper is Bale – I think he will leve in the summer if we are not in the top 4. That will be a shame

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