Gareth Bale and £11.25m star – Daniel Levy’s best ever signings as Tottenham exit confirmed
Daniel Levy has stepped away from his role as Tottenham chairman after 25 years at the helm.
The Lilywhites’ chief has been an integral part of their development as a club in recent years, even if progress has not always been smooth in N17, and his departure will send shockwaves throughout the Premier League.
Levy oversaw the investment in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and has played a vital role in developing Spurs into the superpower of world football that it has become.
He has always had a reputation as a scrupulous negotiator when conducting Spurs’ transfer business, and with that in mind, Tottenham News looks back on five of his best signings.
Gareth Bale
Tottenham developed Gareth Bale into one of the world’s best players during his time in North London, and his value skyrocketed with every passing campaign in the early 2010s.
Levy and Co. paid around £10million to sign Bale as a 17-year-old left-back in 2007, and watched on as he became one of the most electric wingers of his generation.
The Welshman struck 21 goals on his way to being named as the PFA’s Player of the Year in 2012/13, and also scooped the award for Young Player of the Year in the same campaign.
That resulted in a then-world-record £85m switch to Real Madrid, where the wideman won virtually everything that football has to offer.
For Levy to have plucked Bale out of the Championship and watched as he netted Spurs £75m of profit, he has to rank as his best ever signing.
Son Heung-min
Son Heung-min recently left Tottenham to join LAFC for a fee in the region of £20m, and his legacy is almost unmatched in the club’s modern era.
The South Korean international delivered 10 years of superb service to the Lilywhites, which saw him make over 450 appearances and score over 170 goals.
He cemented himself as a genuine Spurs legend after his move from Bayer Leverkusen in 2013, and captained the team for two seasons following Hugo Lloris’ departure.
When you then consider that Levy made almost all of his original £22m investment back an entire decade down the line, Son has to sit firmly among his best pieces of business.
Luka Modric
Luka Modric joined Tottenham from Dinamo Zagreb back in 2008, and went on to become a key cog in their side during his four-year stay in N17.
The Croatian was a supremely classy operator in the midfield, and one of the most technically gifted players to have pulled on a Spurs shirt in recent years.
He moved on to Real Madrid for a fee of around £30m in 2012, and went on to win the Ballon D’Or in 2018.
Modric was part of the same all-conquering Madrid team as Bale, and became one of the most decorated players of the modern era in the Spanish capital.
Spurs discovered him while he was playing in a little-known European league, and that goes down as a huge tick next to Levy’s name.
Jermain Defoe
Jermain Defoe enjoyed two goal-laden stints with Spurs that saw him become one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League.
He first joined for an initial fee of £6m in 2004, and became a key player during his first stint in North London, before moving on to join Portsmouth in 2008.
He returned to N17 in 2009 and went on to play another five years in the famous white shirt, lifting his final goal tally to 143 by the end of his time with Tottenham.
Now a pundit, the former frontman is the Lilywhites’ seventh-highest scorer of all time.
Jan Vertonghen
Perhaps the most unexpected name on this list, Jan Vertonghen, was a stalwart at the back for Tottenham across an eight-year stay.
He joined Spurs from Ajax for a fee of £11.25m in 2012, and was at the heart of several bright seasons for the club.
The Belgian formed an imperious partnership with his countryman Toby Alderweireld and was a key figure in Mauricio Pochettino’s team that defied the odds to reach the Champions League final in 2019.
He may not have been as exciting or technically gifted as some of the other players on this list, but for such little outlay, the centre-back rightly earns his place among Levy’s best-ever additions.
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