Dont forget winning at Porto in another two team league with a team he inherited....
That's a very simple and unfair assessment, which I will come back to in my response to Smoked Salmon.
I suppose you can say from a business model we have done well in terms of keeping our spending quite low.
Argh, so frustrating. Our
spending isn't low, our net spend is low. There's a MASSIVE difference. We've sold some world class players that we were extremely fortunate to have in the first place, we were not in a position to hold onto them, whether we were in the CL or not. Real Madrid purchased two of them. Anyone who thinks we could have retained Bale or Modric is lacking in brain capacity. We got great fees for them, and they bankrolled the next generation. We spent the money earned, plus a bit more, but out of necessity. It seems some here would simply be pleased to see us spend £200m just because we made £120m. That is madness. Spending for the sake of it just to make our net spend look more in tune with the clubs above us so then we can at least say we tried. Ridiculous.
In regards to buying, Levy is not the guy scouting these players, he just sanctions the purchases - as he should. Anyone who thinks he's picking players for the squad are eluded. That is not his job, and he knows it.
Of course he'll back him; with the funds gained from any players sold. That's all Levy does, while pocketing the TV money.
Yep, that £400,000,000 stadium will be paid for by stationery and pie sales
Ramos - hired after short term success, no other notable achievements, asked to work with a DOF
AVB - hired based on short term success at Porto, no other notable achievements, asked to work with DOF
Sherwood - cheat interim appointment hired despite no notable achievements, asked to work with DOF
Poch - hired based on short term success at Southampton, no other notable achievements beyond moving Espanyol up a few league positions, asked to work with a DOF. So far, Poch achieving less then his two predecessors
Actually I think the commonality is gambling on a recently successful manager (however you want to portray 'successful' (De Boer would have been another example of this)) as we are not a large enough club to attract top managers. We simply have no option but to take a chance on these guys, or go 'safe' with someone like Pulis, Redknapp or Hoddle.
Going back to AVB (earlier in my post) I think that is a very simplistic and insulting review of AVB's career. He worked under Mourinho - one of the most successful managers of our time - for many years, before branching out to take on relegation-bound Academica. After not only saving them from relegation but doing so with an attractive style, he was hired by Porto, where he then went unbeaten in the league (only the SECOND manager to do so (winning by a massive 20 points)) and won the treble, including the EL (which would undoubtedly be an amazing achievement for Spurs). All this, at just 33 years old. Several members of that squad would have been older than him, yet his achievements were quite incredible really, owing to the fact that he was hired by Chelsea, a Champions League heavyweight.
I don't care what you think of the Portuguese League, going unbeaten is incredible, and the treble in the same season equally so.
I don't wish to get into the other managers here, nor do I want a Harry vs AVB thread (again!) but I just wanted to point out that AVB's career, for a very young manager, has been pretty fucking good so far. Sure, he failed at Chelsea and was sacked by us (I still believe to be the wrong decision) but he's been resilient and is rebuilding his career at Zenit. Fair play to him. Look at Ramos, now a free agent after leaving Dnipro.
With regards to the article, I think it was a good read and made some fair and valid points from a point of view (and one that I generally agree with) that is certainly in the minority now. Anyone that simply chooses to dismiss it as bullshit clearly isn't going to help the club move forward in a proactive manner as you need to understand both sides of the argument and everyone's feelings on the way the club is run.
ochbye:
