Has Levy lost the plot
By Don Scully
Under Levy’s managerial appointments, we are gradually sinking down to the level of clubs like the Spammers. This is ironic, seeing as they are doing well this season and above us.
Anyway, Levy is losing his focus by appointing the wrong managers to manage the team or expect too much of them by giving them so little cash to improve matters (to the standards of the other big five clubs). We are supposed to be a top-six club (financially, maybe) but act like a Brighton or Everton when investing in the team.
Take Ryan Mason, what possessed Levy to put an inexperienced youth coach in charge of the team (with no experience of running any professional club)? It is sheer madness and suicidal. We would have been better sticking with Mourinho. Mason’s been in charge of four games, one of them could have seen us win a trophy and three league games. Won two, lost two. Mason’s greenness cost us.
Mason suffered his first Premier League defeat in charge on Saturday as he watched his selected team suffer a 3-1 loss to Leeds United at Elland Road, and it won’t be the last defeat either, going by what I’ve witnessed so far. Clowns running clowns. That defeat has left us seventh in the table, seven points shy of fourth-placed Leicester City with just three games remaining, meaning our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League for next season are all but over. There is more chance of me getting a date with Marilyn Monroe, and she is dead… has been dead for nearly sixty years, than Mason achieving any sort of miracle with the team he inherited. On top of that, sunk Arsenal are gradually closing the gap between themselves and us. A sorry state of affairs Levy has put us in.
Of course, Europe isn’t totally out of the question. We do have a chance in the Europa league-Thursday-night-football again, but it would mean Mason and the team focus on the three matches that remain. If they do (and win), then the question is, why didn’t he do that on the ones he lost? Again, rawness.
Now I am not one for buying the papers, however, I decided to venture down to my local newsagent and splash out on some of the Sunday Papers. If you haven’t read them, then trust me, the papers haven’t been particularly glowing in their assessments of our team.
Let us start with the Sunday Mirror;
“Different manager, same old problems,” Alex Milne wrote for the Mirror.
“But the manner of the loss to Leeds shows that Mourinho’s negativity and alienation of key players was just the tip of the iceberg in the huge issues that are blighting the club at the moment. There were some rays of light at Elland Road, with Dele Alli showing a glimpse of his genius of old to beautifully set up Son Heung-Min for Spurs’ first-half equaliser, while Harry Kane looked as bright as ever and Hugo Lloris impressed to keep the scoreline down. Yet there is still such a fragility and lack of confidence within the team, and once again their defence crumbled in the big moments to allow first Stuart Dallas, then Patrick Bamford and finally Rodrigo to score three relatively simple goals.”
Now let us look at the Mirror’s rival, the Sun.
“Weren’t Leeds the ones with nothing to play for? ” Oscar Paul wrote for The Sun. “For a season-defining game to keep them in the top-four mix, Tottenham did a fine impression of their north London rivals Arsenal. Just as meek, passive and rudderless as the Gunners were in the Europa League do-or-die against Villarreal on Thursday, Spurs’ Champions League hopes are now up in smoke. Caretaker Ryan Mason demanded four wins to keep their hopes alive. Instead, Spurs were completely off the boil when it mattered most – not that many will be surprised. That keeper Hugo Lloris was their best player by a distance said it all.”
What about the left-leaning Guardian?
“Tottenham can testify how far an overachieving Argentinian manager can take a team; Mauricio Pochettino steered them to a Champions League final,” Richard Jolly wrote for the Guardian. “But as his mentor, Marcelo Bielsa, lifted Leeds to ninth with his brand of vibrancy, energy and a capacity to propel players beyond their natural limits, Spurs’ chances of a return to the European elite were effectively ended. Appointing the untried Ryan Mason represented the last throw of the dice, but his first Premier League defeat came to a manager almost 36 years his senior and consigned Tottenham’s season to failure. It is part of Jose Mourinho’s legacy, and if Mason’s team selection was a repudiation of his predecessor, it is harsh to fault only the caretaker for the way Spurs ended a dispirited shambles. Leeds set the tone in a game of 25 shots. Their fearlessness and relentlessness enabled them to prevail, and they will complete the season unbeaten against the “big six” at home.”
Then you had Alan Shearer on Match of the Day saying Harry Kane should leave as he isn’t going to win anything at Spurs. The Arsenal side-kick to Shearer, Ian Wright, concurred. Both strikers, both seeing no future for Kane or anybody at Spurs. A sorry state of affairs Levy has put us in. And will next season be any different? If you consider that in 20 years of Levy being in charge, we’ve only been in the top four about 5 or six times and only one pathetic minor League cup to show for it, I doubt next season will be any different. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
By Don Scully
I have been following Spurs since the sixties and work in London. My current job is as a professional writer (working in the media), and I have work connections to the club and had previously worked for them. Including working at the old White Hart Lane stadium.
I also have my own blog and have written for the SpursWeb app & its website.
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed reading your article aside from the headline asking whether Levy has lost the plot – to which I wonder if he ever really had the plot – I question some of your sentiments/ assessments and analogies? For starters there is no such thing as a team with nothing to play for especially in the premiership. The higher up the table the better the financial rewards in scale so that is a bit of a misnomer for a start. Equally your notion of Spurs being a nailed on top six club and their subsequent form compared to the likes of West Ham – who are clearly doing better presently – Brighton and more surprisingly Everton whose own form and stature as a club at the very least holds comparison to Tottenham’s own as being a big club, indeed if anything Everton potentially are developing forward whilst Tottenham appear to stagnate? What I really take issue with however is the utterly tasteless and need I say absolutely pointless references to the late screen siren Marylin Monroe? Surely if you wanted to use such am erstwhile analogy you could have at least picked someone current and still living to make the same point. Quoting newspaper clips verbatim to support your article merely enforces a notion that your opinion is largely spoon fed rather than you appearing to have specific opinion of your own worth actually listening too! I don’t need to read second hand reviews of my club to understand that is being inefficiently mismanaged by Levy and the board and have been a long term critic of the way things are being run. If you are going to write an article about Tottenham’s short comings at least dignify it simply from your own viewpoint and not in a context which suits as opposed to tasteless observation which merely cloud the issues with no good reason.
Interesting response. Even though I read Don Scully’s article differently and I don’t necessarily share your views, you do make some interesting points. But if we were all the same then it would be a dull world.