Eric Dier explains why he is always baffled by Daniel Levy criticism

Eric Dier has launched a defence of Daniel Levy, admitting that he is baffled to see so many Tottenham fans being so critical of him.

While one would not say that Levy is universally unpopular among the Spurs fan base, there is certainly a huge chunk of Tottenham fans who are extremely critical of the Spurs chairman.

Many of them lay the blame for the club’s inability to win silverware since 2008 entirely on Levy’s feet and accuse him of caring only about profits instead of success.

That is an accusation that the 62-year-old himself has shot back against, insisting that he is desperate to win silverware, explaining that as the reason why he went for two ‘win-first’ managers in Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho (Reuters).

However, the one thing that cannot be argued is the fact that Levy has done an exceptional job off the pitch, closing the financial gap between Tottenham and the old ‘big four’ and ensuring that the club would be able to go toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite clubs over the long-term.

Eric Dier thinks Daniel Levy deserves a lot more credit
That is something Dier pointed to, stating that Levy has managed to keep the club extremely competitive during a difficult time.

When asked about the Tottenham chairman, the 30-year-old told The Times: “Daniel’s a very strong businessman. He’s an extremely difficult man to negotiate with but he looks after the club.

“I just find it funny when I went to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and see ‘Levy Out’ and I’m thinking, this guy over the last ten years has built the best infrastructure in football, best training ground, best stadium — and a team during all of that time that has stayed relatively competitive, reaching the Champions League final in 2019.

“You look at some other clubs struggling now that Financial Fair Play is becoming a big thing. That’s where I have a lot of respect for Daniel. Look at Arsenal when they built their new stadium, you saw that decline of the team, there were financial constraints as they built, and only now they’re finally coming back.

“You never hear Tottenham in any of these FFP conversations. It’s baffling to me that a Tottenham fan could ever be upset with someone who looks after a club in that way.”

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The conversation about Levy should be a nuanced one and he certainly deserves criticism for some of the mistakes he has made and one could argue that Tottenham might have won trophies had he done a couple of things differently at crucial times.

However, the anti-Levy crowd behave like a cult, painting the Spurs chairman as some sort of evil mastermind and they cannot get themselves to praise him for anything.

Those fans will do well to realise that the reason Tottenham are part of the ‘big six’ now and not in the same financial state as a club like Everton, is thanks in large part to Levy.