
“Tottenham,” he says, “were my second family.”īut there was a twist. He had been in charge for two and a half years and, emotionally, it took a long time to recover. Hoddle, one of the more celebrated players in Tottenham’s history, was the first manager Levy ever appointed, but his popularity at White Hart Lane did not spare him after a bad start to the 2003-04 season. Glenn Hoddle also knows what it is like to be called into Levy’s office and informed that he is being let go. “With Daniel, you hardly ever get anything for free.”
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“There’s often a quid pro quo with the chairman,” Pochettino explained.

But he resisted the idea that it made him and Levy buddies. Pochettino recalls it being “a small gathering of people from his inner circle - eight of us in total - in a spectacular setting”. Levy, in return, bought Pochettino a Bentley as a reward for the team’s success and invited him to his holiday home in the French Alps for two days of wine-tasting.Ī holiday with the boss? Not quite. Many supporters wish he had lasted even longer, bearing in mind the fun they had when he led Spurs to the 2019 Champions League final and challenged for the Premier League title. Pochettino had five years in the job, which makes him the longest-serving manager of the Levy era.
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Back on dry land, he told Levy he should have used those potentially life-saving moments to request a pay rise: “Daniel, either you double the salary or you’re not getting back on the boat.” The group went rafting on the lake and, when Levy fell overboard on some rapids, there was a remarkable scene in which Pochettino had to drag one of English football’s leading executives out of the water. The two men even went away to Argentina, among a party of six, to spend a week at Lago Escondido (the Hidden Lake) in Patagonia, where Tottenham’s owner, Joe Lewis, has an estate. It was their worst start to a season since 1912 and, as well as Ramos, it cost the director of football, Damien Comolli, his job (it’s worth pointing out that many of the players signed in the summer of 2008 were then part of the side that qualified for the Champions League under Redknapp in 2010). The next campaign, however, started with Spurs taking two points from their first eight games. Ramos signed a four-year contract and, within four months of his arrival, Spurs had beaten Chelsea at Wembley to win the League Cup, their first trophy in nine years. Ramos had joined the club from Sevilla in late 2007 after Levy took the largely unpopular decision to replace Martin Jol, his manager for the previous three years. I didn’t agree and those differences between one another led to my dismissal and our separation.” “They (Tottenham) signed players who they thought were convenient.
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Spurs, according to Ramos, “couldn’t score a goal under a rainbow and in the eighth week I’m gone”.Īsked to describe Levy as a boss, Ramos tells The Athletic: “The only thing I can say with respect to that is… I proposed a series of players who we had to sign to reinforce the squad because they had sold Berbatov and Keane. Levy and Ramos in 2007 (Photo: Phil Cole/Getty Images) It is 15 years since Tottenham won a trophy and one of the recurring complaints among Postecoglou’s predecessors is that Levy has not taken enough care, or shown enough expertise, when it comes to the transfer market.

Until, of course, it is time to sack you. He might even shower you with expensive gifts. It is important to him to feel that he and the manager can converse and trust one another, as much as there is ever trust in this industry.Īnd, if he likes you, he will champion you. He talks about being friends, even if the managers in question see it a different way.Įven in the most difficult times, Levy rarely raises his voice. He likes to sit with the manager in the canteen. The soft-focus Levy, they say, can be warm, charming and convivial. Yet the managers who have worked under Levy will also talk about someone who has different layers to his personality. This is Ange Postecoglou: The history, the track record, the philosophyīecause the first thing Postecoglou needs to realise is that there is more to Levy than he might have realised.Įveryone knows Levy’s reputation as a businessman, fiercely competitive and unapologetically single-minded, who refuses to bend for anyone and can be so intransigent in negotiations that various rivals (and colleagues) have felt the occasional urge to drop a flowerpot on his head.
