FootBiz newsletter #111: How Tottenham's owners surgically removed Daniel Levy

To say it has been a summer of change at Tottenham Hotspur would be an understatement.

But if you zoom out and take in some of the latest reporting around Daniel Levy’s exit then things begin to make a bit more sense.

Levy spoke openly about Spurs looking to sell a stake in the club, and the word in the marketplace was that their ideal scenario was a minority investment of, say, 10% that would increase the equity base while also cementing a sky-high valuation believed to be in the region of £4bn.

The club engaged Rothschild & Co to help with that process and it appeared all was set for a record-breaking transaction.

Until it wasn’t. Daniel Levy was suddenly gone and now, per Matt Slater, the club is no longer working with Rothschild. Add this to reports in the Telegraph, the Mail and even moreso Jack Pitt-Brooke’s deep dive on the Levy departure, there is plenty of reason to believe we have just witnessed an incredibly calculated and effective exec being removed in an incredibly calculated and effective manner.

Perhaps this is adding two plus two and getting five, but one way to thread a needle through these stories would be to conclude that it was Levy, and not the Lewis family, who wanted to sell Spurs. Perhaps he wanted to cash out a little while continuing in his privileged, decades-long position that he held atop the North London club, where Pitt-Brooke reports he acted more like “a founder” than the chairman. Indeed, FootBiz was told when there was interest from Qatar that he had been trying to negotiate a way to sell up but continue in his role running Spurs.

Either way, Tottenham Hotspur have ceased their relationship with the banker tasked with selling the club, they have publicly declined offers and unequivocally rejected interest. Which means it’s either a rather extreme negotiating stance or the Lewis family simply don’t want to part with the club, presumably because they believe the new management team they have gradually installed over the summer can continue to grow the value of Spurs as an enterprise. Closer observers of the club than us have noted that the Lewis children’s sudden love of all things Tottenham seems less genuine than a desire to simply increase the asset value.

The big surprise really was how they conducted their almost surgical excision of Levy. When someone has held their position for so long, with so many key allies and so many indebted juniors, they tend to know everything that is happening at the club and be aware of shifting tides. In this instance, it appears Levy was completely blindsided by his removal, even though when you piece together the things we know it seems obvious. Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. 

Maybe the Lewises adding Peter Charrington to the board in March wasn’t enough to set off any alarms, though his background with Lewis portfolio companies did mark him out very much as a man of Tottenham’s first family.

Maybe the hiring of consultants Gibb River to work out why the club was underperforming on the field felt like a natural step for a top-six revenue club that was flagging near the relegation zone.

Maybe the departure of long-standing board member and Levy confidante Donna Cullen was a sign. Or the hiring of a new CEO in Vinai Venkatesham. Or the sacking of CFO Scott Munn. You’d think so, but by all accounts, Levy had no idea what was coming when Charrington walked into his office a month ago. 

Whether it was the feeling that something had gone stale at Lilywhite House with the running of the club, holding back the on-pitch product, or they felt as if Levy was trying to march them towards a sale they didn’t necessarily want, the way that the Lewis family — for so long deep, deep in the background — came to the fore and removed one of the most influential executives in Premier League history without his knowledge is remarkable and almost without precedent.

Even the timing, executing it after the start of the season and during the international break, seems deliberate with the campaign already underway and a need for everyone to just get their heads down and carry on under new management. As it appears they are. 

That new management team is destined to become a group that soaks up Levy’s divested powers. There appears to be a desire to move away from a dictatorial approach to a leadership in numbers, though with a respected leader in Venkatesham as the most public face. 

Of course, Levy still owns around 25% of Spurs and thus will benefit greatly if and when the club eventually changes hands. That he (and his family) own around £1bn worth of the club’s shares and he was still silently, helplessly removed with such precision just underlines how big a move this was. 

To execute such a big move with nobody having any idea it was coming also tells us that we may have underestimated the Lewis family.

Table of Contents

• CWC to allow 3 Prem clubs

• World Cup games to factor in heat

• The tail Wags the dog

• Sheff Weds crisis latest

• Textor back in the frame

• United consider mid-season Saudi friendly

• Leicester CEO steps down 

• San Siro vote passes

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