Has Levy lost the plot

  

Has Levy lost the plot

By Don Scully

Under Levy's managerial appointments, we are gradually sinking down to the level of clubs like the Spammers. This is ironic, seeing as they are doing well this season and above us.

Anyway, Levy is losing his focus by appointing the wrong managers to manage the team or expect too much of them by giving them so little cash to improve matters (to the standards of the other big five clubs). We are supposed to be a top-six club (financially, maybe) but act like a Brighton or Everton when investing in the team.

Take Ryan Mason, what possessed Levy to put an inexperienced youth coach in charge of the team (with no experience of running any professional club)? It is sheer madness and suicidal. We would have been better sticking with Mourinho. Mason's been in charge of four games, one of them could have seen us win a trophy and three league games. Won two, lost two. Mason's greenness cost us.

Mason suffered his first Premier League defeat in charge on Saturday as he watched his selected team suffer a 3-1 loss to Leeds United at Elland Road, and it won't be the last defeat either, going by what I’ve witnessed so far. Clowns running clowns. That defeat has left us seventh in the table, seven points shy of fourth-placed Leicester City with just three games remaining, meaning our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League for next season are all but over. There is more chance of me getting a date with Marilyn Monroe, and she is dead… has been dead for nearly sixty years, than Mason achieving any sort of miracle with the team he inherited. On top of that, sunk Arsenal are gradually closing the gap between themselves and us. A sorry state of affairs Levy has put us in.

Of course, Europe isn't totally out of the question. We do have a chance in the Europa league-Thursday-night-football again, but it would mean Mason and the team focus on the three matches that remain. If they do (and win), then the question is, why didn't he do that on the ones he lost? Again, rawness.

Now I am not one for buying the papers, however, I decided to venture down to my local newsagent and splash out on some of the Sunday Papers. If you haven't read them, then trust me, the papers haven't been particularly glowing in their assessments of our team.

Let us start with the Sunday Mirror;

"Different manager, same old problems," Alex Milne wrote for the Mirror.

"But the manner of the loss to Leeds shows that Mourinho's negativity and alienation of key players was just the tip of the iceberg in the huge issues that are blighting the club at the moment. There were some rays of light at Elland Road, with Dele Alli showing a glimpse of his genius of old to beautifully set up Son Heung-Min for Spurs' first-half equaliser, while Harry Kane looked as bright as ever and Hugo Lloris impressed to keep the scoreline down. Yet there is still such a fragility and lack of confidence within the team, and once again their defence crumbled in the big moments to allow first Stuart Dallas, then Patrick Bamford and finally Rodrigo to score three relatively simple goals."

Now let us look at the Mirror's rival, the Sun.

"Weren't Leeds the ones with nothing to play for? " Oscar Paul wrote for The Sun. "For a season-defining game to keep them in the top-four mix, Tottenham did a fine impression of their north London rivals Arsenal. Just as meek, passive and rudderless as the Gunners were in the Europa League do-or-die against Villarreal on Thursday, Spurs' Champions League hopes are now up in smoke. Caretaker Ryan Mason demanded four wins to keep their hopes alive. Instead, Spurs were completely off the boil when it mattered most – not that many will be surprised. That keeper Hugo Lloris was their best player by a distance said it all."

What about the left-leaning Guardian?

"Tottenham can testify how far an overachieving Argentinian manager can take a team; Mauricio Pochettino steered them to a Champions League final," Richard Jolly wrote for the Guardian. "But as his mentor, Marcelo Bielsa, lifted Leeds to ninth with his brand of vibrancy, energy and a capacity to propel players beyond their natural limits, Spurs' chances of a return to the European elite were effectively ended. Appointing the untried Ryan Mason represented the last throw of the dice, but his first Premier League defeat came to a manager almost 36 years his senior and consigned Tottenham's season to failure. It is part of Jose Mourinho's legacy, and if Mason's team selection was a repudiation of his predecessor, it is harsh to fault only the caretaker for the way Spurs ended a dispirited shambles. Leeds set the tone in a game of 25 shots. Their fearlessness and relentlessness enabled them to prevail, and they will complete the season unbeaten against the "big six" at home."

Then you had Alan Shearer on Match of the Day saying Harry Kane should leave as he isn't going to win anything at Spurs. The Arsenal side-kick to Shearer, Ian Wright, concurred. Both strikers, both seeing no future for Kane or anybody at Spurs. A sorry state of affairs Levy has put us in.  And will next season be any different? If you consider that in 20 years of Levy being in charge, we’ve only been in the top four about 5 or six times and only one pathetic minor League cup to show for it, I doubt next season will be any different. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

By Don Scully