Jamie Carragher was left flabbergasted after Gary Neville claimed Tottenham do not yet want to invest in a new permanent manager.
Spurs sacked Antonio Conte more than a week ago following his furious outburst after a draw with Premier League basement boys Southampton. Conte's assistant Cristian Stellini has been placed in caretaker charge until the end of the season, with his first game being a draw with Everton on Monday.
Several managers are available to take over immediately, including Graham Potter and Julian Nagelsmann. But Neville believes that Levy is holding off from making a permanent appointment for financial reasons, something that Carragher could not believe.
"He's [Levy] left in Conte's number two and the suggestion will be that's been done because he doesn't want to invest in a manager at this point in the season," Neville told Sky Sports, to which Carragher replied: "Really?"
Neville was insistent though, saying: "In that management team that Tottenham will want, let's say that's a Jose, a Conte, a Nagelsmann, you're talking £10m-£15million for the manager and his staff."
Carragher continued to query Neville, interjecting by saying: "There's only a month of the season left." But Neville highlighted the fact that there is still months left of the financial year, which could be playing a part in Levy's thinking.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who should Tottenham appoint as Antonio Conte's successor? Comment below.
"There's three or four months of the financial year left after the end of the season so if you bring someone in now, that will cost about £5m or £6m. They might just think we'll save that money, keep him in till the end of the season. I'm not saying that's right," he added.
"That might not have been able to get the manager they wanted, but I don't think he helps himself by leaving Stellini in. If you have a sporting director like Spurs have and you have a lot of experience, you have to be mobile and agile enough to get it right.
"Ralf Rangnick came in at United last season and it didn't work at all. Roy Hodgson's gone in at Crystal Palace until the end of the season, that look like it may work. I'm not saying it's perfect, but to me if you're looking for a change of direction, you don't leave the sacked manager's number two in."
Carragher also slammed Levy for creating a "mess" with the fallout from Conte's departure. And he insisted that Tottenham are facing a challenging situation as they decide who to appoint as Conte's successor.
"When you talk about other clubs, they were thinking 'we're going to get rid of this manager'. Tottenham wanted Antonio Conte until he did that press conference. So, it wasn't like, you should always be prepared for something to happen," he said.
"You're talking about Paratici, who did an interview on the back of Conte going saying 'this is the right thing to do'. When you talk about the mistakes of Daniel Levy, and we defended him in the first hour, the biggest mistake is what's happened with Paratici.
"It's a mess. So you have to level that at Daniel Levy's door, but for Conte to do that and then think 'what manager are we going to get?'. I mean the level of managers that they'll want, it's not an easy position they find themselves in."
