The next manager, Kane, Bale and Levy?
The manager first.
A source tells me that Levy’s favourite choice is Brendan Rogers, as the next manager, but if he goes, the Foxes owners will make sure they get top dollar for him. He has only recently signed an extension to his contract, so they won’t let him go without a fight.
What particularly tickles Levy about Rogers is that he enjoys working with and bringing on the young. When Levy became Chairman of Tottenham, he said to the then manager George Graham that his responsibility is the team. He (Levy) would take control over their youngsters and build an academy to develop them.
Levy is a businessman first and has consistently stated that the current purchase of top players for ridiculous amounts of money is unstainable. He can develop that talent through the academy and eventually put them in the main team on the cheap (like Kane). And if he does have to finally let that player go, he will make sure he gets every penny out of the purchasing club. That is why the team has been starved of funds; why splash out when you can look towards your own academy for talent at a fraction of the cost? And that is where Rogers comes in. Give him a huge wage, let him bring on academy players, and any money Levy has to fork out in wages or compensation would be far cheaper than paying out the same sort of capital the other big five clubs do to strengthen their squads. Of course, you can see flaws in that argument. Pochettino was the ideal choice, as he liked working with the young; the trouble was, you also need experience as well, to go along with those youngsters, but Levy wasn’t prepared to give the extra cash to Pochettino for that extra push, so he was eventually sacked. Which beggars the question, why did he go for Mourinho, who would rather buy than develop the young? One theory is that Mourinho was bending Levy’s ear and told him what he wanted to know and thus sacked Pochettino… which ended up backfiring on him (on both of them).
Whether Levy gets Rogers depends on Leicesters owners. Also, would he (Rogers) be prepared to go down a notch to the Europa Conference failure-league (from the Europa League), plus work under Levy’s iron fist approach?
As for Kane and Able (sorry, Bale).
The combination of Bale and Kane brought tears to the eyes of Leicester’s Champions League hopes on Sunday (managed by Brendan Rogers, of course). Now the season is all over, the speculations are even more full-on with the press. Social media and fans wanting to know if they both will stay or go?
Kane seems to have made his intentions clear before Sunday’s game and wants to go to a club that can win trophies. And he also has just won his third Premier League Golden Boot award.
Kane believes he has a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Levy to leave the club, and according to reports has “formally” asked to leave, which my source concurs. If he goes, I can’t see Bale staying, but it won’t just be him following Kane, as it is believed that others will also go.
Bale has already made his mind up and decided his future, however, he won’t say until after Euro 2020 as it will “cause chaos,” he has said.
Kane went into the last game of the season level on 22 goals with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. His goal in the 4-2 win over Leicester secured Kane the Golden Boot trophy. This means that his stock has gone up even higher, and if any club can match what Levy is asking for, he will be gone. And it probably will be Manchester City. And City are a club with a remarkable record for winning trophies, which is precisely what Kane wants. In fact, it is what any ambitious player wants (just ask Kyle Walker).
Kane has now 221 Tottenham goals to his name, leaving him second in Tottenham’s all-time goalscorers’ list behind Jimmy Greaves, who scored 266 times for the club between 1961 and 1970.
When Kane spoke on The Overlap with Gary Neville, he said he would not want to end his career with “any regrets” and would “have a good, honest conversation with the chairman”. If he stays at Levy’s mausoleum while he is running things, he certainly won’t win anything major… or maybe just an insignificant League Cup medal (certainly not the big prizes; Champions league or Premier League title).
My thoughts
Starting with the manager; I think Brendan Rogers would be a good choice, however, I think he would be mad to work under Levy, as I believe any manager would be nuts to work under him. Nevertheless, Levy must realise that he can’t keep making bad choices, and if he does, it will backfire in a way that he could be forced out. Hostile crowds and being a laughing stock would be unstainable, and he would eventually snap somewhere along the line. I have often said that he is a good businessman (just look at the Tottenham stadium), but he is nowhere near a competent football chairman. His past record in 20 years at Tottenham over-lording the team backs this up. And because of him, a new word has gone into the dictionary; “spursy”.
As for Kane & Bale: to be honest, what have the pair got to stay for? Any athlete who has ambition wants to win medals and work with the best. As Bale did when he went to Real Madrid. Levy’s penny-pinching attitude can’t offer any players what they want (medals) unless done on the cheap.
If Levy can talk Kane out of going, he must offer something beyond what he was prepared to provide in the past.
I doubt Levy is that stupid, and somewhere along the line, it will dawn on him that he will either have to change his attitude or risk insurrection against his authoritarian approach to the club’s finances. And does he really want his magnificent stadium to have a dead-laughing-stock team inside? As I had previously said; a Rolls Royce chassis with a Robin Reliant engine in it?
Agree or disagree, I would be glad to hear from you?
All the best, Glenn
COYS!
My name is Glenn Renshaw.
I am currently a Premium Season Ticket holder (West Stand) in the new stadium. Before that – at White Hart Lane – a season ticket holder in various parts of the ground (mainly in the North stand).
Before becoming a season ticket holder, I stood on the shelf and various other parts of the ground since the 1950s. In 1987 I became one of the first to hold a Spurs Membership card. I was also a life long member of the Spurs supporters club (now defunct).
I go to all home, away and abroad matches.
I was born in 1955, Edgware, London (it was in the late 50s – as a baby – that my dad took me to Spurs to initiate me). I currently live in Berkshire.
I also collect all Spurs books (and have everyone printed), Spurs handbooks (from 1920s onwards, Spurs programmes (since the 40s).
Previously, I wrote for Spurs Fanzines: The Spur, Spur of the Moment, My Eyes have seen the Glory and various other Spurs fanzines’. I also wrote for the SpursWeb app & its website.
I currently write and work for spursnetwork.com and its website. I write its Reviews & Match reports and a lot more.
My other interests are; reading, history, social history, Politics, going to the gym, wine, going out for a meal, music (all sorts), writing, theatre, concerts, holidays, socialising etc.
I have been writing blogs/ articles since 1989
If you wish to read more of my blog, please click “here”