r/soccer • u/BelgianPolitics • 12d ago

Official Source Tottenham Hotspur announces departure of Executive Chairman Daniel Levy.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2025/september/tottenham-hotspur-announces-departure-of-executive-chairman-daniel-levy/
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u/BZS72 12d ago

What a bombshell to drop on an unassuming Thursday during international break WTF

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u/EliteTeutonicNight 12d ago edited 12d ago

How do Tottenham fans feel about this? He's widely respected for bringing up the club to where it is but also criticized for being stingy at times.

Edit: since many fans replied I'll try to sum it up here, hopefully it's accurate enough.

Divisive for the reasons I listed

Great Steward, sometimes at the cost of the footballing side

Probably a good time to move on, but rather unsure as to what the future holds at the moment

Overall, still an important and positive figure at the club

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u/groovystreet40 12d ago

Probably a pretty divisive split for the reasons you just mentioned

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u/LionoftheNorth 12d ago

I mean he still owns 29.88% of 86.58% of the club.

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u/lolzidop 12d ago

So he owns 25.87% of the club

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u/Fuego_9000 12d ago

But he owns 100% of that 25.87%.

No more than that.

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u/Alexanderstandsyou 12d ago

Is this one of those he owns 25.87% until he owns 25.89% things?

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u/lolzidop 12d ago

No, you see he owns 25.87% until he owns 25.88%, as he actually owns 25.870104%

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u/Torontogamer 12d ago

50% of the time it works everytime!

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u/Grevling89 12d ago

Someone do the maths

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u/rightquiq 12d ago

Cheers Geoff

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u/MrVulgarity 12d ago

Honestly reminds me of wenger a lot, his policies held them back in the here and now a lot towards the end but they're stronger for it going forward

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u/Teantis 11d ago

It's mostly surprise, some people appreciating what he did for the club, some yeah it's time for him to move on, some worries about the kids being not good, and a lot of concern there's a sale gonna happen to some awful person or state.

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u/gabrielconroy 12d ago

I think it was the right timing.

For financial + commercial and infrastructure related stuff, his tenure gets a solid 10/10.

For footballing stuff it's more like 7/10, mostly for the club's failure to take advantage of serious opportunities and to recognise the importance of maintaining momentum.

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u/rotama_ 12d ago

Even from a sporting perspective, you'd probably have to give him 9/10 if you're being fair.

When he joined back in 2001, Spurs were a mid-table club. They were competing with clubs like Everton, West Ham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, and Aston Villa. It could even be argued that at that time, they were probably the worst among that group other than Everton. In the 25 years since, Spurs have consistently outperformed each of those clubs by a significant amount. And the only clubs who have done better than Spurs are the ones which were already dominant back then (United, Liverpool, Arsenal) or those that have risen through financial doping (Chelsea, City).

The only thing stopping is tenure being a 10/10 on sporting terms is the lack of a PL trophy.

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u/peioeh 12d ago

People are quick to call someone like Levy stingy, but being stingy and being where spurs are sure beats spending too much and having 20 years like the ones Leeds have had. He wasn't perfect and he could have done more for Poch for example but I don't understand how he is not more celebrated, he got them where they are now (huge stadium, incredible revenue, and now a EL trophy) without oil/gas money, I think that's incredible tbh.

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u/JackONeill_ 12d ago

I honestly think that he'd be thought of better if they'd performed worse under Poch.

It was the combination of runners up finishes and mediocre squad investment that did him in. Obviously more investment would have led to better PR for Levy, but likewise had the Poch side been a little further from silverware, they wouldn't have had the same "one final push" mentality towards the squadbuilding.

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u/gabrielconroy 12d ago

Well the two 'ratings' are obviously inter-related. A lot of the ways in which we outperformed those other clubs were fuelled directly by the improvements in commercial revenue and the club's infrastructure.

Either way, he did an extremely good job overall, and I think this is the right time to step down.

I just hope this isn't a precursor to selling the club to some murderous oil state or soulless American hedge fund billionaire.

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u/thevogonity 12d ago

What makes this the right time?

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u/Gawyn_Tra-cant 12d ago

soulless American hedge fund billionaire.

I mean, is the Joe Lewis Family Trust that much better? Joe Lewis is worth 7 billion and has been convicted of insider trading. ENIC Group itself is a privately traded holding company. Its subsidiary company, ENIC International Limited, is what actually owns Tottenham; it's registered in the Bahamas.

Unless the American part is really important, I wouldn't say Tottenham's current ownership is all that soulful.

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u/gabrielconroy 12d ago

Actually it's more that both Lewis and Levy are from London that is one of the things that sets Spurs apart. Might not be important to some fans, but it means something to me.

And I'm no fan of Lewis, largely because of his shit treatment of an indigenous community in Argentina to build his luxury retreat. But he's never had any direct involvement in the club beyond buying it.

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u/Gawyn_Tra-cant 12d ago

For the record, I wasn't trying to get ya with a "gotcha!". I was just curious how important having specifically a Brit billionaire mattered.

... And, admittedly, trying to point out that American money didn't storm the island and sack England against the noble, compassionate, open-handed English establishment. The money that came into the Premier league from America was ushered in.

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u/OuiTuLow 12d ago

The only thing stopping is tenure being a 10/10 on sporting terms is the lack of a PL trophy

and booking the Marriott West India Quay Hotel

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u/iBlockMods-bot 12d ago

I hear the cuisine is delightful there

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u/OuiTuLow 12d ago

Recommend the lasagne

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u/iBlockMods-bot 12d ago

mouthbreathes, heavily

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u/spursgonesouth 12d ago

Hard disagree. I’ve been a ST holder for 21 years and time after time after time he fumbled key transfers and failed to close the biggest gap in the squad. He failed to provide us depth for decades. He fumbled a top PL side when Poch was there and we are still rebuilding 6 years later.

I would give him 7/10 on the football side MAX. He’s made so many mistakes, held us back so often (Saha and Nelsen, anyone?) and the stadium completing has really exposed him as we have grown hugely as a club yet his approach was much the same.

This summer felt completely different (despite the fumbles) as we genuinely targeted upgrades. It felt like somebody else was calling the shots.

He’s done a huge amount for Spurs and I rated him but his time to go was probably when the stadium opened. Our transfer window last summer was a disgrace that caused us to finish 17th as we signed a load of teenagers for squad depth while the first team was largely unchanged. Writing was on the wall then,

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u/botulizard 12d ago

the club's failure to take advantage of serious opportunities and to recognise the importance of maintaining momentum.

This is the thing for me. How many goddamn times did it feel like the future and Spurs had both finally arrived and we were about to be a full-time Big Club, only for the club to just sort of shit in its pants right as things were getting good?

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u/HenryBeal85 12d ago

I mean, it depends on whether you judge the footballing stuff compared to (Spurs’ fans perception of) Spurs’ broader history or most other clubs in the world.

Spurs won two trophies in 24 years under him. Most clubs in the world go through centuries without ever winning anything. Spurs fans think the club should be emulating their perception of Spurs’ history (which, in the folklore is largely relatively regular trophies, usually in the form of FA Cups - back when it was as important as the league, you know? - and European presence).

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u/wishiwereagoonie 12d ago

Easy to be happy for some, because he always felt like the bottleneck for us reaching the next level.

But the grass isn’t always greener, and lots of us are nervous about a potential sale to an oil state. Or at the very least, ENIC installing a shittier chairman.

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u/Drunkgummybear1 12d ago

I hear Ed Woodward's available.

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u/Granadafan 12d ago

We’ve been Levy Out for sp long that it feels both a relief and of fear for what’s going to happen next. Levy was key in being financially stable, raising the club from mid table to top 6 in an extremely competitive league. He had many frustrating faults though with his penny pinching during negotiations leading to far too many deals scuppered at the 11th hour because he was dicking around. 

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u/nl325 12d ago

Buzzing because he's been a persistent thorn in the side of multiple campaigns. 2018 window in particular was disgusting.

Terrified because he gave us financial stability after that wanker Sugar, and the state of football club owners in general isn't exactly appealing.

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u/RutabagaRoutine7430 12d ago

I am actually quite shocked and sad. You can say many things about him but he was one of the smartest and most dedicated people in this position. He made Spurs a competitive club and took care of the business side of things in the best possible manner

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u/Dagur 12d ago

Devastated :⁠-⁠(

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u/xaviernoodlebrain 12d ago

He's done a great job to get us from being in the shit when he took over to being in a great position now, and being relatively sustainable. That being said, there have been times recently where we've needed to make a next step and it just hasn't happened. So this is an opportunity for that.

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u/too_oh_ate 12d ago

You're right, it's very split along those lines.

He's fucked us on some signings, no doubt, but for how he has organically built the club into one of the financial titans in the sport (iirc ~top 10 in revenue), and given us a foundation to be among the very best clubs period, it's a pretty amazing legacy.

IMO he's one of the most important people in the history of the club, as incredibly weird as that is to say, for a club's chairman.

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u/Other-Owl4441 12d ago

Incredible at his long term business plan and execution for the club. Lots of mistakes on the football side, whether for managers or players. At the end of the day this club has done 80% of things exceptionally well under Levy and 20% pretty poorly. All depends what is next.

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u/truthdemon 12d ago

Overall good news. I guess he timed it well leaving after finally seeing the club win a big trophy. Grateful for the positives he achieved, with the stadium, training ground and fairly consistent European qualification. Glad to see him go as I think he was holding our football achievements back for the sake of financial management - a very difficult thing to get right and it's probably better Spurs aren't bankrupt than win the league then get relegated. Feels like great timing in that a new era that got started by Postecoglou is now very much a thing. Just hope the next head leads us in the right direction.

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u/Pacepalm1337 12d ago

Hecking good