Daniel Levy leaves Tottenham as a Premier League club to be feared for five reasons

We imagine the streets of Tottenham this morning are reminiscent of a scene in a fantasy fiction after the monster has been vanquished: sun forcing its way through the smoke, children poking their noses out of front doors before frolicking on flowering greens as the conquerors embrace before sauntering down the pavements, arms aloft a la Kerry and Kurtan from ‘This Country’ chanting “he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead, heee’s dead, heee’s dead.”.

Just over a month after Daniel Levy told Gary Neville that “when I’m not here, I’m sure I’ll get the credit”, after almost 25 years as Tottenham chairman, we’re about to find out.

Although the official statement from Tottenham was that Levy ‘stepped down’ from his role, it was later reported that he had been ‘forced out’ as his exit from Spurs ‘is believed to be the final piece of the jigsaw of plans from the club’s owners to push the north London outfit on to bigger things with a fresh approach and more silverware’.

He’s headed up the development of a new stadium and training ground, with his business acumen establishing the club among the financial elite. But he’s faced protests for years from the Spurs fans, whose consistent frustration with Levy was his failure to prioritise the actual football.

In this post-Levy era, we’ve come up with five reasons why we should all be terrified of an unshackled Tottenham.

The set-up

According to Deloitte’s most recent Money League, published for 2023/24, Tottenham were the ninth-richest club in world football with an annual turnover of £512m in a season when they were not competing in Europe.

Spurs fans have Levy to thank for that, but weren’t about to thank him. While the chairman would have seen ninth place below Real Madrid, Manchester City, PSG, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Arsenal and Liverpool as a clear sign of the wonderful work he’s done in lifting the club out of the doldrums at the turn of the century, the fans will have questioned why – with the exception of Man Utd – they were seeing nothing like the on-pitch reward of those above them, or indeed below them, with Chelsea in tenth.

The gratitude wasn’t about to arrive before those fans had something or some things to celebrate, but there will have been next to no chance of them celebrating anything without the outstanding work from Levy to make Tottenham, as football finance expert Kieran Maguire describes them, “the most profitable club in Premier League history”.

We’ve forever heard from Levy’s supporters that he’s set Spurs up to be a footballing powerhouse, while his critics would also have to begrudgingly admit that’s the case before insisting they wouldn’t see the fruits of his labour until he’s no longer at the club. They’ve now got their wish; bring on the fruits.

READ MORE: Daniel Levy made Spurs ‘unrecognisable’; he did a ‘remarkable job’

New investment

Levy’s departure comes amid consistent rumours over the search for new investment. The club said in their statement on Thursday that there have been “no changes to the ownership or shareholder structure”, with the Lewis family trust still controlling over 60 per cent of the club’s shares (70.1 per cent of ENIC’s stake), while the rest of ENIC’s shares are owned by Levy and his family.

After Joe Lewis stepped down as a ‘person of significant control’ in October 2022, and with Levy no longer around to take the flak, attention will turn to Vivienne and Charles Lewis. The feeling is that they will now look to sell their stake, or a significant chunk of it, with recent Premier League history suggesting money from the US or the Middle East will come to their aid.

The debate as to whether that’s good or bad for football is for another time, but Spurs fans will look at the strides taken by their Premier League rivals thanks to an influx of foreign cash and think – at least in terms of winning silverware – it’s a net positive.

It’s been claimed at various points over the last couple of years that there’s a buyer waiting in the wings and the growing influence of Amanda Staveley – who brokered the Saudi takeover of Newcastle – points to there being something in the pipeline.

And it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to suggest Levy’s departure, the removal of him as the club’s most powerful figure, famed for penny-pinching as a divisive presence in the boardroom, with his fingerprints on everything from player transfers to the delivery of beer through the bottom of a cup, makes Tottenham an even more attractive option for those investors.

MORE TOTTENHAM COVERAGE ON F365

👉 PL sextet reassigned to Turkish Super Lig as Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs stars *finally* leave

👉 Premier League back-up goalkeepers ranked: Kepa over Onana, Liverpool man comfortably top

👉 Top 20 Under-21 Premier League players in 2025/26: Dorgu 19th, Nwaneri 7th, no Ngumoha

‘More wins, more often’

We won’t get too bogged down in the wording of this call to arms from a source close to the family of Joe Lewis – surely it’s just ‘more wins’ or ‘wins, more often’ – because we would rather focus on the simplicity of the sentiment: ‘More wins, more often’. Sounds good, right? Want to win more games? Yes. Right then. Here we go.

It’s a throwaway line any number of clubs would deliver after a significant boardroom change, but it feels more significant because it’s Spurs, whose fans will have felt for the last two-and-a-half decades that winning more games of football wasn’t the primary aim, with Tottenham more ‘that football team’ which plays in the beautiful stadium where rocking concerts and NFL games take place.

Vinai Venkatesham

Peter Charrington, director of ENIC, has been appointed as Tottenham’s non-executive chairman, but the club’s new aim of delivering ‘sporting success’ will see a man with a history in banking, holiday resorts and tech companies take on far lighter duties than Levy in what the club pointed out was a ‘new role’ in the organisation, with Vinai Venkatesham set to become more prominent.

Venkatesham’s arrival as CEO in April suggests Levy should perhaps have seen his dismissal coming, with the British-Indian administrator’s success in rebuilding fierce rivals Arsenal from a low ebb a particular attraction in hiring him.

When he was appointed Arsenal CEO in 2020 they had just finished eighth in the Premier League and he is considered to be one of the key architects in their rise from that point.

He was heavily involved in the appointment of Mikel Arteta as manager and Edu as sporting director while overseeing a change to the recruitment strategy which saw younger players targeted in the transfer market, while increasing the focus on developing academy talent.

Unlike Levy, Venkatesham’s decisions are always made with a view to delivering success on the pitch.

Thomas Frank

They’ve lucked out here. Tottenham have not had a manager since Mauricio Pochettino left the club in 2019 better suited to having his hand on the tiller in this new dawn.

He was reportedly frustrated, as all of his predecessors have been, with the lack of movement from Spurs in the transfer market this summer, certainly up until some smart last-gasp additions. But what Tottenham absolutely don’t need is a Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte at the helm seeing Levy’s departure as a green light for a transfer frenzy.

Click here to read article