I can’t wait until a book comes out about Levy
By Don Scully
Most of the managers that have dealt with Levy are keeping schtum, however, there will be a time when they will open their mouths and tell everybody the truth about him and his ways (which have been detrimental to the Tottenham team).
I bet Pochettino and Mourinho have a few stories they could also tell about Levy and how Tottenham is run, but while they are still in the football market, it would be very foolish to say anything, but the time will come.
This leads me nicely onto Andre Villa-Boas or AVB to you and me. In a recent discussion with the Atlantic Magazine, he has revealed the ‘animosity’ he has for Levy after he was forced to leave the club.
Yes, our former Tottenham Hotspur manager, Andre Villas-Boas, revealed his time at Tottenham and his dealings with the club’s Chairman. Villas-Boas joined Spurs in 2012 after being let go by the Russian owned football club, Chelsea, replacing Harry Redknapp as manager at Spurs. In his time at the club, he only managed 80 games in charge but was quickly sacked by Levy at the end of 2013. Nevertheless, he managed to win just over half of these games.
Eight years after leaving us, he is still niggled by the way he was treated, and he told The Athletic magazine of his strained working relationship with Levy. He claimed that Levy wanted him to leave and take the PSG job because it would have resulted in a £15m pay-out for Tottenham, but he wouldn’t play ball with Levy and didn’t want to leave. He said: “I understood Tottenham wanted me to go to Paris. I had an offer from Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the (2012-13) season. But I said, ‘No’. My clause for leaving Tottenham, which (Chairman Daniel) Levy was negotiating with Paris, was £15 million. Chelsea had paid €15 million for me, and in Tottenham, it was £15 million. And Levy was, of course, negotiating this.”
He then went on and added: “So I didn’t have the best of relationships with Daniel. We were correct throughout, but we were not in love with each other, and I think they wanted me to accept the offer. But I wanted to stay. I had a great time in London. The team was good. I didn’t feel at that time that Paris was what I wanted for my career, so I decided to risk on that one more year, and for me, I take things a lot personally. I have a different vision of football and, for me, whenever somebody declines something that’s normally better — be it contract wise or the possibility of you winning — for me, you are entitled to a contract renewal. That’s how I see things. It wasn’t the case. And that led to a bad, bad animosity between us. To the point where it was December, and there were no conditions for us to continue working, and we reached an agreement to leave.”
When he was asked about getting the sack, he said, “Although we lost heavily to Liverpool (5-0), we were on more points than the season we beat the points record. But the environment wasn’t there, and it was best for both parties.”
And he won’t be the only bitter person who had dealings with Levy. There will be a whole host of ex-managers and those that had dealings with him lining up to give their two pennies worth. And I am sure their stories will make interesting reading. But, where the fans are concerned, Levy has been walking on fragile ice and would love to read such a book, if only to say, “I told you so”.
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.