Former Manchester United chief executive David Gill has said that while he is a fan of Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman often puts his own club in a difficult position, citing the example of him dragging his feet over Dimitar Berbatov’s sale to Manchester United back in 2009.
It is fair to say that Levy is quite a polarising character among the Spurs fan base, with a sizable section of the support convinced that the Tottenham chairman does not care about on-pitch success.
While there cannot be any doubts about the work he had done off the pitch to help Spurs close the financial gap with the biggest clubs in Europe, his critics will point to the fact that the club have not won a single piece of silverware since 2008.
The 61-year-old is in particular blamed for perhaps not backing the likes of Harry Redknapp and Mauricio Pochettino at the right time in the transfer window to help push the side onto the next level.
Gill has now opined that while Levy fights tooth and nail for his club, his antics sometimes cost Tottenham, citing that the club did not have sufficient time to sign a replacement for Berbatov after pushing the deal into the final days of the transfer window.
Daniel Levy criticised for leaving Tottenham short
The former Man Utd chief said on Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE about the Spurs chairman: “I think he protects his club. I respect him. I think he is good. What he has done with that stadium is fantastic.
“He can do himself no favours though. An example is when we signed Dimitar Berbatov, we had him all summer and ended up getting him right at the death.
“But he never had a replacement. Fraizer Campbell was due to go on loan to Bolton and Sir Alex had to call him and tell him he was going to Tottenham. Daniel probably got another million or two out of us, but he could have got that deal done earlier and had a replacement.”
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I think it is fair to suggest that Levy’s keenness to win in negotiations sometimes ends up backfiring for Spurs in the transfer window but Gil’s example is not a good one.
Tottenham had already brought in Roman Pavlyuchenko earlier that summer (while also having Darren Bent and later signing Fraizer Campbell) while Giovani Dos Santos had also been brought through the door to play as a number ten, which meant that Juande Romos was only going to use one striker.
In addition, it was Levy’s determination to make the Berbatov deal as difficult as possible that ensured that Man Utd never came in again for any Tottenham player for a long time.