Tim Sherwood gives insider comparison of Alan Sugar and Daniel Levy

Tim Sherwood has lavished praise on Daniel Levy, insisting that the Tottenham chairman has taken the club a long way since ENIC purchased majority shares from Alan Sugar over two decades ago. 

Tottenham fans who supported the club through the 1990s remember it as a dark period, with the Lilywhites being nothing more than a mid-table team and even flirting with relegation at times. 

However, since the change of ownership, Spurs have grown steadily on and off the pitch, and are now widely recognised as one of the ‘big six’. In fact, Tottenham have finished outside the top six just once in the past 13 seasons.

Sherwood lived through both eras of the club, being a player during Sugar’s time at White Hart Lane before working in the coaching staff and even temporarily becoming interim head coach under Levy.

The pundit opined that Tottenham’s lack of silverware is sometimes used unfairly to tarnish the job that the club’s current chairman has done.

Sherwood told talkSPORT (01/11/22): “I was at the football club with the old regime, with Alan Sugar. I liked Alan. I thought he was a really straight-talking guy, and obviously, we have seen a lot of him.

“Where Daniel has taken that football club is chalk and cheese. It’s an incredible job what he has done there. The fans will say, ‘well, we haven’t won anything and that surely has got to be the most important thing’.

“Yes, it’s important for the fans. I understand that. It’s important for the manager, Antonio Conte, and certainly the players. Levy hasn’t backed his managers like a Man City, but how can he?!

“Or some other clubs, like Newcastle possibly in the future. They might start throwing it at Eddie Howe and, hopefully, he becomes very successful.

“I think it’s a difficult job to be a chairman when the passion is there with the fans. The support of Tottenham is incredible, but they demand success and they need it quickly. They need some sort of success. I think he has put all his cards on the table with Antonio Conte.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Spurs fans who only use the number of trophies to judge Levy’s time at the club, are extremely short-sighted. A couple more League Cups will not have been more valuable than the consistency we have shown over the past decades.

Clubs like Birmingham City, Wigan, and Portsmouth have all won cups and gone into obscurity during that time. Even traditional big clubs like Newcastle and Aston Villa have spent multiple years in the Championship.

The job Levy has done to establish Spurs as one of the biggest clubs in Europe needs to be commended, and to say that he is solely responsible for the fact that we have not gotten over the line in numerous semifinals and finals, does not make sense.

Given the revenue streams that Tottenham have now built, we are going to continue to remain a force for a long time, irrespective of who our next owner is, which is a testament to the current regime.

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