Levy leaves... his role as Spurs chairman

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1:05Hello everyone, welcome to your Friday Stadio podcast. I'm Ryan Hunn. I'm Musa Okwonga. I nearly did it again, I nearly said I'm Musa Okwonga.

1:12Musa Okwonga: Because it's so used to your name coming first. You don't want to mean me, trust me. You don't want these problems. Where did that come from? It's because we're recording face-to-face. We are. What's the second recording we've done today actually? because we've just been to the Arsenal... What's it called? Sober Realty Training Centre. Sober Realty Training Centre, a.k.a. London Colony, a.k.a. Arsenal's Training Centre, because we sat down with Champions League winner. Champions League winner. European champion. Double European champion. Don't call her comeback. Lotta Wubbenmoy. The first time we met Lotta in person, last time she was on Stadio, we did it on a call.

1:55it was lovely it was great fun to meet Lotta and we're going to have that episode up next week for everyone well for all Patreon members actually yeah they start their season this weekend at home on Saturday lunchtime against the London City Lionesses who are spending big London City large S wow yes yes wow wow wow doing big things shake up the league we hope everyone's staying safe and well wherever you are social club members don't forget our Discord hangout Saturday evening go check the events page on the discord and we'll also send a we'll send an email in case people haven't got up on the discord yet but today we're going to keep it quite brief this is just a podcast out to all patreon members and we're going to talk about the breaking news last night for some people

2:41Musa Okwonga: heartbreaking news for others merely breaking news um daniel levy departs tottenham hotspur where he was chairman for 20 odd years, 25 years? 24. 24, my goodness. So he's in his early 60s. So he's basically been chairman of Spurs for the bulk of his adult life, almost half his life. Well, yeah, so that's well over a third of his life. And just monumental, monumental moment in football, you and I were actually out having a quiet drink when the news broke. And I was in shock, to say the least. It's one of those things where the news comes and it was bound to come someday, but still when it arrived, you were like, oh my God, this changes everything.

3:37Musa Okwonga: Because it kind of does. It does and it doesn't. Okay, let's elaborate on that. Why do you think it changes everything? it changes everything because it is signaling that spurs are ready to take the final handbrake off and i say the final handbrake even though there's only one handbrake in a car but bear with me because i don't want to disrespect his legacy in terms of what he gave them as a platform like there's so much that he gave them in order to take off stadium is fantastic the club is in you know good financial health the summer signings are spectacular the executive level is great you know the execs they brought in the coach they brought in he put them in a position to succeed they've got the Europa League as well that happened under his tenure under his watch but there was always a sense with Spurs that there was another level they could go to and him departing at the behest of the owners really feels like Spurs preparing for something for like a higher level it does doesn't it yeah because it feels like it's a completely unified new team and they've got it off the back of success last season with Andrew Postacoglian winning the Europa League.

4:49They've got Champions League football this season. We said on Thursday's show they've had a really good transfer window. It definitely feels like maybe this was the final piece that they needed to overhaul, for want of a better term, because it was the final thing linking that past, maybe perception, not even reality, but also just a perception. I think sometimes optics, you were talking about optics yesterday on the show, I think optics and change are very important in the overall vibe of a football club. So for example, this season, if you think about this season, one of the things that really hung over Spurs last season were protests against PV's handling of the club.

5:34they've removed that now and it gives you a little bit of goodwill because few things are successful immediately so I think it kind of quietens any potential dissent or disappointment among the fanbase whereas last season and also the season before they felt like there was tons of it because you had Postacoglu who started really popular but then was quite divisive because people thought he should change the way he played and it ended up being successful and one of the best nights that Spurs fans have had definitely in the modern era. Yeah, yeah. So you have quite a confusing or not completely conforming two years of stuff.

6:17Yeah. And you also had dissent against Daniel Levy as well. So therefore, if you've removed, you've removed Poster Coglu, you've got Thomas Frank in there now. You've had all of that investment in the transfer window, which is something they've not, they've been accused of not doing enough. and now they've got a completely new executive team, one of which is a former Arsenal senior member, Vinatik Antichem, and it's kind of all set to go. Here's a tip for you. There's a podcast out there with fans waiting to be your next customer. They tune in every week, they trust the host, and that host wants to talk about brands like yours in their own words to their audience.

6:58The problem is you just haven't been introduced yet. We're Acast, where that introduction happens. As the world's largest podcast marketplace, we let you browse shows, see who's listening, and book host-read sponsorships or run your own ads all from one platform. Transparent pricing, real-time data, complete control. Start advertising on podcasts by visiting acast.com slash advertise. guys.

7:26Musa Okwonga: It's the first time Spurs have not had a divisive figure at senior level in a long time. Not a single divisive figure where you look at them and go, oh, all of a sudden there's an absence of noise. But for the time being, there's an absence of noise. And we talk about optics. It's interesting you should say that because Daniel Lee and his family is alone, 30 % of the club, almost 30 % of the club. but them taking a back seat at executive level means they can enjoy that ownership and actually for them as well like they can sit back and reflect on we gave them the platform and i'm sure they'll be given their due in good time i mean he mentioned that i think to um uh a podcast i can't remember who he was speaking to but he said i think i'll get my due after like after i just was the gary neville thing was it i was gary neville that was right um he spoke to Gary Neville about that and said, look, I think what am I doing in the fullness of time?

8:22Musa Okwonga: And I think actually, if you look at the parallel with Wenger and the stadium, the Emirates, I think people view Wenger much more favourably now that time has gone on. If you look at Arsenal now... I think that's a different thing though. I think it is different. It is different, but it's that all things, you know, nothing's exactly the same with football. But I think as this era recedes and the frustration recedes and people look at the trophy cabinet because the thing with Spurs was the question of, do they want to win things? Well, they're capable of winning things. They've ended that. And the great thing is they start this new era with that trophy right there.

8:54Musa Okwonga: And with one of the best balanced Spurs attacks I've seen in a long while, actually. There's some youth there, there's some talent, there's dynamism, and there's room for the club to grow. And kind of actually, pressure is, relatively speaking, pressure is off. Like, people want good things for Spurs, don't get me wrong, but I think a lot of people are just happy for the club to kind of just breathe again at the highest level. Like there's more pressure on, for example, I say on a Newcastle actually or on a, like because Newcastle have to make good now having sold Isak. Obviously Arsenal pressures are clear.

9:30Musa Okwonga: Liverpool goes without saying. City. Of the big clubs in that kind of bracket, well obviously Spurs had a poor league finish last year. They'll want to improve on that and they will, I think. This season is kind of, they can kind of play with freedom, I think. You think? Yeah, I think so. A relative amount of freedom, of course, yeah, yeah. I mean, let's talk about legacy because it feels like a general kind of temperature check. There's been some people being quite positive. There's some people being quite negative. There's some people who are like, hey, yeah, you know, fair play, but it was definitely time for a change.

10:04There were also a few comments of people accusing other people of being revisionist about the Spurs stuff and the Daniel Levy era. From my perspective, there are lots of positives there are also a few negatives I think and the positives are obviously stuff like the stadium, the way that he's transformed Spurs or overseen a transformation of Spurs from where they were to being a club that is completely facilities wise it's as modern as you can be. The stadium is one of the best new stadiums around in any sport I think. they went to the Champions League final that time they've now won a European trophy but it felt like there were many occasions where Spurs hamstrung themselves and I'm not talking about like spending huge amounts of money in terms of transfer fees but I feel like the real issue was the gap between turnover and wages the wage book was the thing that I think they didn't they didn't capitalise on their self-sufficiency enough maybe in the last like four or five years particularly post-Champions League final

11:09Musa Okwonga: they had a lot more margin for error than they showed in the market. And I think the problem with that, look, the departure of Pochettino has to be the inflection point for this stuff. You know, the departure of Pochettino losing a coach who loved being there, whose style was perfect, who could out-coach Pep. One thing that cannot be lost in this conversation, Mauricio Pochettino is the first coach to play a Pep Guardiola team at a near peak and make them look absolutely human. He did it before Klopp did it. That was a preview of today's episode of Stadio. If you want to join up for ad-free podcasts, extra podcasts, access to the Stadio Social Club and more, you can join us at patreon.com forward slash stadio.

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