Daniel Levy talks fan protests, change of manager, biggest threat to football, Man City charges and much more while on The Overlap.
On this episode, Levy reflected on his 25 years as club chairman. He spoke about the club’s key decisions, commitment to financial, and future footballing ambitions.
Levy also opened up about the challenges of running a Premier League club, the impact of recent regulatory changes, and his perspective on the current state and future of football.
With recent managerial changes at Spurs, he explained why the club parted ways with Ange Postecoglou and chose to appoint Thomas Frank.
Key points include stadium development, financial sustainability, football governance, club ambitions, community and legacy.
ON FAN PROTESTS:
“Of course it hurts but their pain is also my pain. I want to win and when we’re not playing well, and we’re not winning, believe me, I suffer as well.
“It ruins the whole weekend [when we don’t win]. It’s horrible – you’re in this to win and when you don’t win, it’s no fun.”
ON SACKING ANGE POSTECOGLOU:
“Ultimately, the decision sits with me, but it’s always a collective decision. We have a board of directors, but under the board, we have a group of technical staff, and they advise.
“We had to explain the decision to part ways with Ange. Ange just won us a trophy – a European trophy – highly significant and he’s always going to be in our history. However, we couldn’t lose sight of the fact that we finished 17th in the league, we lost 22 Premier League games, and it’s impossible for Tottenham to be in that position, and so we had to take the emotion out of it and we had to give some data points as to why we decided to do what we did.
“Whichever level you do it, no one likes telling somebody, ‘You’re losing your job’, but it is the nature of football. We’re there to win and yes, we won a European trophy – and it was fantastic – but we also need to win on all fronts – and the Premier League says it all.”
“It’s the nature of football…” 👀
Daniel Levy on the end of the Ange Postecoglou era at Spurs. 💬 pic.twitter.com/DboB3RO9wV
— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) August 4, 2025
ON HIRING THOMAS FRANK:
“Thomas Frank is a highly intelligent individual; he’s got a fantastic way about him in terms of communication. He will be great at developing both young players and older players – and making them better.
“We haven’t set him, ‘You’ve got to win the league this year’. We just want to compete at the highest level.
“We will support him to the best of our ability. If you look at transfer fees, we’ve been in the top four spenders since the stadium opened, we’ve spent close to £700 million net on new players – this isn’t just about money. This is about some luck, having the right balance in the team, having the right coach – there’s a lot of things that have to come together.
“I very much hope that Thomas will bring all the right ingredients and bring this team to where it belongs, which is right at the top.”
ON WINNING THE EUROPA LEAGUE:
“Yes, has to be [winning the Europa League has to be the best night for me as chairman of Tottenham], and when we came back to the stadium and did the parade a few days later, the outpouring of emotion was for everyone to see around the world. It was amazing.”
ON NOT GETTING INVOLVED IN THE FOOTBALLING SIDE OF TOTTENHAM:
“I do not interfere at all in the decision making of this player vs that player. It is always the coach, always the technical staff – the only thing I get involved in is when they decide which player they want to buy for instance or which player they want to sell; I will go out and do my very best for this football club. I’m not interfering in the football decisions.”
ON RELATED PARTY OWNERSHIPS BEING ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO FOOTBALL:
“One of the biggest threats is related party sponsorships – that’s the area that has to be controlled because if you end up having clubs that are owned by states, which I have no issue with, they can do deals with themselves and that puts them in a competitive advantage over everybody else. That’s an area that must be looked at.”
ON BUILDING TOTTENHAM BY BEING ENTREPRENEURIAL:
“If you look at what we’ve done, we haven’t had somebody pumping hundreds of millions into the club, we’ve done it all on our own. We have been entrepreneurial and have increased our revenues to enable us to compete the best we can today.”
ON OVERSPENDING:
“I wouldn’t say that the spending of other clubs is crazy, but it’s not sustainable which is why they end up with problems. We all know that if everyone overspends it’s a zero-sum game because no one benefits from it. I think there has to be rules and people need to stick to them.”
ON HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT:
“The construction of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is my greatest achievement, and I’m not doing it again. This stadium is a symbol of Tottenham Hotspur on the global map.”
ON MAN CITY CHARGES:
“I think it would be really unfair of me to talk about another club in the Premier League, all I would say is that it’s going through a process which I think has gone on for far too long. It needs to be brought, for the good of the game, to a conclusion one way or another.”
ON MULTI-CLUB OWNERSHIP:
“Multi-club ownership is another issue that is very important today, because it really didn’t exist five years ago.
“The idea that one club is involving lots of different clubs, with the money involved today, must be controlled carefully. We have financial control measures, and it can be abused. It worries me a little because there’s so much money in the game now, and you only need one owner to do something inappropriate, and it would impact confidence from sponsors and broadcasters in the European game – it needs to be very tightly controlled.”
ON THIS BEING THE RIGHT TIME FOR TOTTENHAM:
“It was luck. We hit the market at the right time, interest rates were low, so we managed to borrow 35-year money at just over 2.5%. This stadium today to build is probably more than £2 billion.”
ON EXPECTING CREDIT WHEN HE LEAVES TOTTENHAM:
“I think it’s one of those situations – when I’m not here I’m sure I’ll get the credit.
“When you come here and look at this wonderful building [Tottenham Hotspur Stadium], and the fact that other clubs are now trying to copy what we’re doing, that should be a sign that maybe we did do something bold, and something right.”
ON TROPHIES:
“We need to compete at the highest level; we need to consistently be trying to win trophies because that’s what it’s all about.”
