Tottenham Hotspur

[ChesterDave]

Wish I'd have asked for a few more now.

Who else chops and changes all the time? Newcastle. Sunderland?

FC Sion - The Swiss side that threatened to take UEFA to Court regarding the transfer ban/European football saga...

They've sacked 5 coaches this season

edit: and 'around' 30 coaches since 2002

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22513334

What a colossal bellend the owner must be

[Fivex]

The Spurs Thread

12 for Newcastle (only counting Keegan once)
15 for Fulham
14 for Sunderland
18 for WBA
18 for Palace
14 for WHU ever!

Thanks Matt.

They're more like the rule than the exception then.

Obviously we know how well the exceptions have done in that time. 20 year contract for Brendan please.

[Fivex]

FC Sion - The Swiss side that threatened to take UEFA to Court regarding the transfer ban/European football saga...

They've sacked 5 coaches this season

edit: and 'around' 30 coaches since 2002

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22513334

What a colossal bellend the owner must be

****ing hell

Mammothian level of sackings.

[wavydavy]

Chelsea 18, starting with some fella called Bobby Campbell who was in charge in 1990

City 17, starting with some schmuck called Howard

Some fella called Bobby Campbell!!

[ChesterDave]

Tim Sherwood is bookies favourite. That would be amazingly funny.

[ChesterDave]

Jason Burt @JBurtTelegraph

If Tim Sherwood wants to be #THFC manager then it is now or never. Time for him to put up.
~~

Now... OR NEVER?

I am not sure Mr Burt understands the concept of time as a linear function.

I reckon at 40 odd there are probably more opportunities for Sherwood to manage Spurs.

[Roboklopp]

Gareth Bale's mum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25315936

Gareth Bale's Dad:

[Vermilion]

Hair style to hide her ears ?

[Norbs]

Gareth Bale's mum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25315936

I bet that hair hides a pair of enormous earoles

[Norbs]

Gareth Bale's Dad:

I was pissing myself before I clicked the spoiler. Cheers for not disappointing me RK

[Roboklopp]

I was pissing myself before I clicked the spoiler. Cheers for not disappointing me RK

Planet of the Bales.

[Vermilion]

I bet that hair hides a pair of enormous earoles

Funny that Norbs! Bender.


Did you even read the post above yours ?!

[Shaggy]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/16/daniel-levy-spurs-andre-villas-boas-reputation?CMP=twt_gu

Daniel Levy's renown as ultimate wheeler dealer loses lustre at Spurs

Focus of blame for Tottenham debacle turns from André Villas-Boas to club chairman renowned as tough operator

Owen Gibson

Somewhere between Tottenham Hotspur's £109m summer transfer gamble and the fact that the family firm where the club chairman, Daniel Levy, cut his commercial teeth was called Mr Byrite is a bad joke struggling to get out. But as Spurs dispense with the services of yet another manager amid a febrile atmosphere at White Hart Lane, the decision-making of the man who hired then fired André Villas-Boas is being loudly called into question by fans for the first time.

Given the high turnover of managers – the new man will be Levy's eighth in 12 years since the Enic Group bought Spurs from Sir Alan Sugar – they are increasingly, inevitably looking to the boardroom as well as the dugout for answers.

Levy looked on with a face of thunder from the director's box as Spurs succumbed 5-0 to Liverpool on Sunday. But if Villas-Boas is being held responsible for the failure of the seven players – brought in to replace Gareth Bale at a combined cost of £109m – to gel sufficiently quickly, then Levy's own role also deserves scrutiny.

Widespread admiration at Levy's ability to walk a financial tightrope and produce a Spurs side capable of challenging for the top four is rapidly being replaced by a creeping unease at the methods of their sometimes prickly and frequently inscrutable chairman.

It was Levy who took the bold decision to fire Harry Redknapp following a fourth-place finish and hire Villas-Boas. It was Levy who, with his prized hard-headed negotiator's hat on, played cat and mouse all summer with Real Madrid over Bale despite the player making clear that he wanted to leave. And it was Levy who appointed Franco Baldini as technical director in an unshakeable belief that a continental structure is the only sensible one for a top club in the modern game.

While Joe Lewis, the publicity-shy tax exile who owns a majority stake in Enic, would expect to be consulted on all key decisions, it is Levy who runs the club on a week-to-week basis.

A Cambridge University graduate, Levy was involved in the family business – Mr Byrite was eventually rebranded Blue Inc and sold in 2006 – and in property development before teaming up with Lewis to form Enic. Together, they bought and sold stakes in a dizzying array of clubs in the first flush of football's ill-fated flirtation with the stock market before concentrating their attention on Spurs.

Despite Levy's reluctance to explain himself in public – the only interview he has granted the Guardian in recent years was when Spurs were on the back foot in the battle for the Olympic Stadium and needed all the publicity they could get – he is increasingly exposed.

Firing Redknapp, a popular manager even if some of his lustre had faded for fans by the time of his departure, and pinning his colours to Villas-Boas just four months after the Portuguese had been sacked by Chelsea, was a daring call.

A pattern has emerged. In 2008 Juande Ramos won the club's first silverware in nine years in the shape of the Carling Cup, but seven months later he was sacked following the sale of Dimitar Berbatov. Then came a scramble for late close-season replacements and a disappointing start to the following season.

Fast forward to 2012 and the hiring of Villas-Boas was supposed to be the blueprint for long-term success. Along with a state of the art training centre and a new ground, Levy envisaged the club challenging permanently for the biggest honours instead of peering through the glass and occasionally breaking in. But within 18 months the relationship between the boardroom and training ground broke down irretrievably.

The outstanding questions include: among Levy, Baldini and Villas-Boas, who took the final decisions when it came to deciding how to spend that £109m and when and how to sell Bale?

Levy has become famed for his transfer window dealing, extracting maximum value from the sales of Michael Carrick, Berbatov, Luka Modric and – most spectacularly and most profitably – Bale. Yet in each of those cases, his desire to maximise income has arguably been at odds with the best interests of the playing squad. He deserves his reputation as a tough negotiator and, in an era when players and agents hold too much power, has been rightly lauded for standing up to them. But on a wider strategic level, Levy has also failed to make the leap the club is crying out for – progress on a new, larger, more profitable stadium. With their north London neighbours having made the move to the Emirates and West Ham having beaten them to the Olympic Stadium, the redevelopment of White Hart Lane has become an urgent priority.

Having arguably misunderstood the political subtleties of the battle for the Olympic Stadium and become embroiled in a long stand-off over how much public money would go into the Northumberland Park development, Levy must show meaningful progress in the next 12 months on and off the pitch.

He is not shy of making big decisions, but what is changing is the faith Spurs fans have in him to make the right calls. For Levy, the ultimate behind-the-scenes operator, the risk is that he becomes the story.

[RedReet]

I hope they can't sell on any of their new players and the wages cripple them if they don't get into Europe next year.

[fah-q]

****ing hell, Mr Byrite. That's a blast from the past.