The evolution of ENIC / Levy has been interesting.
Started off with the classic move of bringing in a fan favourite in Hoddle. An easy way to get the fans onboard straight away.
Then came Santini. Not much to go on, but at the time he was an ambitious signing, and we looked a bit more solid. I remember those handful of games showing a very different Tottenham to the one I was used to. It showed that Levy was prepared to go against the grain of our traditional style.
After Santini ran away to the circus we got lucky with his assistant coach, Shexshy Martin Jol, stepping up. Levy got lucky here. Jol was a stopgap, but ended up laying down solid foundations for us to be a force in the league again.
At this point, in my opinion, Levy got sloppy and greedy. Our form took a downturn and Levy didn’t hesitate to ship him out...in an embarrassing manner. A shockingly disrespectful way to replace a manager that had finally given the club some bollocks again.
In came Ramos. Though I didn’t like the manner of Jol’s sacking, I remember thinking that Ramos was an astute appointment. A strict attitude, success in Europe, a dead ringer for the priest in The Exorcist...sounded good. Let’s not forget he delivered our only trophy under Levy too.
But then came what I consider to be Levy’s low point. Selling Berbatov and being absolutely fucked over by United in the process by being painted into a corner to take Frasier ‘no option to buy’ Campbell. What a fucking mess. I believe that played a massive part in Ramos’ downfall (well that and playing Bentley at LB and saving King for the Europa when we were rooted to the bottom of the table).
This led to Levy’s second stroke of massive fortune...
As we know, Harry was hired to save us from relegation. We were in the shit and Harry really was the best man for the job. Levy wasn’t lucky that we stayed up; he did well to accept the situation and go for the right man for the job. He got lucky when Harry turned us into a great team, though Levy was integral to us landing Modric, VDV, and Bale. I suspect Harry was only ever meant to be a short term solution, and whilst Levy did get lucky here, it’s to his credit that he stood by him all the way up to his court case. Harry spat in his face as soon as the England job became a possibility, and, well, the rest is history.
A fairly constant approach from Levy has been his interest in whip cracker managers. All of his unforced appointments after Hoddle have been managers who had reputations for a certain brand of strict coaching and an emphasis on premium fitness levels. Santini, Ramos, AVB, and Pochettino. AVB was another appointment that made sense on paper. Young, successful, a ‘philosophy’, I can see the attraction. Unfortunately they were a mismatch when it came to who he wanted, and who we could afford. Things could have been so different if he’d landed Moutinho.
Sherwood...let’s skip that part
Pochettino was a very similar appointment to AVB in a lot of ways. Young, a clear philosophy, an emphasis on fitness, and a bit of a risk. Only this time he’s actually planted seeds in the club that have taken root.
We’re in uncharted territory now. Previously Levy’s most successful appointments have arrived through circumstance rather than planning. Jol and Harry were never expected to be more than a short term solution to a problem. There’s an argument for Ramos, considering he actually won a trophy, but everything after that was a tsunami of shit. With Pochettino we’re finally seeing a manager providing sustained good performances that are in line with Levy’s managerial preferences.
Come next season we’ll have an incredible training ground, a beautiful new stadium at the Lane, a great manager, a great team, and (probably) CL football. At that point Levy fully deserves to consider it a job well done.