Pressure on Levy to end the name game

Ever since Daniel Levy sacked Glenn Hoddle last September, he has kept a diplomatic silence about the succession at White Hart Lane.

His only comments have been that the search being conducted is thorough and that nobody has been offered the job.

Privately he admits there has been huge interest from big names at home and abroad. Indeed it is claimed most of the managers in the Premiership have thrown their hat in the ring, in one way or another.

But whether that will cut any ice at tomorrow's annual general meeting of shareholders at White Hart Lane is another question.

The shareholders present, most of them die-hard fans, want to know what is going on, and Levy will have to say something to placate them.

What exactly that is has been the subject of fierce internal debate at Spurs over the last week or so, mainly because Levy is not yet in a position to give the fans anything definitive.

But that is exactly what they want. Will it be Martin O'Neill or Graeme Souness or Alan Curbishley? Why are the club in yet another transitional season? What is the future of David Pleat?

These are the questions they want answers to - whether they get them is another matter entirely.

This is not to suggest that the chairman has been dragging his feet over the decision.

In fact, he has had myriad conversations with top football figures about what he should do.

But he, and the rest of the Spurs board, have yet to make their mind up about what management structure they want at the club, let alone the personnel needed to fit it.

The presence of Pleat, as director of football, in effect sums up the problem. Other than Leicester, Spurs are the only Premiership club, with such a position.

But it is a hotch-potch, neither fitting the traditional management mould of English football, nor the continental system where a director of football or sporting director decides on transfer policy while the coach is presented with a group of players and told to get on with it. If the coach leaves the essential direction of the club is maintained.

What Levy wants more than anything else is this continuity. He has been scarred by the Hoddle debacle and the cycle of money being spent by an incoming manager, who is then fired two years later.

Last week's sale of Chris Perry to Charlton sums this up. Together with Ben Thatcher and Sergei Rebrov, here are three players, bought by George Graham for £21million, that were unwanted by Hoddle. The club got £350,000 back for them.

Levy wants to find a system to end this wastage. But does one exist?

There is a perception that the continental system works because coaches generally only last around two years, but as the sporting director dictates long-term policy, money is not wasted.

However, in the post-Bosman era it appears most of the top clubs in Europe chop and change players as much as English clubs, despite their management structure.

But in order to find the answers Levy has consulted some of the top names in the game. He recently lunched with Sven-Goran Eriksson at The Dorchester, an expert on how foreign clubs work given his nomadic trek across Europe.

This led to a bizarre incident at the recent Aston Villa home game where Pleat was summoned 25 minutes before kick-off to the chairman's inner sanctum to meet the former Bologna coach Francesco Guidolin, presumably a friend of Eriksson's, who would jump at the chance of a prestigious Premiership berth.

Acting manager Pleat was bemused by this, so close to kick-off, but Guidolin is just one of several foreign coaches entertained at the Lane recently.

There is some sympathy for Pleat here who is caught between a rock and a hard place. Anyone who knows him, knows he really wants the manager's job.

He has been rejuvenated by his caretaker role and has won seven out of the 12 games he has been in charge for, although performances have been unconvincing.

But the bottom line is that he is unlikely to get it. If his job as director of football is a real and necessary one, crucial to the development of the club, then it is too important for him to leave. And yet no one is doing it at the moment, so how important is it?

The fans don't really want a foreign coach either, after the Christian Gross shambles, and a foreigner is the only way most people can see Pleat maintaining his position.

Following the very public fall-outs between Pleat and Hoddle, as well as the sniping behind the scenes, any top British manager in the traditional sense, would almost certainly insist on Pleat's removal before taking the job.

Pleat has already hinted, following the Villa game, about the club redefining the managerial structure at the club. Then came the story that Chris Hughton - the current coach - might be manager until the end of the season. But Pleat never actually said that. All he wanted to do was give Hughton some credit for a job well done and to protect his own position at the same time.

Privately even Pleat admits that the pressure has taken its toll on him. He is frustrated by the lack of clarity from his fellow board members who have left the caretaker to deal with it all.

Therein lies the conundrum for Levy. Does he buck the culture of English football and pursue a continental system or does he stick with the system that has served the top Premiership clubs so well, and in the process, make the director of football job, obsolete?

Does he give Pleat money to spend in the January transfer window to help lift the club out of their current mediocrity just above the relegation zone, knowing that he won't be the boss the following season?

At the end of the day it's all a question of picking the best man because if you get that right, other things fall into place.

Levy and the board know that this next selection is probably the most crucial they will ever have to make.

Most of the fans want Martin O'Neill, who is also likely to be courted by Liverpool and possibly Newcastle in the summer.

Over to you Mr Chairman.

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