Daniel Levy steps down: Tenure as Tottenham chairman lacked enough on-field success as Spurs status grew

"Typical Levy."

Just 10 days on from that embarrassing Eberechi Eze episode, which seemed to sum up the chairman's reputation for dithering in the detail on potentially decisive transfers and ultimately losing the big battles to rivals, Daniel Levy is gone.

Many Tottenham fans, fed up with Levy and his era of underachievement, will celebrate the news he has stepped down. Last season, the soundtrack at Spurs was chants of 'Levy out'. They finally have their wish.

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But much like that transfer tussle - with Eze's initially overlooked Arsenal backstory and subsequent details of his come-and-get-me phone call to Mikel Arteta - Levy's Spurs legacy is complicated.

He was the penny-pincher who built the Premier league's most illustrious and expensive stadium.

The haggler who was only outspent in the transfer market by three Premier League clubs in the past nine years.

The ruthless businessman who set the culture at a club which lacked a cutting edge.

There was something uncharacteristically Spurs in the way Ange Postecoglou and his players willed themselves to Europa League success to deliver that second-season trophy under the Australian.

"They miss always something at the end," Giorgio Chiellini, the then-Juventus defender, memorably said in his "It's the history of Tottenham" interview after a Champions League win in 2018.

Last season, they didn't.

It was just the second piece of silverware won during Levy's tenure - and Postecoglou was sacked 16 days later.

The debate over whether that was the right call or not split the fanbase this summer - 69 per cent said it was incorrect in our poll - but they will be unanimously agreed there should have been far more nights like Bilbao during Levy's era.

Fifteen semi-finals and seven finals is the count from his time at the helm. There are plenty of what-if moments in there but also self-inflicted blows to look back on too. Jose Mourinho's sacking days before a Carabao Cup final the most blatant.

Antonio Conte was another win-now manager employed by Levy who lost patience with the mentality at the club and the direction it was being steered in. "Tottenham's story is this," he infamously ranted at Southampton, echoing Chiellini. "Twenty years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here."

Thomas Frank is the fifth head coach appointment in six years at Spurs since Mauricio Pochettino's departure. The Argentinian once went rafting with his boss but it is perhaps his tenure which best encapsulates fan frustrations.

Spurs were so close to the big titles under Pochettino. Third-second-third in the Premier League. Back-to-back FA Cup semi-finals. A Champions League final. And amid that run? A summer where not one player was signed for the first team.

That era coincided with the big, bold, ambitious - and expensive - stadium build. The venue has allowed Spurs to become, as Levy puts it, "entrepreneurial", in how they grow revenue now: this is a home for concerts, boxing, NFL and more besides football.

It can sometimes feel ironic to hear Spurs supporters abusing Levy and their board as they sit in their billion-pound stadium.

But at the same time, these are fans who pay among the highest season-ticket prices in the Premier League and have seen senior concessions done away with, despite protests - all while the club have made record profits and Levy has become the best-paid executive in the division, according to available reports.

"Their pain is my pain," Levy told Gary Neville when asked on The Overlap about the boos and disgruntlement he was routinely met with last season as the team slumped to 17th. "You're in this to win," he added.

But during the Levy era, it felt the priority was not the big trophies but to sustain a position among the elite sides so as to grow revenue and build a brand.

To dare is to do? That sounds a little risky.

Yet, in an impatient football world where plenty of clubs count the cost of going too far, is sustainability to be sniffed at?

Unquestionably, Levy leaves Spurs in a position most clubs in the world would envy. A stunning stadium. World-class training facilities. And with a much higher potential on the pitch waiting to be realised.

"When I'm not there, I'm sure I'll get the credit," Levy told Neville when asked to consider how he'll be remembered at Spurs.

But will the glories to come - should they arrive - earn Levy back-dated credit with Spurs supporters? Or will they be seen simply as vindication he should have helped to deliver so many more Bilbao nights?

Like the Levy legacy, it's complicated.

However, with the Spurs-owning Lewis family taking Levy's exit as an opportunity to brief they want "more wins, more often" in a "new era" for the club, there seems an optimism Tottenham can now step up with a new structure.

(c) Sky Sports 2025: Daniel Levy steps down: Tenure as Tottenham chairman lacked enough on-field success as Spurs status grew