Ange Postecoglou has said that Tottenham Hotspur are “not a big club” and questioned the club’s direction, transfer strategy and expenditure in recent seasons — while also naming four Premier League stars he tried to sign.
Postecoglou was sacked by Spurs last summer, weeks after winning the Europa League, ending a 17-year trophy drought at the club.
And, speaking on The Overlap podcast on Thursday, a day after his successor at the club Thomas Frank was relieved of his duties, Postecoglou detailed the wider issues at Spurs, even confirming the truth of the tag “Spursy,” a term rival fans often use to poke fun at Tottenham’s lack of sustained silverware.
“Obviously, they’ve [Spurs] built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities,” Postecoglou said.
“But when you look at the expenditure, particularly in the wage structure, they’re not a big club. I saw that, because when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.
During a question from former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher about a lack of belief, Ange repeated the term “Spursy” and said the club’s mentality was “100%” a problem.
“That was the thing I was trying to break,” he explained. “My whole thing about winning something in my second year, I was doing that for the club.
“Nobody internally would dare say that because they were too scared, they’d been close a few times.
“Then you break that by winning something and what do you do? You tear it all up and you start again. That’s the curiosity, what are you trying to achieve?”
Postecoglou also admitted he missed out on the signings of some big Premier League names at the end of his first season at the club, with the club instead signing Dominic Solanke and three teenagers (Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Lucas Bergvall), a transfer move that hindered Spurs’ progress under the Australian.
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“At the end of my first year, when we finished fifth, for me, OK, how do you go from fifth to really challenging? Well, we had to sign Premier League-leading players,” he added.
“But finishing fifth that year didn’t get us Champions League, we didn’t have the money. So we ended up signing Dom Solanke … I was really keen on him, I really liked him. Then three teenagers.
“I was looking at Pedro Neto, [Bryan] Mbeumo and [Antoine] Semenyo at the time, Marc Guéhi, because I said we need … If we’re going to go from fifth to there, that’s what the other big clubs would do in that moment.
“And those three teenagers are outstanding young players. Brilliant young players. I think they’ll be great players for Tottenham, but they’re not going to get you from fifth to fourth.”
