Daniel Levy was the last great old-school football chairman

On Thursday, Tottenham Hotspur made the surprising announcement that Daniel Levy had stepped down as executive chairman after 24 years on the job. Speculation about whether he was retiring as part of a planned succession were quickly squashed by reporters.

Levy was essentially fired, even if softer language was used publicly and he was allowed to step down. A story by Jack Pitt-Brooke and Jay Harris in The Athletic used the word “removed” in its headline and included this quote from a source close to the Joe Lewis family trust, which is the biggest shareholder in Tottenham Hotspur:

Spurs might have captured a European trophy last season, but their Premier League performance was nothing short of a disaster. Had Levy been the type of modern chairman who focused on the business and left football to the football people, this might not have affected his position at all. But Levy has always love getting directly involved in the deals, and it was hard to see where he’d fit into a modern structure with a CEO and director of football.

Levy is likely to be remembered as an excellent chairman who guided Tottenham to business and sporting success over his tenure. The opening of the club’s new and very well-liked 62,850 stadium will be his greatest legacy. John Muller jokes that Levy’s tenure might have been a little bit overrated:

But Manchester City surpassing Spurs due to investment from a country’s government is probably important context here. Turning Spurs into a billion pound commercial powerhouse without any kind of enormous capital injection is an incredible accomplishment, and I don’t think anyone is ever going to dispute that.

Where there will be significant differences of opinion are whether or not Levy was any good at the sporting side of his job. I tend to agree with this 2023 piece by Joel Wertheimer, where the central thesis is that Levy was good until he wasn’t. At some point, he stopped being ruthless in the transfer market or lost his touch. At the same time, his rivals grew more professional and sophisticated. There were fewer idiots to take advantage of. The smarter teams beat him to the best players in Spurs’ price range.

There are too many teams with money, and too many teams with sophisticated recruitment departments, for a Daniel Levy to succeed in modern football. The days of a good chairman, a good manager, and a chief scout functioning as 90% of a successful recruitment department are over. If you try to operate like that, the better organized and staffed teams are going to kick your ass.

CEO Vinai Venkatesham and new non-executive chairman Peter Charrington will now likely move to hire a new director of football. While no announcement has been made about the futures of technical director Johan Lange and banned director turned consultant Fabio Paratici, I imagine their roles will be reconsidered. When ownership is talking about a “fresh approach” and “new era,” the old guard generally does not stick around. And given Tottenham’s flailing in the transfer market this summer, they probably shouldn’t.

The thing that happened to Daniel Levy is the same thing that happens to pretty much everyone who works in sports well into their 60s. The game passed him by. It changed faster than he was willing or able to change. That doesn’t make what he did in the past any less great, but it was time for Tottenham to try something different.

Games we’re watching

Chelsea vs. Manchester City — The WSL season kicks off with what should be a banger. City have a new manager after disappointing last season, and I hope he has better ideas than his predecessor for how to get Bunny Shaw and Vivianne Miedema playing well in the same side.

Atlético Madrid vs. Real Madrid — The two big Madrid sides have disappointed recently in Liga F, and Real will be desperate for a good result after dropping points in week 1.

Arsenal vs. London City Lionesses — Michele Kang’s retirement home for legends is welcomed to WSL by the Champions League winners. Jokes aside, I think LCL are smart to sign big names and establish their reputation among players and agents in a season where they’re unlikely to battle relegation or compete for Champions League.

Germany vs. Northern Ireland — In men’s World Cup qualifying, this is suddenly a consequential game after Germany turned in a stinker against Slovakia on Thursday. Another bad result might cost Julian Nagelsmann his job.

Stuff we’re reading

Because it’s WSL kickoff week, we’ve got a bunch of WSL stuff for you.

The staff at The Guardian has detailed previews for all 12 WSL teams.

Max Radwan at The Cutback delivers a cliffnotes version if you have, say, a job or school and can’t read 20,000 words today.

The staff at The Athletic did a roundtable on the big questions ahead of this season.

Emily Keogh at ESPN declares winners and losers of the WSL transfer season.

Grace Robertson at Grace On Football wonders if Manchester City have made the right transfer decisions in their rebuild this summer. (My hypothesis is: No.)

Ashwin Raman at Scouted says dribblers are back baby, they’re good again, awoooo (wolf howl).

Kieron O’Connor at Swiss Ramble details the spending trends in the Premier League after a record summer.

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