LOVE him or hate him, you cannot argue that Daniel Levy wants the best for Tottenham Hotspur.
The 59-year-old businessman has, perhaps, delivered his greatest coup for the club.
Replacing Nuno Espirito Santo with Antonio Conte shows a remarkable ability to sell a club that last lifted a trophy in 2008 to the title-winning Italian manager.
The tough negotiator has also managed to squeeze Europe’s top brass for mega money, including getting £85million for Gareth Bale.
While top asset Harry Kane was kept away from the clutches of Manchester City, despite big bucks being offered on the table. And now the England striker looks set to stay after Levy’s Conte masterstroke.
Let’s not forget, he was the chief protagonist in moving Tottenham to a £1billion stadium – arguably the best in Europe – so they could compete at a higher level.
In 20 years, he has come a long way from Mister Byrite – a chain of discount stores that sold menswear he took over from his dad – to an uncompromising football club chairman
ESSEX BOY
Daniel was born in Essex to Jewish parents.
His father, Barry famously owned the clothing retail business, Mister Byrite which later became rebranded as Blue Inc.
As a boy he was a Spurs fan, regularly making the pilgrimage to White Hart Lane through the 1960s.
He went to Cambridge University, where he studied Economics and Land Economy – graduating with a first in 1985.
Then, he got involved in the family business while also dabbling in property development.
Alongside ex-Tottenham vice-chairman Paul Kemsley, he set up Rock Joint Ventures, which had a stake in house-builders Countryside Properties.
His paths crossed with billionaire investor Joe Lewis, who installed Levy as managing director of his investment trust, ENIC International.
Later, through ENIC, he would convince Alan Sugar to sell enough shares to initiate a takeover that was completed in 2001.
Today, ENIC own 85.5 per cent of Tottenham, while Levy is believed to pocket £6million-per-year – making him the highest paid Premier League chief executive.
BEST NEGOTIATOR
It’s no secret in football that Levy drives a hard bargain.
If he has a star asset, he will ensure they either stay or rivals will have to pay more than the going amount to secure their services.
Just ask Harry Kane, who this summer was embroiled in a huge transfer saga with Manchester City.
Levy wasn’t satisfied with the offers on the table, holding firm on his £150million valuation and managed to keep the player.
Better still, in getting Conte as his new manager he might just have played the trump card in convincing Kane to stay for the long term.
But back in 2008, Manchester United’s relentless pursuit of Dimitar Berbatov saw the Red Devils pay £30m for the Bulgarian.
Quite brilliantly, Sir Alex Ferguson said afterwards that dealing with Levy was “more painful than my hip replacement”.
Levy kept European powerhouse Real Madrid waiting on a deal for Bale, right up until the closing hours of deadline day, as Los Blancos had to cough up a world record £85m fee to nab the Welshman.
The best compliment, however, might just have come from Lyon’s notoriously difficult president Jean-Michel Aulas, who sold goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to Spurs in 2012.
“The negotiation with the Tottenham directors has been the hardest I have ever had to undergo in 25 years,” Aulas said at the time.
“We had people speaking all night with Daniel Levy.
“He talks a lot and goes back on what we’ve agreed in writing.”
For many reasons, Levy has been labelled as football’s best negotiator. But the man himself doesn’t see it like that.
“Best negotiator? I think that’s just false. There’s no such thing,” he told the Evening Standard in a rare interview in 2019.
“You can be good, fair, hard. I don’t think anyone can define themselves as the best. I can’t help what other people say, but all I am doing is trying to become a bigger club and I am just protecting my assets.”
NEW STADIUM
Back in April 2019, Son Heung-min and Co walked out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time.
Not only was it well-received by supporters, many pundits called the epic 62,000 seater arena one of the best in the world.
Levy’s obsession with getting it right was recounted by the project’s architect, Chris Lee, who was supposed to visit around 300 stadiums around the globe with the chairman for inspiration.
“Daniel is one of the most demanding clients I have ever had,” Lee told the Independent.
“Certainly, he is a perfectionist and it was a challenge trying to get perfection. I quickly stopped travelling with him because he never sleeps.
“We would arrive somewhere at two in the morning, talk for a few hours, then he would say ‘we have a meeting in three hours’. After a few of these trips I quickly stopped. It has been a great experience, trying to strive for perfection.”
There were reports hands-on Levy would monitor the stadium construction via video and zoom in on parts that were unfinished or weren’t working to specification, and he would want to know why.
Then there was the roof, which also didn’t escape his attention for detail.
“We wanted glass and everyone said it wasn’t possible,” Levy explained.
“So we found a solution, so this roof will look brand new in five years’ time. If you go to any other stadium, in five years that definitely wouldn’t be the case.”
GETTING PERSONAL
When it comes to the press, Levy is a closed book.
Famously, as Louis Van Gaal claimed, he hid in a boot of a car after leaving the Dutchman’s home when they held talks about the Spurs job in 2014.
And when it comes to his personal life, that’s certainly kept very private.
He reportedly has a holiday home in Boca Raton, Florida and divides his time between there and London.
He is married to his former PA, Tracy Dixon and they have four children, Joshua, Oliver, Chloe and Gabriella.
But, it’s his 20-year marriage to Spurs that we know more about.
Now, with a manager who knows how to win things at the helm, this fan might just get to see what all Tottenham supporters want… a side that’s challenging for honours.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
