James Lawton: Levy has failed to learn lessons of Tottenham's past

Among the more legitimate criticisms of the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy at last night's annual general meeting was surely the charge that he is an extremely slow learner.

Among the more legitimate criticisms of the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy at last night's annual general meeting was surely the charge that he is an extremely slow learner.

His insistence on the European-style structure of a director of football working alongside a manager has once again been exposed as a working illiteracy in the context of the English game. George Graham, Glenn Hoddle and now Jacques Santini have all made the same point: football managers, if they are worth their salt, have to manage.

Now that the wisdom of Bill Nicholson is no longer on call, Levy should do himself a huge favour and talk to Arsène Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson and ask them how happy they would be to have a football director shaping their working lives. It would be a brief but highly instructive conversation.