Daniel Levy is one of the least popular people in the history of Tottenham Hotspur, as he so often held the London giants back from truly competing with clubs on the same plane of popularity and financial strength because of his stinginess and focus on the bottom line rather than winning.
At the same time, Levy did some positive things for Spurs throughout his time as chairman. He brought some big names to the club, and, yes, keeping Spurs financially stable is an achievement when we've recently seen so many historic European powers delve into threats of outright insolvency (like Lyon and Schalke, to name two).
In his last controversial move, Levy alienated some Tottenham fans by firing the beloved Ange Postecoglou weeks after he brought Spurs their first major trophy in decades, the Europa League title. While the way Levy went about the move could have been handled better without jeopardizing the club's transfer window and making the organization look callous and cruel, ultimately, Spurs fans have to thank Levy for thining about the bottom line.
And the bottom line was this: Tottenham were able to grit through and beat inferior teams on heart alone at mid-week. On weekends in the Premier League with better opponents, Tottenham crumbled. A 17th-placed finish is outright embarrassing, and that historically bad league performance is actually even worse than it looks when you factor in that the three relegated Premier League sides were all historically poor and completely overmatched bounce backs from the Championship.
Tottenham ended up with a clear upgrade
Ange Postecoglou was the worst coach in European football last season from a league standpoint. He had no system, his midfield was shambolic, his teams didn't create chances despite how much they sacrificed structurally, and he was running folks into the ground which could have long-term consequences for the health of players throughout their careers.
He's already been so bad for Nottingham Forest that fans were literally chanting for his imminent sacking after watching more injuries and woeful defending in a 3-2 upset loss to Midtjylland in the Europa League. You know, the competition Postecoglou is hailed as a genius for winning, when, in fact, it was the heroics of players like Dominic Solanke and Cristian Romero that won Spurs the competition.
Levy thought with his brain - and not his heart, because we all know he doesn't have one (I kid, I kid, lest someone actually get mad at me on Frank Gore's Internet) - and bless up that he did. Because another season of Ange would have been intolerable, whereas missing out on the brilliance of Thomas Frank would have been honestly just as stinging as a Muhammed Ali uppercut.