Daniel Levy raising standards on and off the field

DANIEL LEVY

New Marseille sporting director Gunter Jacob has confirmed that Daniel Levy is a tough, but fair negotiator, in an interview with ESPN.

"Mr. Levy is not the easiest in negotiations, but I must say he was very straight with us. 

"I worked well with him. It was difficult, but I'm happy that we were finally able to complete the transfer."

I, for one, do not want a chairman who is a weak negotiator. We would never have achieved the NFL tie-up without Daniel Levy continually going back to the Americans with new ideas. We have heard that their were several points in the negotiations where the project wasn't feasible for both parties, but perseverance now sees us in pole position to become the home of NFL in London.

The Americans want a dedicated stadium that fulfills the criteria they set. Tottenham now provide that so it is pretty clear the long-term plan is to become the home. You do not invest in the way we have if you don't already have a verbal agreement that if the venue proves to be a success then any London franchise would have Tottenham at the top of the list.

With two major sports there the naming rights income will be maximised and as I understand it major companies are competing against each other for sponsorship packages. Let me give you a hypothetical example.

Let's say we were looking at perimeter advertising or in stadium advertising for UEFA Champions League games. It isn't just a question of contacting a company and asking them how much they would like to pay us. We will set a fee and then create competition. By contacting McDonalds and Berger King and letting them know this package is being offered to their rivals you are adding the fear of loss into your marketing efforts and that is very powerful. You see it all the time in advertising, only X number left, only a few days remaining etc.

It seems to me that not only have we upgraded the manager and the team, but we have upgraded the running of the club too. I suggested we should adopt the Kaisen approach, both on and off the field, small improvements in every aspect of the club right down to what washing powder you use and where it is sourced from. Spurs TV is now unrecognizable from the shambles it was. It now has branding and a diversity of content.

It is right that Daniel Levy is demanding. I remember a few years back we had clearly not achieved commercial revenue targets because after being in the post only a year the incumbent responsible was removed and replaced. He demands a lot of managers, quite rightly, and he demands a lot of staff. You feel, or you should feel, that the club is in safe hands, it is being driven forward at a greater pace than it was before.

There has been much donkey work to get to where we are. We have been below the top shelf looking up. We haven't been able to grasp it with our fingertips to pull ourselves and climb onto it before. You certainly get a sense we are now. The top shelf boys will try to stamp on our fingers and push us off.

The business has to be successful to sustain the football where we want to be and you would back Daniel Levy in a business fight to get us there. We have a prize fighter, a champion leading the way for whom everyone should be fighting.

We won't get on the top shelf overnight, it has taken years to get to the point where we have risen above the rest. We now have a 10-year battle on our hands to get on and stay on that top shelf.

There is an exciting Tottenham future ahead of us. In Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy we have the right combination to achieve that bright future.

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