Tottenham owner Daniel Levy has 'no understanding about football', says former Spurs transfer chief

Tottenham owner Daniel Levy has 'no understanding about the football game' even though he is very 'hands-on' with transfer business, according to former Spurs director of football Frank Arnesen.

Spurs are undergoing a difficult transfer market after key attacking targets Luis Diaz and Adama Traore chose Liverpool and Barcelona respectively, with both players snubbing a move to Antonio Conte's side in the process.

And Arnesen, who was Tottenham's director of football between 2004 and 2005, believes Levy is very good at delegating to his sporting director or coach about football matters, as he has no knowledge of the game himself.

Arnesen told The Athletic: 'You also have clubs where there are owners who are very hands-on and they want to do the negotiations, like Tottenham. Daniel does it himself and is very good at it.

'But he has no understanding about the football game and doesn't interfere if you want a left-back or a right winger. He trusts his manager and the sporting director to do that work.'

Levy recently celebrated his 20-year anniversary of taking over Spurs and while he managed to take the north London club into the Champions League for a portion of that time, the club have won just on trophy - the 2008 League Cup - in that period.

The high-points of Levy's tenure have been Spurs reaching the Champions League final in 2019 and the club finishing as Premier League runners-up two years earlier, but success in the form of trophies has been few and far between.

Levy has come under intense criticism in recent months, especially regarding Tottenham's involvement in founding the now-botched European Super League - which saw six Premier League clubs sign up to create the project.

That saga, along with Tottenham's lack of trophy success in recent years, led to Spurs fans protesting against Levy and the ENIC group who help run the club to stand aside for a new voice.

Tottenham have also been criticised for making large signings in recent season that have not come to fruition.

For example, Spurs spent over £100m on midfield duo Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele in the summer of 2019, with both players now linked with exits this month after failing to make the grade.

Spurs appointed former Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici as head of football operations at the start of this season, with Levy looking for new leadership in terms of player recruitment after years of mis-spending.

Meanwhile, Sportsmail revealed this week that Wolves winger Traore was wanted by Tottenham but the club failed to stump up the funds required to take the Spanish international, with Barcelona moving ahead of Spurs in the queue of the player.

Tottenham's £37.5million pursuit of Porto winger Diaz was also high-jacked by Premier League rivals Liverpool, who are now close to confirming the purchase of the 25-year-old.