Former Sporting Director EXPLAINS WHY Daniel Levy Is SO HARD To Deal With 😱🔥

have you applied for any jobs in the last six months before you answer that Luke just lean a little bit towards your microphone so we tilted tilted towards you try yeah just damage it it doesn't matter um a couple of things to come away Dar obious I've been busy with a couple of other projects um that involves football in terms of Acquisitions um and that's just still going along nicely um but we should get to see the results of that in the next um 3 four weeks hopefully um and are you be cracking on with that oh getting the CV back out yeah but it's like you know baz was saying to me the other day he was like he's dealt with a couple of like 26y old directors of football this summer which has done his head in not because he's worried about young people taking his job because he's good at what he does but because they were Clueless yeah like there was one in particular who was insulting him every day with some of the bids being made for our player Barry was saying to him what what planet are you want you know like we don't take offers like that for our play we were getting offered Millions by someone else and this guy was offering hundreds of thousands and it was like he didn't seem to understand so Barry went to meet him out of respect and he met with him and the guy again and bar just came away and he's like what what's going on with clubs hiring they're either young or they're foreign and they don't know what's going on within the game changing it's it's learning your trade down it's knowing the game um and having an understanding and I think sometimes if he gets the opportunity of becoming a sporting technical director director of football whatever title the club gives you person I went through the scouting route to get there corre correct right way so but you know what they're hiring now analysts they're not hiring Scouts a lot of these clubs now are hiring young I said the B look what they're doing is it's groovy they're going out and hiring 25 to 30 year old ex analysts and turning them into directors of football because they've done a couple of courses but they've got no experience like you just said they haven't gone out and done the hard yard but it's also it's you're right with the analyst thing but it's also an analyst it's coming from a man city and what they're looking at is they're looking at they're seeing the Man City badge on their CV and things like that so listen it's different people come to different roles we understand that but I you know you got to have an understanding you got to know how the market works you got to have respect for people you got to you know if you're offering money there's also thing don't insult people you know what you which you just mentioned and that comes with if you've done the hard yard you've been out there watching games you get to a level of recruitment within a club that then makes you deal with agent you have an understanding you start to have a valuation of what clubs can spend whats and it sort of lead you and also know who you're buying from yeah you know if you're trying to buy a player from a club you know well they usually get very good fees for their players did did bu for barrial you don't even mention hundreds of thousand no but that's my point like you know it's kind of like what are you doing like I understand we all start somewhere and you have to start somewhere so what you always do is you you always check the uh temperature in the room so if I know a club and say A you know maybe a volcanic German like myself I wouldn't go in with an insulting bid because I know what he'd be like I go in with a respectful bid and then build from there but this blew like baz's mind this summer and then trying to deal with the guy the guy couldn't see sense he couldn't quite understand why we wouldn't take hundreds of thousands for a player we' all been off is if you're new to it which there will be new people new to it and that's fine yeah and you don't have a quite an understanding then have a do a little bit of research so if it's a player at and especially if it's an attacking player just have a look and go right Tony Dwight Gale Mel Smith um George Boyd whatever and go but they all those players went for a lot of money lot money I'm also looking at an attacking player at feat so he going to go for reasonable money seven figures and lots abut if you're not quite sure have a little look you know um yeah or I always think if you're a sporting director at a club and you're inexperienced you must have a CEO above you that is experienced and say I'm thinking about this play Pizza what do you think talk to someone this guy didn't he was basically doing it all himself back to communication again yeah but talk to someone like you know if we if say in the future baz is 105 and he decides to retire and and he won't I straight away wouldn't replace him with a new director of football I would bring someone in under my wing for at least 12 months and teach them the ropes do it myself and then make them the director of football but long may he continued you know what I mean but that's what I do because I wouldn't want to throw them into that straight away and it's like yeah Luke I did see a quote from you recently where you said the three hardest clubs to deal with are peterb Watford and Spurs which is my club and I do like to hear these stories about Daniel ly so can you just give us a further indication of how tricky he is to negotiate with on a regular basis and you know I met I did mention those three clubs last time I was in with u with Darren and Jim and what with those clubs especially you know they are going to get and fight to get what they feel their players worth now that doesn't mean that other clubs don't but the conversation with other clubs can be a little bit easier that you say a little bit calmer and and things that you know so we I I think mentioned before we signed Ain kapoo from Spurs when I was at watford's and the quote that Daniel come out with which I repeated you said I've got something that you want so you pay what I'm what I'm looking for and and it sort of ends it that that ends the conversation so you either say okay we're going to get close to what you want or we'll give you what you want or you walk away um do you respect that or do you think oh no I wish we could deal with this in a slightly easy no no I do respect it because there's no hiding there's no rubbish spoken it's face to face this is where we're at and he gives you if it's a figure he gives you different ways of how you can get to that figure hasn't got to be one payment this so he's he's he's he has an understanding not every Club is Tottenham not every Club has the finances of Tottenham and I found him sitting in the meeting that I was with um talking about J kapoo I thought he was very very good very very sharp but also quite Fair yeah I mean you know there are too many people in football that you know again how hold grudges when You' around about a transfer yeah like you know i' I've dealt with loads of people as as B and you might have a ra one day and the next day you're fine me and you might ra you're working at a club going you're going F down I'm paying that and I'll be you're not but the next day we're fine but too many people new new people in the game now they take a grudge they don't want to deal with you again vice versa there's only 72 clubs in our league we all have to live within this bowl together yeah and I said this once to a guy I was buying a player off he was the CEO and he was so disrespectful he wouldn't even answer an email or a call for me and in the end what I said to him was I said listen bud I don't care you're at a bigger Club you're an employee show some respect I'm an owner there's 72 of us here let me just say this to you son down the line when you lose your job which inevitably you will you might need another job in football there's only 72 clubs you can ask for a job in yeah don't go taking one off the list yeah you know what I mean that's the truth right I I can see why P are one of the three hardest clubs need when you're buying something it's a negotiation and negotiations go backwards and forwards I love that you know and that's what it is it's part parcel and you know what if you're a young sporting director if you're a young CEO if you're an experienced one there's nothing better than going face to face meeting with the opposite Club who's making that decision whether it's the owner CEO chair what may be because you know you come out and once it's done you shake hands you then start talking about other things and you actually learned something yeah 100% what about the relationship within your own club I mean this week we we've heard stories from Newcastle that that Eddie how may be a little uncomfortable about Paul Mitchell's arrival it's changed his responsibilities Etc Etc I guess there are always inner political battles taking place at clubs um I don't think it's as much as as having those political battles inside I think it's the perception of what the sporting director is potentially to the outside and you know there's still an opinion that the sporting director signs the players and you know the man just turning up for training he's got a new player there you know that's as far from the truth as you know you can imagine what I think it is is everyone's involved from my experience everyone gets involved in the player signing and you know as a sporting director as a scouting Department it's our jobs to create a list of players in each position which we will then present to the manager and if he wants to have his staff involved as well he will do and if there's anyone on that list that he particularly doesn't like and he's got the right reasons then we will take off the list and if there's something that he wants to put on a list that we feel is uh good enough old enough you know right age fees Etc then we'll add that to the list and I think it's having that understanding that we're then going to go and sign the best player we can um a for the club that comes in with on our budget etc etc because you need we always need to go back to the manager picks the team so until the day that the sporting director picks the team the manager has to be involved in the signings and trust is a big part because if you I've always said this a manager and a director of football technical director have to be close in my opinion it's a bit like in the NFL the GM and the head coach GM does all the drafting the picking gives the head coach what he needs but they have to be like that and if they're not like that it's not going to last long so I would say to any anyone who's a a director of football a manager football manager this is the modern way now get in with the G get in with the technical director or vice versa because the other thing there is Luke that if you're work with a manager and you do bring him a couple of talents that come off the trust bills so next time you say to him got to write back for you he's coming on Monday he won't even ask he'll know exactly the type of player you're bringing in because there's trust there Mutual trust but it also comes down to we just touched on experience with sporting directors and it Etc that comes down to experience of managers so my last manager that I worked with for um at West Brom with Sam madise to come in uh just before the Christmas of the year was in the Premier League experience everyone know what Sam's you know like and what he's done he's a great guy big character and we had a jany chancer window and that was important because we looking to sign two or three players to try and help us stay up ultimately we didn't but his experience for someone like me to work was phenomenal because he's on top of me every day about where the players are but it didn't leave the building he never put pressure on us through the Press and that in my opin is a great experienced manager I think you we see more and more now managers that putting pressure on they're the club that employ them to go and get a player over the line we all know it's preseason now we all know the chance of winers open we all know managers want every single player they're going to sign for the first day of preseason we understand that the reality is that doesn't happen and I don't like it and I don't think it's very smart I think it looks very good on the club when the manager is putting pressure on the people to go and get those players you want the fact for me questioning me in the Press regards Recruitment and players well you were saying yesterday darl one of your big hates is is the manager is I I need to send a forward I need a midfielder I need a Defender etc etc but but there must be times Luke when a player comes in who the manager doesn't really want again I look back at Spurs and Jed Spence was signed and then he never played and you got these messages oh what he wasn't really the the manager's Choice K is I mean I mean is he is he the an was that an exception to the rule no no you do you you do get you that does happen sorry at clubs that happened at Watford um with because it's a business for Gina poo with the clubs you know he had to he has two clubs he did have three and every man that went into Watford had an understanding of that um so that's fine that's a different animal um when we was at West Brom every player there was two players that we signed that um we made the maner aware of that if he didn't want them we out we were going to sign him as a project for the club but it would not affect anything else we could do in that window those two players with ch will that unfortunately understand he didn't get a minute and we let him go into January um and he L cost us a league because he went to Huddersfield and they beat us on the second to last game of the season and you know think and then unfortunately brenford slipped up we got up and the second one was Cedric kipre Wigan were going we're in administration we took advantage of getting him on a low transfer fee um slav wasn't Keen because we were in the Premier League at the time and we just said slav it won't um affect any transfer fees any other player that we want to get in this window we believe Cedric is a long-term player for bris bom because the likelihood if it's not next season it could be the season after we're going to be back in the championship yeah and you know that looks now I think he was their best player last year Cedric K the best one of the best center arms in the league unfortun he's out they've let him go out contract and he's left but sometimes that does that happens obviously Jed Spence was a lot more but in comparison to Tottenham that was was slav difficult to work with um be honest no to to when he come in he was um yes no no correct when he come in he was a breath of fresh year sure and he was exactly what we needed but towards the end he became um difficult it's probably the best word and it started to happen then through the Press you know putting pressure on us you know to get forwards um it was and I don't know there was something that happened everyone noticed a change in slavin when we started to train again after covid it wasn't the same person right I don't and we no one we couldn't really put our finger on it just wasn't the same person slavin has got a wonderful a about him the players stuff and he yeah he didn't have he didn't look the same didn't feel the same and I think if you and it's not I'm not just saying it's on results based if you look at us after covid we stumbled across the line sure you know but be I'm from the start of season up until March when Co hit we were it was the Delight to watch us at times but there just something I noticed when we get back training after Co he just yeah I don't know what it was whether it really affected him but when he come in he was exact L what the club needed we just sacked darl Mo previous season who was a West Brom Legend and that was you know a horrible decision to make and slavin come in grabbed the place by the scruffing neck we signed some really good players we played some great football but then there was a slight change which is a shame enough I saw him when he was the Watford manager and I wish now when I see said to him you know come on let's go back to that stage what what did change what happened um but he's a good guy um he's obviously in Saudi now you know he's a he's a very very well educated was he taking the Saudi dollars is he I didn't realize he was um I like the West manager now the M car we played them last week very good guy good coach on da via the talk sport app and on your smart speaker talk sport