Few executives in football create the level of division and debate as Daniel Levy at Spurs. Famed for his hard-nosed approach to business, Levy has gained a reputation for being one of the most scrupulous owners in the game – often considered to be to the detriment of Spurs’ playing side. Indeed, a return of just two major trophies during the reign of the Premier League’s longest serving Chairman leaves a lot to be desired for the clubs loyal fanbase.
The summer of 2025 has underlined this nagging frustration, and in some cases anger, aimed towards a Chairman that is perceived to put a considered business approach ahead of the success of the club – the Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze sagas underpin this viewpoint. A number of Spurs fans seem to accept a paradoxical assessment, where Levy is seemingly inept in his running of the football side of the club, but excellent in managing the commercial interests – pointing to the stadium project and company financials to underscore the latter point. But in framing this view, are fans giving their Chairman far too much credit?
Tottenham Hotspur are on sound financial footing when compared to their peers, with a sustainable model that de-risks their exposure to market shocks significantly. This shouldn’t be worth commendation, this is the minimum expectation. Indeed Levy benefits from comparison to other Premier League club owners that are genuinely not fit to run a business, not the fact he is some kind of messianic financier. ENIC did acquire Spurs in the midst of financial turmoil and should be credited with righting the ship in the early years. But this wasn’t charity, Levy inherited a club with a significant fanbase, a storied history and location in one of the most desirable and affluent cities in the world. Levy has capitalised on this, but not in a way that is significantly different to clubs of comparable size and location – Spurs sit between Arsenal and Chelsea in 2024 turnover numbers, outperforming commercially in large part due to the new stadium. Whilst Spurs’ transformation into the 9th most valuable club in the world wasn’t inevitable, it also wasn’t a huge surprise either.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is often viewed as the Levy legacy project, and his seminal work. The end product is nothing short of remarkable, and has the potential to be a modern cathedral of football. Yet it is easy to forget that the project was fraught with delay even up to the final opening of the stadium in 2019. Fans will remember the temperamental fire safety systems and testing that pushed back the opening, but some will also recall the delays in actually breaking ground back in 2015. The original plans for the Northumberland Park Development Project in 2008 took years to materialise because of a variety of hold-ups and blocks. Costs for the project ballooned to an estimated £1bn, in a large part due to redesign and cost increases. These are obviously normal in large scale projects, but the extent of these issues suggest a degree of mismanagement and indecision on the part of Levy. He was though commended for securing long term, low interest financing for the stadium – but again this isn’t a novel strategy, and it is hard to believe that Levy predicted the post-pandemic rocketing of interest rates either.
The commercialisation of sport has made it more difficult to actually distinguish between the operations of a football club. Arguably any Premier League club Chairman should be judged on the merits of their overall job. When fans bemoan the measured approach to negotiations, it is hard to believe this self-sabotage isn’t applied to all areas of the club – including the stadium project. Levy was brilliantly likened on X to a driver that would drive out of town to fill-up at a cheaper price, only to spend more in the process of actually getting there. Even if Spurs do complete a mooted deal for Savinho or Morgan Rogers this summer, there is every chance it will cost well in excess of the buy-out clause that existed in Eze’s contract originally – attempts by Levy to save pennies often costs the club pounds (or 10s of millions in this case).
Levy’s supposed business smarts are consistently used as a defence for his footballing failings. Is it not time we started equating the two and accept the fact that Daniel Levy has done more harm than good for Tottenham Hotspur?