TOTTENHAM were the most profitable Premier League during Daniel Levy’s era.
The executive chairman suddenly left the club on Thursday evening after 25 years in charge.
SunSport understands Levy was dramatically forced out by the Lewis family, who run the club’s majority owners ENIC.
Levy, 63, faced intense criticism and found himself subjected to various fan protests demanding his exit for the later years of his tenure.
There were some valid grievances – none more so than just two trophies during his reign, 17 years apart.
But he also oversaw the club’s move into one of the best stadiums in world football and helped transform the club into a genuine big-hitter.
A large part of that was down to his success in running Tottenham as a business.
In fact, during his reign since taking over as executive chairman in February 2001, no Premier League club made more profit than Spurs.
Levy’s famously tough stance at the negotiating table may have been to his club’s detriment in bringing in big-money signings – as seen by Eberechi Eze’s move to Arsenal instead of Spurs this summer.
But it also haggled a then-world-record transfer fee of £85million for Gareth Bale, who joined Real Madrid in 2013.
A decade later, he fetched £104m from Bayern Munich for Harry Kane.
Those two deals were among a host of shrewd business deals that saw Tottenham make a profit of £167m across his quarter-century in the boardroom.
According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire’s figures, that is £65m than any other club in that time – with Brighton second on £102m.
The only other two clubs in the black are Spurs’ arch-rivals Arsenal (£72m) and Liverpool (£19m) – fresh from their £426m summer splurge which featured two British transfer records for Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
At the other end of the scale, it is no surprise that Chelsea record the biggest deficit.
Their ridiculous spending under both Roman Abramovich and Todd Boehly sees their loss at a whopping £1.257billion – nearly double anyone else.
Aston Villa are surprisingly next on £706m followed by Everton (£589m), Manchester City (£553m), Fulham (£358m) and Manchester United (£261m).
Elsewhere, Maguire’s data shows during Levy’s reign at Tottenham, their revenue has increased more than tenfold, from £48m per year when he took over to £528m in 2023-24.
Incredibly, he achieved that despite reducing his side’s wage-to-revenue ratio from 52 per cent to 42 per cent.
Tottenham have consistently boasted the lowest ratio in the Premier League across many seasons.
‘Levy was Prem’s top pantomime villain… but good outweighs bad’ – Dave Kidd
By Dave Kidd
SO what did Daniel Levy ever do for Tottenham Hotspur?
Apart from giving them the world’s greatest football stadium, a world-class training ground, regular Champions League football, a first-ever European Cup Final appearance and this year’s Europa League triumph?
For a quarter of a century – the longest reign of any Premier League chairman – Levy has sat, largely silently, in the Spurs directors box with an air of the Austin Powers villain Dr Evil about him.
For much of that time, Levy has been lambasted, vilified, bombarded with abuse and targeted by protests – although a salary which ended up at £3.7million per year would have helped to ease any hurt.
Finally, it’s time for the anti-Levy mob to put away their placards, because the biggest pantomime villain in the world’s greatest league has finally left the building.
READ DAVE KIDD’S FULL COMMENT PIECE ON LEVY’S LEGACY HERE
Read the full article here