Lord Sugar has launched an impassioned defence of Tottenham’s chairman Daniel Levy, telling fans who want him out: ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

An increasing number of Spurs supporters are losing patience with Levy after a poor start to the new season, with many holding him responsible for the club’s disastrous dealings in the transfer market in recent seasons.

But Sugar insists he does deserve any criticism for the job he has done at White Hart Lane and has pointed the finger of blame at technical director Franco Baldini for the host of big-money buys that have failed to make an impact at the north London club.

Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, the club’s former chairman: “All you can expect from a chairman is the following: to provide the money for your football staff to do what they want to do, negotiate hard and bitterly if one of your best players has got a death wish to want to leave, and to provide an environment like a new stadium or training ground and all that kind of stuff. That is all the chairman can do.

“People saying ‘Levy out, Levy out’, they don’t know what they are talking about. If Spurs are going to progress, he is their best ally. All he can do is listen to the managers that he appoints.

“They got £100million a year ago for the sale of Gareth Bale. They went out and spent it on seven players. Baldini, or whatever his name is, and Andre Villas-Boas must have had some input into that and therein lies the problem, in my opinion.

“If we have bought the wrong players and the money has been used irresponsibly, you have got to look at the person that guided you in that direction.”

Manager Mauricio Pochettino is also coming under pressure just three months into the job, with the 2-1 defeat at home to Stoke last weekend leaving Tottenham 12th in the Premier League.

But Sugar insists it is the under-performing players, not the Argentine, who should be in the firing line.

“We have got a new manager and the fans have got to be patient. We have to give the man a chance,” he urged.

“Many of these foreign players that were brought in see the Premier League as the land of milk and honey and half of them I don’t know who they think they are.

“MP [Pochettino] has got to have a very, very stern talk to those guys because they are the ones letting everybody down, including him. It is disgusting the way some of them have been playing.

“I am no football expert, but I have been watching the team for God knows how many years and you can see from the body language – a couple of guys work their hearts out and the rest of them, I don’t know what they think they are doing. They need to be read the riot act by the manager.

“The fault lies with the players, the overpaid players – God knows who they think they are. There have been no grafters on the pitch in the last two home games against Newcastle and Stoke.

“MP has got to get hold of them and realise who is going to fight for him properly and who is not and despite what we paid for them, if they are not going to work, you have got to chuck them out.”