So theres alot of Levy/ENIC out fans on here especially coming recently with Liverpool winning the league and trying to draw comparisons with them.

So here is a more objective take on Levy/ENIC, and why we shouldn't compare ourselves to Liverpool.

A thread...

#COYS #THFC

So ENIC fronted by a certain Daniel Levy buy the club off Alan Sugar in 2001 for a cool £22m, and takes over operations at a club he says he has been a non-fanatical fan off since he was 8 years old.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2001/oct/17/newsstory.sport

The aim? To slowly grow the club into a stronger European force and to atleast increase the capacity of White Hart Lane from 36,000 to 44,000

We get to the start of the 02/03 season and we start to really see how Levy operates.

Tottenham are in desperate need for forwards with Rebrov never quite living up to the hype and Korsten having to pre maturely retire due to numerous injuries.

Transfer targets were reportedly Samuel Eto'o, Hernan Crespo, Fernando Morientes and Robbie Keane...ambitious.

As reported later on by @TheAthleticUK we failed in a bid to bring Morientes to the lane which saw Levy try a cheeky big of around £10m...£1m a year over 10 years

So with ambition being shown from the off It was clear Levy was trying to be very cute with our limited funds and on this occasion and a fair few occasions after this these types of bids have backfired.

Though we did end up signing club legend Robbie Keane from Leeds for £9m

We would continue to strengthen with ambitious moves and investment in playing squads to strive to make it to Champions League football.

Only to be thwarted by the tragic Lasagna gate incident in the 05/06 season which saw us miss out on the final day of the season.

It was in 2005 Levy decided to replace highly renowned DoF Frank Arnesen with Damien Comolli with the aim of utilising our funds as best possible and the pair struck up a great relationship.

Comolli notable signings
- Modric
- Bale
- KP Boateng
- Berbatov
- A. Ekotto
- Corluka

The story I really want to touch upon is the pursuit of Luka Modric tho, we had scouted him extensively over 07 and early 08 and nobody really knew who he was.

Other clubs came sniffing and Comolli heavily suggested making a move or we could lose out...

Comolli nervously rang Levy one morning and said...

“If we didn’t do the deal in the next two or three days, it is almost a year’s worth of work going in the bin because we were going to lose the player. So that is when Daniel worked his magic''

''He put the phone down, got his stuff, jumped on a private jet and flew to Zagreb. He called me that night at 3am saying he had done the deal. We had Modric.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/tottenham-latest-news-luka-modric-real-madrid-champions-league-team-news-a8002696.html%3famp

It was a club record fee we had played for Modric (£16.5m) who at the time was only really known too Croatians and Football Manager players.

His performances for Croatia at Euro 2008 had Spurs fans drooling and Modric's market value soared.

But Levy had already secured the bag.

And that's the thing I personally love about him and is his best strength, just being able to secure. The. BAG.

Whenever we've been forced to sell our best players he has at least made sure we got the best deal...

- Carrick to Man U 06' for £18m
- Berbatov to Man U 08' for £31m + Fraizer Campbell

Both of which people thought United payed over the top for..especially Carrick.

And Gareth Bale to R Madrid for a WR fee £86m on 13', a fee Madrid REALLY didnt want to pay

And to use Modric as an example again.

Levy showed his petty side and showed his tribalism to Spurs when Chelsea bid £40m for him in 2011.

Levy flat out rejected this bid to not sell to a direct rival much to Modric's annoyance only to sell him to R Madrid a year later for £30m

Settling for £10m less for a key player just to not to sell him for a direct myth showed a side to him that didn't just care about money...but he was also quite petty (which I loved) and still a Spurs fan at heart.

Moving on to the start of the 14/15 campaign and the start of a 5 year project which would see Tottenham try break into the top 4 again gradually as we did already under Redknapp

This next manager would have to be limited on funds while the new Stadium was to be delivered.

Initially Levy wanted LvG, who had a very successful run with Holland in the 2014 World Cup who instead chose to take over at Man Utd

Levy then turned to Mauricio Pochettino who was a lucky second choice but never the less a more than adequate appointment to carry out the plan.

Nov 14' Paul Mitchell who was the head of recruitment for Pochettino at So'ton then joined him at Spurs to help him utilise the limited funds that Pochettino had to work with. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/30226314

The 15/16 rolls around and Spurs inadvertently ended up being title challengers for most the season but eventually lost out to Leicester.

Going into the 16/17 season it was widely believed if we invested into the playing squad we would go one step further and lift the PL trophy.

This period is seen as Levy's biggest shortcoming.

Pochettino had identified wide players as an area to strengthen and Paul Mitchell and Poch highly recommended Sadio Mane to Levy but he disagreed and didnt think he was worth the £34m quoted by So'ton.

Sadio Mane went on to sign for Liverpool and Levy instead spent the money on bringing Moussa Sissoko to the club for £30m.

Paul Mitchell then resigned and Spurs went on to finish the campaign 2nd in the PL in their last season at WHL.

Oppertunity missed

Going into 17/18 and the lack of funds are telling as it seems any players must be bought from player sales.

Notable transfers;

In: D. Sanchez, Aurier, Moura (jan), Llorente, Foyth.

Out: K.Walker, Wimmer, Benteleb, N'Jie, Fazio

Net Spend; Approx £10m

This would be the last season in recent times we would finish above Liverpool whom many fans have compared us too since they won the PL.

The biggest mitigating factor?

The Northumberland Development Project.

Centred around the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the project also included 585 new homes, a 180 room hotel, a Spurs museum, a sports facility, as well as the Lilywhite House, and a 6th form college & more

This whole project is something ENIC and Levy deserve alot more credit for imo.

Yes...we went without signing any players for a frustrating 18 months in what was a crucial stage of development, but we did over achieve when we became title challengers ahead of schedule.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT LEVY/ENIC

- Levy and Lewis are both billionaires and don’t need to show the extreme commitment that they show. They have transformed us beyond belief and are soon in a position to go to the next level which means on the pitch next level

- Growth has to been done in stages. It took Levy many years to buy up all the shops / buildings around the old stadium so the new one could be built. But he never gave up the dream.

There was many disputes from businesses that wouldn't relocate or be bought out in the process

For example..

- The 7 year dispute from offices yards from the new WHL site
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30195756

And the dispute with Archway Sheet Metal Works https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3020074/Tottenham-announce-agreement-Archway-Sheet-Metal-Works-clear-way-new-stadium.html

I mean if he was behind the 'suspicious' fires it shows Don Levy really does stop at nothing to Secure. THE. BAGGG.