Ex-Tottenham Hotspur boss claims Daniel Levy rejected Luis Suarez before Liverpool move

Ex-Spurs boss Jol left White Hart Lane in 2007 after three years working under Levy, who recently departed the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after nearly a quarter of a century.

The 69-year-old was initially brought to the club as assistant but quickly became the first-team boss and spent the next three seasons working alongside the ex-Spurs chairman.

In a new interview with Football.London, the Dutchman has offered his brutally honest opinion of the since-departed Spurs executive and an insight into the working relationship the pair shared.

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Daniel Levy turned down chance to sign Luis Suarez for Tottenham Hotspur

Luis Suarez at the 2010 FIFA World Cup (Image credit: MIGUEL ROJO/AFP via Getty Images)

“Sometimes I think, this man he can’t be loved, because he distances himself. In the last 18 years or so since he never phones, even when there’s a player in Holland or whatever, he never asks anything.

“Daniel is an honest guy, believe me, he’s an honest guy. He’s very well educated. He will never do you any harm, which is why he needed people around him. He relied on a small group of people.

The Spurs supremo had been chairman since 2001 (Image credit: Getty Images)

“He is not a communicator and he doesn’t know anything about football, because Daniel has got his one thing, that is business and that’s 100% the truth.”

Levy is a self-professed Spurs supporter with vast experience in football, keeping a tight grip on the club’s finances throughout his tenure.

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The businessman ensured Tottenham boasted the Premier League’s lowest wages-to-turnover ratio in recent years and was a key part of the club’s move to the much-envied Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but his preferred way of running things repeatedly clashed with supporters.

“He’s commercially unbelievable,” Jol added. “But 80% of his time, his recruitment staff were terrible. That is what I think, because people keep on criticising him about not spending money but I think they spent £700 million or so over the last four or five years.

Martin Jol at his Tottenham unveiling, 2004

“When you look at the players they’ve signed they had so many misfits. That is what I said to Daniel: ‘Why don’t you give me a phone call?’ I had Toby Alderweireld. I had [Christian] Eriksen made his debut for me.”

Some supporters may view Jol’s next statement as an indictment of Levy’s tenure, as the retired coach claims Spurs could have beaten Liverpool to Luis Suarez’s signing before the Reds snapped the Uruguayan up in 2011.

Martin Jol looks on during a friendly between Al Ahly and Roma in May 2016. (Image credit: Getty Images)

“I had Luis Suarez. I said: ‘Why didn’t you buy Suarez?’ He said: ‘Because my people said that he is almost the same type of player as Van der Vaart’.

“Huh? Suarez is a striker. With me, he played from the right, but I knew that Suarez was not the right winger, but I had Marko Pantelic as a number nine, so I used Suarez as a false wide player like [Mohamed] Salah.

“Suarez is a legend. It was £25 million, but [Daniel] didn’t listen.”

Jol coached Suarez during the 2009-10 season, winning the KNVB Cup with the Amsterdammers.