What do these Spurs transfer sagas suggest about Daniel Levy’s impact? – part 2

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Credit where it’s due, and Daniel Levy has secured the transfer signing of Vincent Janssen within good timing. Within just the second week of preseason, Spurs have already signed the two absolute necessities they needed this summer, and so other transfer rumours like that of Mario Gotze now become entertaining; and if they happen, unexpected yet fantastic additions.

There can be no doubt that some of Levy’s business has been exceptional. The non-signing of a certain Saido Berahino springs to mind here. Whilst Spurs fans just about everywhere were enraged that the club wouldn’t spend £30 million on a player who was a bright, young, English talent, those fans are probably hiding those particular opinions from seeing the light of day again. Berahino was not, and probably won’t ever be, worth £30 million, especially in a market where strikers like the exciting Michy Batshuayi and the clinical Sergio Ageuro have both been bought for similar prices.

Berahino doesn’t even come close to matching that talent, so Levy refused to pay up – and Lilywhites fans everywhere owe an enormous debt of gratitude to their chairman for that. Contrastingly, elsewhere in the Premier League clubs are paying heavily inflated prices – Sadio Mane’s transfer fee is only marginally less than the fee Real Madrid paid for Karim Benzema, whilst relegated Newcastle want a staggering £35 million for Moussa Sissokho. Levy must therefore be commended for not falling into this trap with players who simply don’t add enough value to the squad,

Regrettably, his transfer policies elsewhere have not experienced similar successes. One can only wonder where Spurs would be now had the chairman acted quicker to secure the signing of European Championship winner Joao Moutinho, who at the time was with Porto. Spurs had identified the midfielder, now at Monaco and part of the side that knocked out Arsenal in the last 16 of the Champions League two seasons ago, as their replacement for the outgoing Luka Modric.

Irrespective of the player that Moutinho might or might not have gone on to become at Spurs, the failure of Levy to get a deal of this magnitude over the line in time suggests clear weaknesses in the side’s transfer policy – Moutinho was one of the finer midfielders in Europe at the time, and highly sought after before a big-money move to Ligue 1 side AS Monaco soon after Spurs were unable to conclude a deal for him.

The fault here does lie with the chairman; manager of the time Andre Villas-Boas was very keen on the player and Levy should have backed his manager in the market in a way that he is starting to now, after Pochettino’s astute signings of players like Toby Alderweireld and Dele Alli. While the signings of recent times may have gone some distance to enhancing Levy’s reputation due to the quality of the players he’s brought in, most of this credit actually should go to Head of Recruitment Paul Mitchell.

Mitchell has been, to many, the difference between Spurs and a side like Liverpool – both have lost big money players, then proceeded to pay big money for players that didn’t go on to justify the price tags, yet Spurs have progressed and have finally escaped the transition phase that can still be applied to Liverpool. And this progress cannot, in my opinion, be attributed to Levy, but to Mitchell, and Pochettino, and to their coaching staff.

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