Daniel Levi stepped down as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, and a 1/4th century history came to an end. Just as Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea swept the summer window with a gold-dollar storm, Tottenham Hotspur grabbed the media's headlines in such a unique way.
[After spending a lot of money, the "stingy chairman" was wrongly accused]
As the first team in England to win the domestic double championship and European championship, Tottenham Hotspur has established its current Big6 identity with its brilliant ancient battle history. Unfortunately, after Bill Nigulson's "glorious years", Tottenham failed to continue the footprints of their predecessors and continued to advance, and their long-term history of not having a championship almost overdrawn the team's reputation. When Levi landed in the Premier League, Tottenham's reputation was not as good as teams such as Everton, Leeds United and Blackburn. After 25 years of development, Tottenham has far surpassed its former rivals of the same level and joined the Big6 Group. Levi has made an indelible contribution.
In the turn of the century, Tottenham Hotspur became an important component of ENIC (England National Investment Company) group. Lewis, the major shareholder who has been hidden behind the scenes for many years, is actually the boss of the hand-off, and Levi has become one of the clubs with the highest photogenic appearance in English football. In recent years, with the influx of famous mainland coaches and stars, the Premier League has entered a new era of vigorous development. Tottenham has a geographical advantage but has not made full use of it. Lewis and Levi believe in the concept of "football is business" and are not very interested in participating in the championship game. Relying on meticulous operations to pursue maximum profits is their goal.
Last season, Tottenham recorded the lowest ranking in Premier League history (17th place), and Postkoglu led the team to win the first important tournament in 17 years, but still failed to retain the coach position. Fans are still relatively tolerant of the Australians, who believe that Levi should be responsible for his poor record and displays protest banners at home games many times, which attracted the attention of the Lewis family and eventually led to Levi's departure.
In recent years, Tottenham has made great signings, with the funds used to purchase new players in each season ranging from 150 million to 200 million euros, and in some seasons, it even reached 272 million euros.
Public opinion accused Levi of being too stingy, which was not fair to him. During his 25-year term, Levi's investment in signings reached 1.1 billion pounds. Since the summer window of 2019 (after winning the Champions League runner-up), Tottenham's recruitment expenditure has almost exceeded 100 million euros per season, and the investment in the 2023/24 season reached 272 million euros, and the investment in last season was 185 million euros. Postkoglu led this team to win the 17th place in the Premier League, and it is obviously inappropriate to push the blame to Levi.
Levi brought many 60 million gentlemen to Tottenham. Ndongbele, Lo Celso and Sesenion (2019 summer window) were not adapted to the local conditions, forcing him to change his signing strategy.
has built a modern large stadium and training base. The club's revenue ranks firmly in the top 10 in the world. It appeared on the European stage 18 times in 25 years. It participated in the Champions League four times in 5 years and reached the finals historic. Big6's identity has become increasingly stable... Levi relies on his forward-looking operations to bring the former midfield team to the top group of the "First League", and his achievements are indelible. The identity of "Champions League runner-up" brought unrealistic fantasies. The trauma caused by Mourinho and Conte's failure has not healed. The continued advancement of the opponents in the same city has brought great pressure. Levi and his team struggled to survive under the pressure of public opinion, and the hardships are unimaginable to outsiders.
[Planting a good money tree, the flag-holder of the American capital era]
In the 2024 "Football Wealth Ranking" released by Deloitte, Tottenham ranked 9th with revenue of 615 million euros. Relying on the modern Tottenham Stadium, Tottenham's game-day income and business income have grown rapidly, which can fully support the high team-building expenditure year after year.
to ensure financial health and maintain the team's competitiveness. At the same time, acquiring a new modern stadium, Levi completed an incredible extreme operation.
As a loner in the Premier League and American capital era, Tottenham's senior executives have not experienced the experience of exploring the top professional league (North American sports). On the road to building a continental organization, Levi has been in a state of feeling the stones across the river for a long time, and there are inevitably twists and turns and mistakes. From sports director David Comolly to manager Franco Baldini, to later signing director Paul Mitchell, to now Moon and Lange, the authority, responsibilities and business of the first lieutenant around Levi often changes.
In 2024, Tottenham ranked 9th in the world in revenue.
Taking Baldini's failure as the turning point, Levi no longer fully trusts professional managers, but gives the coach a certain transfer voice. During the period when the famous scout Paul Mitchell played for Tottenham, Levi created a professional technical team with the sports director and chief scout as the axis to be responsible for the signing. This model can not only continuously absorb the advanced concepts of the mainland club, but also achieve smooth and efficient decision-making. After the failure of
"100 million arrays", Levi adjusted his signing strategy.
As the "most difficult chairman" in the eyes of many industry insiders, Levi is skilled in under-the-table politics, is good at continuously putting pressure on his opponents in transfer negotiations, and is tough when using delay tactics. This move can sell star players at a high price, and the negative effect is to squeeze out his own time to replenish his position. From missing Moutinho that year to the disagreement between Lo Celso and Sesenion, Tottenham has been repeatedly troubled by the "transfer deadline mania" and encountered "August chaos" in the initial stage of the league..
Believing that Mourinho formed 100 million formations, Levi began to adjust this method of "killing one thousand enemies and losing 800 by themselves", Tottenham gradually got rid of the mania of transfer deadline. Today, Tottenham still has the operation of signing strong players with buzzer (such as Xavi Simmons), but more key players will be won as soon as possible. Postkoglu can achieve the best start in the Premier League era with radical tactics, which is enough to prove that this team is ready to welcome the Golden Dollar era.
[Retrieve the lead and complete the "remedy" at the last moment]
Soviet Hotspur has experienced 13 head coaches since 2001. After Hodel, Sherwood and Redkrapp, Levi has made the North London team a test field for mainland coaches. Among them, the coach with the longest coach and the greatest achievements is undoubtedly Pochettino. In the 5-year and 4-month coaching process, the Argentinian has built a championship team with incredible low cost, which has completely changed the temperament of this team.
Levi finalized him as the coach of Tottenham Hotspur, and the facts proved his vision. Not only can he recognize Tottenham's weak position in the Big6 Group, persist in living a hard life in a critical period of the construction of the new stadium, tolerate the team becoming the only Premier League team (17.6 million pounds) to become the only Premier League team in the transfer market for two consecutive seasons, but also remain silent during the discussion of the signing group and devote all his energy to training and games, Pochettino proves that he is the most suitable team-building coach for Tottenham. In the 2016/17 season, Tottenham won the Premier League runner-up with the highest score in team history of 87 points, with a lineup cost of only 85 million euros.
With the efforts of Levi and Pochettino, Tottenham has followed the example of North London archenemy and established a salary cap and big pot meal system, making the connection between the echelon and the first team smoother. During his tenure, Pochettino trained six England internationals, making Tottenham the number one troop of the Three Lions, creating superstars like Kane and Son Heung-min, bringing a very visual impact tactical style and game style, and allowing Tottenham's global influence and fan base to grow at a geometric level. Of course, Pochettino's success also has a certain amount of luck. If Soldado, Capué and Paulinho can fulfill their value, it may be difficult for Kane, Ali and Dell to break out of the cocoon.
Pochettino can be called a team-building expert, but he is not a "golden coach". After completing the "first five-year plan", Tottenham is eager to make greater breakthroughs in the competitive and business aspects, and Pochettino has touched its own insurmountable ceiling. Taking the Champions League runner-up as the starting point, Levi invited Mourinho and Conte to coach. Both gold medal coaches had brought hope to fans, but soon had a crush on senior management due to the issue of signings. The former is still worried about his experience of being fired before the League Cup final, and the latter is even straightforward in the final stage of the contract. After the illusion of winning the championship was shattered, Levi gave up his obsession with the gold medal coach and chose Postkoglu, which is more in line with the club culture. The latter's pursuit of trendy tactics and emphasis on young players once again awakened people's memories of the dusty past of the Pochettino era. After winning the UEFA Cup with defensive counterattack tactics, Tottenham broke the inner demons and Levi also completed his final goal during his term.
Although Postkoglu's record in the league was very bad, Levi did not give up the principle of selecting a coach, Australian successor Thomas Frank is still a low-key team-building coach. While adjusting the route of selecting coaches, Levi also instructed the signing team to establish a big data analysis system representing the cutting-edge technology in football. In recent years, Brighton's success has attracted many peers to follow suit, and Brentford is the most successful imitator. Thomas Frank made outstanding contributions, and the boss Benham gave him some of the voice of signings. Brentford was able to gather a large number of Nordic foreign players and relied on his unique playing style to firmly be in the middle of the Premier League.
Whether it is personal temperament, coaching experience, football philosophy and working style, Thomas Frank is very similar to Pochettino at that time. Although he was able to participate in the signings in the later stages of Brentford, Thomas Frank took the initiative to stay away from the signings after coming to Tottenham, devoted all his energy to training and games, and quickly won the recognition of senior management and fans. After many years of twists and turns, Levi finally completed the trouble before leaving the company, leaving a valuable asset for Tottenham.