Other thing that hasn't been mentioned in this debate - who would replace AVB?
As I have mentioned elsewhere, AVB was in a unique position after the Chelsea debacle. A young manager who had performed incredibly in his first season, had taken a big job (with a political side he was unprepared for) afterwards and had fallen flat on his face. Let's be frank, here - whatever happens with AVB, he's either on the way up or on the way down. Not saying that he'll move on soon, but in terms of managerial stock, you're only as good as your last job, which is why the press gave him so much shit for so much of last year. I think the press only finally swayed onto his side when we beat City 3-1 thanks to his substitutions.
So that explains AVB's presence here but what about possible replacements?
Say we finish 5th, Europa League semi-finalists and a good showing in the cups but no silverware. That's an improvement in the cups, no improvement in the league (which is where Levy's eyes will be trained) and, effectively, revenue remains about par. To me, Levy may well view that as a failure and in the past he may have been impatient. But I think what shouldn't be overlooked is that AVB is in a relatively nascent period in his managerial career and the amount he learns and adds to his repertoire at this stage will be huge - in short, he should be visibly evolving in terms of style at this stage, rather be known as X or Y type of manager (see the Mourinho or SAF cliches - siege mentality and hairdryer respectively).
Regardless of any of this, look at our past 5 managers - Hoddle, Santini, Jol, Ramos and Redknapp; beside them I've listed the jobs that followed them.
Hoddle - Post England debacle and after keeping Southampton in the Premier League in a relegation battle, he joined us. After which, he went on to manage Wolves before his soccer academies and punditry.
Santini - A brief stint with us, followed by Auxerre. Prior to this, a giant in the French game.
Jol - Did well with Hamburg, taking them to 5th place and a Europa League semi final and the German league cup. Won the Dutch cup and came runners up in the Eredivisie with Ajax. Now with Fulham, not doing particularly well after we nabbed Dembele and Dempsey off them.
Ramos - Had an underwhelming season managing Real Madrid - took a big step up after us to them, but fell short. Signed for CSKA Moscow and fell short. Now with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (me neither) in Ukraine (oh, those guys!)
Redknapp - unemployed briefly after batting his eyelids at the England job and not getting it. Now with QPR who he took down after being appointed in a difficult time for the club.
Looking at the above, there seems to be a mix of managers we get. Hoddle was disgraced post England but could have managed us anyway. Santini was a highly-regarded manager and could have done a good job if not for internal politics. Jol did well in the Eredivisie but has come back to manage Fulham...and hasn't done a great job of it. Ramos managed at Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow - two big clubs (one bigger than other, sure) but nobody would call his tenure at either a roaring success. And Redknapp has dropped to the Championship.
Based on this track record, who do we expect to get in for AVB?
If you didn't read the above, my summary is thus - AVB is growing as a manager, he could be ten times the manager he is now by the end of the year, at the cost of a year's CL. Will Levy see it that way and retain his services? I don't know. Would I like him to? Yes, in the absence of better options and as we've seen in the past, most of our managers tend to get to Spurs as a high point (not always THE high point) of their career, rather than being former European giant managers taking a step down to elevate us.
