TOTTENHAM’S billionaire supremo Joe Lewis is involved in all the major
decisions at White Hart Lane.
He will have been instrumental in sanctioning the decision to sack Andre
Villas-Boas on Monday morning, in the wake of the 5-0 home thrashing by
Liverpool.
A club insider said: “I can just imagine when the fifth goal went in a
transatlantic phone call was made and he was saying he had had enough.
“They knew weeks and weeks ago this was going to happen, although they hoped
things might stabilise and turn around.
“But Lewis did feel that this had got to be the year.
“He wanted Champions League football. He couldn’t wait any longer.”
Lewis, 76, might have started in the catering trade but he is now the 308th
richest man in the world, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at
£2.6billion.
With that massive wealth comes massive influence — and the desire to make sure
his opinion counts in the businesses he owns which are closest to his heart.
Tottenham Hotspur is certainly that. He has put in around £100m of his own
money since ENIC took control in 2000.
Today, he spends most of his time on his 220ft superyacht Aviva, where he
keeps luxuriously-bound editions of the history of Tottenham.
As well as inviting the Spurs squad on board during their May trip to the
Bahamas for a friendly against Jamaica, Lewis also held talks with chairman
Daniel Levy and then manager Villas-Boas about plans for the summer.
Although the businessman does not micro-manage the club, he is part of every
major decision taken, from selling Gareth Bale to sanctioning the transfer
spree which followed.
A City source said: “He does interfere in the running of businesses, but never
for the sake of it. He’s an active investor. He doesn’t just buy stock and
sit on it. He buys shares in companies he thinks can turn into better
businesses and make more money as a result.”
That is probably Lewis’ vision for Spurs — move into a revamped White Hart
Lane, establish the team as a European force and the club as a worldwide
brand, then sell for a big fat profit.
He does not always get it right, losing about a third of his wealth by
investing in troubled American bank Bear Stearns during the economic crisis.
But a measure of his willingness to intervene is shown by an experiment he
ordered at Slavia Prague, the Czech club he once had a share of.
A source revealed: “He wanted to change the game. He staged a practice match
between the Slavia Prague first team and the reserves — and made the goals
bigger.
“He said: ‘There were 20 players who thought this was the greatest invention
ever. Two were less happy’.”
Lewis has links with another football innovator — former Liverpool star Craig
Johnston, who devised the concept which became the adidas Predator boot and
is the partner of Vivienne, one of two daughters from his first marriage.
Lewis is nevertheless said to prefer sailing, tennis and golf to football and
once paid £1.4m in a charity auction to play a round with Tiger Woods.
A number of former chief executives and chairmen at firms like pub group
Mitchells and Butlers, which is part of Lewis’ £2.6bn global portfolio, will
sympathise with Villas-Boas.
But Lewis has not gone from an Eastender born in Bow to the Emperor of Spurs
by being timid.
Lewis left school at 15 to be a waiter for his dad’s West End business,
Tavistock Catering, before selling luxury items to American tourists and
running the Hanover Grand nightclub.
When the family firm was sold in 1979, Lewis set himself up in tax exile as a
currency trader.
Before managing director Levy led ENIC’s purchase of a controlling interest in
Spurs from Alan Sugar, Lewis’ biggest brush with fame came in September
1992. He and US billionaire George Soros made a fortune “short-selling” the
British pound on Black Wednesday.
They and other speculators forced the pound out of the European Exchange Rate
Mechanism, which drove interest rates for the man on the street up to an
eye-watering 15 per cent.
Lewis has used the proceeds of his buying and selling of money to create an
empire under the banner of the Tavistock Group.
It now controls more than 200 companies across varying industries in 15
countries.
His art collection alone is worth hundreds of millions — and it is fair to say
works by Picasso and Matisse have proved a shrewder investment than the
£100m-plus Spurs spent on players this summer.
Publicity-shy Lewis once said: “One of the rewards of your success is the
quiet enjoyment of it. Being on the front page of papers doesn’t allow that.”
But with Spurs he cannot escape the back pages.
Deadly Daniel & Lethal Lewis
DANIEL LEVY took over in Feb 2001 with George Graham in charge. But within
weeks Graham was axed and Glenn Hoddle became Levy’s first boss.
24
THE average reign of the six Tottenham managers appointed by Daniel Levy is 24
months.
GLENN HODDLE
Appointed: April 2001 Sacked: Sept 2003 Days in charge: 901 Win rate: 39%
JACQUES SANTINI
Appointed: June 2004 Sacked: November 2004 Days in charge: 155 Win rate: 38%
MARTIN JOL
Appointed: Nov 2004 Sacked: Oct 2007 Days in charge: 1,085 Win rate: 45%
JUANDE RAMOS
Appointed: October 2007 Sacked: October 2008 Days in charge: 362 Win rate: 39%
HARRY REDKNAPP
Appointed: October 2008 Sacked: June 2012 Days in charge: 1,329 Win rate: 49%
ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS
Appointed: July 2012 Sacked: December 2013 Days in charge: 531 Win rate: 55%