Daniel Levy has been praised for his role in appointing Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou over the summer, as his side went back to the top of the Premier League on Monday with a 2-0 win over Fulham. The often maligned owner, who has seen his place within the club change drastically in the past year, is attempting to steer things back towards challenging for major honours once more.
Since Spurs sacked Mauricio Pochettino in 2019, there has been a struggle to assert themselves alongside the league’s best, with the sheer amount of funds made available to Erik ten Hag, Chelsea’s several managers, Pep Guardiola, and even Mikel Arteta at Arsenal all being used as sticks to beat the chairman with.
Until this year it had often been normal for Levy to be criticised for his lack of spending as well as the poor planning of the club after three failed appointments in a row, from Jose Mourinho to Nuno Esparto Santo and Antonio Conte. When the Italian was sacked last year, there was mass unrest at the club and things didn’t get better quickly.
The choice to replace Conte with his assistant Cristian Stellini as interim was unpopular before he was swiftly moved on as well. When Julian Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique, and Pochettino all found other clubs and Arne Slot extended his deal with Feyenoord the sharks were circling around Levy again.
Many were disappointed and confused at the appointment of Postecoglou too, due to his unorthodox track record in Japan and Australia, before impressing on a larger scale at Celtic. Less than five months later, Levy’s choice to back the charismatic head coach has been well vindicated.
Spurs sit top of the pile and despite calls for Levy to consider outside investment into the club in order to help them push on and fight alongside state-owned sides or private equity-funded clubs, the protests have certainly died down. It was only last month that Levy himself admitted that Spurs would consider offers in the right circumstances, and Simon Jordan has asked for more praise to go his way.
“Well, maybe [there should be Tottenham fans apologising to Levy] but there wasn’t a huge groundswell of people saying that about Postecoglou,” the former Crystal Palace owner told talkSPORT. “There were names linked to Tottenham but the problem was, who was going to appoint them? I think at that point Daniel Levy could have appointed Pep Guardiola and certain sections of the fanbase would have shouted ‘Levy Out’ because that’s where he was in their regard.”
Leave a Reply