Tottenham ‘show no shame’ as pundit loses work over Daniel Levy comments
Daniel Levy hasn’t taken kindly to scrutiny at Tottenham Hotspur, and one pundit revealed how far he’ll go to silence his critics.
The Tottenham chairman has overseen the club’s fortunes – and misfortunes – across the past 24 years, with that period yielding just one piece of silverware despite some huge off-field developments.
Levy is often praised for his business acumen and making Tottenham one of the Premier League’s richest teams with a state-of-the-art stadium, but their progress on the pitch has been inconsistent.
Frustrations with the club’s lack of success on field has even led to protests from large swathes of Tottenham supporters in recent weeks, with many fans and pundits feeling that a change is long overdue.
Daniel Levy denounces Darren Ambrose after Tottenham criticism
Levy rules with an iron fist in North London, and is at the top of the tree when it comes to decision-making; be that regarding manager activity, player recruitment, and apparently sponsored events too.
Speaking on talkSPORT‘s Inside Spurs show (21 February), ex-Crystal Palace midfielder and Tottenham fan Darren Ambrose revealed that he once missed out on sponsored work at Levy’s direct request.
Ambrose said: “I dared to criticise Daniel Levy one time on talkSPORT – I dared to criticise his tenure at the football club, and it worked against me.
“I was due to do a sponsored event for Crystal Palace – [with a] couple of Crystal Palace ex-players, [a] couple of Spurs ex-players – I obviously chose the wrong time to air my frustrations.
“I got a call the next day from the Palace press saying that representatives of Spurs have rung up and said; ‘unless I’m taken off the gig, they’re not going to be turning up.’
“I asked ‘was it anything to do with Daniel Levy’, and they said his name was mentioned, so I dared to criticise him, he got upset over it – that’s why I say this [recent criticism] is going to hurt him.”
| Tottenham shareholder | Shares breakdown |
| ENIC International Limited | 86.58 per cent (Levy family 29.88 per cent / Joe Lewis 70.12 per cent) |
| Other investors | 13.42 per cent |
Daniel Levy’s defensiveness becoming unbearable at Tottenham
Any authority figure – let alone one with the amount of power Levy possesses at Tottenham – should be willing and open to accepting criticism with a view to taking it on board and improving as a result.
Levy, however, seems so thin-skinned that even the balanced viewpoint of an ex-professional player cannot be taken on the chin; preventing Ambrose from taking part in a sponsored get-together.
When it comes to events involving both Tottenham and Palace – particularly in the lead-up to matches between the two – there’s arguably no better candidate to represent the two clubs than Ambrose.
The 40-year-old is a Spurs fan and a Palace legend to boot, and will therefore elevate the profile of any event concerning the two clubs – thus boosting its credibility and likely the financial outcome for Levy.
Tottenham fans aplenty are ready to show their chairman the door amid a wave of stagnation which has swept over the club, but if Ambrose’s comments are anything to go by, they face a difficult task to knock Levy off his perch.