Tottenham’s big problem: Daniel Levy does not care about winning

Someone may need to remind the chairman that his world-class stadium is not a trophy and there is no silverware for just reaching a final

It was at the end of September that Daniel Levy was asked to list his top three achievements as Tottenham Hotspur chairman and replied with reaching the Champions League final, opening the stadium and employing some good players.
No mention of the 2008 Carling Cup success, the only trophy Tottenham have won since Levy has been at the club, which supporters who are desperate for silverware were quick to pick up on.
Levy was talking at a fans’ forum and was on stage with head coach Ange Postecoglou and club captain Son Heung-min, who apologised to fans after Sunday’s miserable defeat by Ipswich Town.
Son – one of the best Premier League players of his era – will have spent a decade at Tottenham next year, but he still has not got a single winners’ medal for all his years of near exemplary service.
That could still change this season, with Tottenham, despite their defeat by Galatasaray, looking good in the Europa League and still in the Carabao Cup – what used to be the old Carling Cup – after knocking out Manchester City.
One can only assume that a Carabao Cup success would not be enough to break into Levy’s top three. A Europa League might be, given it earns qualification to the Champions League, but winning has not appeared to be the be-all and end-all at Tottenham for well over 20 years now.
It should be a source of profound embarrassment to Levy that for all the excellent players he has employed – Harry Kane and Gareth Bale were the two he picked out – Tottenham have not won more than a solitary League Cup under his watch.
Which brings us nicely to watches of the timepiece variety and the revelation by Hugo Lloris that the Tottenham squad who reached the final of the 2018-19 Champions League, of which Son was a member, were given watches with the word “finalist” engraved into the back of them.
That was the moment Lloris claims in his autobiography to have known that Levy and Tottenham were not in it for the winning, and after a defeat by Ipswich, fans are once again playing the club’s favourite game of “whose fault is it anyway?”
Postecoglou defended Tottenham over the Lloris comments, claiming that the “broader view” was that it “could have been a very successful period for the club”.
Maybe it would have been if the club had not become the first in history not to sign a single player in the summer before a Champions League final appearance. Or if Levy had backed Mauricio Pochettino, rather than sacking him just six months after it.
Postecoglou accepted responsibility for Tottenham’s inconsistency after the Ipswich defeat and it was the head coach who appeared to be on the end of some choice words from an angry fan as he headed down the tunnel.
Asked at the same fans’ forum about how he handles criticism, Levy claimed: “I have a very thick skin and I just ignore it. (It) makes me want to be more successful.”
He was not asked how he would define “successful”. It would be interesting to hear if Levy’s interpretation of the word is different to that of Postecoglou, who recently responded to the suggestion “some people” see a top-four finish as being as good as a trophy with: “But there isn’t a trophy.”
Maybe somebody needs to tell Levy that his world-class stadium is not a trophy, just as the striking mural of Kane on the way into it from White Hart Lane train station is not, either. And, apart from the watches he handed out, there is no silverware for reaching a final.
Much has been made – largely by himself – of Postecoglou’s record of winning trophies in his second seasons at clubs, but is he going to be another manager who finds that Tottenham is the exception to the rule? José Mourinho won trophies before and after his Tottenham experience, while Antonio Conte is top of the Serie A table with Napoli, the first club he has worked at since leaving Levy behind.
Supporters have an entire international break in which to go back and forth over the familiar Tottenham blame game. But the fact remains there has only been one constant during the 20-plus years in which Tottenham have managed to win a single trophy that does not even figure in the chairman’s top three.