There’s an interesting and paywalled piece in the Telegraph from Matt Law, which went out last night, and you can read it for free here, but I’ll summarise the salient points here for us.
The background to Levy’s departure was not so much that he had his hand in the cookie jar, but rather it was becoming obvious to Lewis’ that he was planning to sell the entire jar, cookies and all, to benefit himself personally.
Peter Charrington executed the internal review, ejecting Cullen and Levy within a matter of months.
Wage bill
‘It is estimated that Spurs have the sixth-highest wage bill in the top flight, behind all of their traditional rivals. In 2024, Tottenham’s wage to revenue ratio fell to just 42 per cent which was the lowest of the top 20 highest-earning clubs in the world.
It is understood the Lewis family want to focus on how and where money is spent in future and surely more needs to be put towards the wage bill to give Spurs a fighting chance.’
The trimming of the wage bill was all part of preparing to trim the goose before selling it.
It had nothing to do with benefitting the club.
Investment
T’elegraph Sport last week revealed that Levy’s exit is due to coincide with significant fresh investment into the club worth over £100m. Sources close to the Lewis family insist the new approach will not be about debt and there will be “proper” support for the club to give it the best possible chance of sustained sporting success.’
A £100 million cash injection is probably subject to innumerable terms and conditions; however, it does appear to be almost like an apology, given the timing.
‘We’re sorry about Baldy misleading all of us. Have some player vouchers on us.’
The knock-on effect is that Frank sounds cautiously optimistic.
“I’ve spoken to a few from the Lewis family and Peter Charrington, the new non-exec chairman,” said Frank. “I also spoke to him before, of course he was already on the board. So there’s been good, constructive conversations and I feel the backing and they’re happy.
Selling
‘Venkatesham this week acknowledged that Tottenham “need to make sure that we’re selling players at the right time” and sales are just as important as signings these days.’
Daniel loved scraping the maximum return on players he sells, but he all too often failed to sell players on time or, even at all.
The list of players who were eventually ejected from the Luxury Spa facilities, after contributing little to nothing, is endless.
Asked about Bissouma’s immediate future, Frank said: “I will be surprised if anyone is leaving us now so, yes, he’s part of the squad.”
Well done, Daniel, we always knew you would reveal yourself.
For me, it was the ‘miss me when I’ve gone’ line, which had an air of menace about it, as if he was going to accidentally on purpose sell us to people even less interested in football than he was.