Daniel Levy must carry can for shambolic Tottenham football decisions

There was a time when The Fixture used to argue that Daniel Levy and ENIC were the best thing that ever happened to Tottenham Hotspur. ENIC, the company owned by Levy's boss Joe Lewis, bought the club in 2001 following a decade of mediocrity after Alan Sugar had rescued it from liquidation at the start of the 90s. Following Tottenham's 6-1 hammering by Newcastle United at the weekend the club is lurching from one crisis to another and some wags might just say that not much has changed but it would be an unfair critique of what Spurs have achieved under ENIC in the two decades since they arrived. For a start they have subsequently re-established themselves as one of as English's football's biggest clubs and one of the league's financial juggernauts – under Levy's guidance as chairman.

In those early days, Sky television characterised the Premier League's elite clubs by their presence in the Top Four – the Champions League places. Those four names were unchanging entities: Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. It took the many billions spent by Manchester City and the more assiduous, conservative planning embarked on by Tottenham to transform that moniker from Top Four to Big Six.

Spurs bought young, cheap players such as Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric and waited for them to prosper. The plan was to reap the benefits of their prodigious talents on the pitch and then sell them for significantly bigger fees than they paid for them – then they would start the process all over again. The result was exponential progress with Spurs slowly finishing higher and higher each season.

When critics mock Spurs as members of the Big Six and ask what their credentials for being there are, there is a fairly easy comeback – over the past 13 years the club's average finishing position has been fourth. That is in no small part down to ENIC and Levy but in larger part it was down to the man who increased the mean average: Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham manager who had actually been third choice when Levy appointed him having missed out on preferred targets Louis van Gaal and Frank de Boer.

Pochettino took Spurs to heights that had been previously unheard of for supporters brought up on stories of the exploits of a 1980s team that won three trophies but flattered to deceive in the league or, going even further back, the one that secured the Double in 1961.

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No team has a divine right to success, of course, but, prior to Levy's arrival, Tottenham had won a trophy in every decade from 1951 to 1991, having an uncanny knack for lifting silverware in years that ended in the numeral '1'. It was a record that ended under ENIC; now the number that ends in '1' is the one that indicates how many trophies Spurs have lifted during Levy's tenure in his 20-year spell. They have struck a glass ceiling in terms of success – the next step requires investment, the right man in charge and harmony. The three have all too rarely coalesced during ENIC's time at Spurs

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Levy's biggest victories have come off the pitch in the shape of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a ground that has few to rival it anywhere in the world, ditto the club's training facilities but these achievements have also become sticks to beat Levy with and fans complain that he is more interested in property development these days than what goes on on the pitch.

Yesterday, the stadium was announced as the venue for the 2024 Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in rugby. It hosts money-spinning NFL matches, is scheduled to put on a series of Beyonce concerts this summer and launch an F1 karting track in the autumn.

Of course, this has been part of ENIC's attempt to generate funds to make Tottenham more competitive in the transfer market with an eye on finally ending the long wait for a trophy. But Levy's football decisions have been nothing short of shambolic. Sacking rather than backing Pochettino after he had taken them to a Champions League final is up there with the worst of them.

Appointing Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, two stylistically very different managers rather than ones that built on the Argentine's work, compounded the decision. The European Super League fiasco, a statement about returning to the club's DNA before appointing another defensively minded head coach in Nuno Espirito Santo following a 77-day managerial pursuit and the furloughing of staff during the Covid crisis followed by a U-turn made the club look like a laughing stock. It has become a label that is increasingly easy to slap on the club and Levy himself.

Levy's handling of the Fabio Paratici saga hinted at a man who has lost whatever touch for sporting decisions he might ever have had. A speech at Cambridge University which aired last week seemed to confirm just how out of touch with the average supporter he remains.

His statements have the air of the tone deaf, there is a we-know-better-than-you vibe to them and all the while he wonders why fans sing for his departure – an apology and offer of a refund by the players for those supporters who travelled to St James' Park for Sunday's horror show was immediately flamed by fans who all posted the same image of Levy with a simple message superimposed on it which read: LEVY OUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

The drought has not all been his fault – since Spurs were bought over by ENIC, historically smaller clubs such as City and Chelsea have been bankrolled by billionaires with untold wealth, thus literally and figuratively transforming their fortunes. Newcastle have now joined the list of the super rich and so Spurs risk falling further behind despite having attempted to do things 'the right way'. But there was a time when Spurs appeared to have a decisive strategy. Today, from the outside looking in, the club is a directionless mess.

Yesterday, Cristian Stellini – Conte's assistant – became the latest fall guy for a regime that no longer knows what it is doing and Levy must carry the can for that. He has run out of moves. It's time to turn the football decision-making over to someone else.