Spurs think they are a big club, but they’re wrong

Ange Postecoglou has accused Tottenham Hotspur of thinking they are “one of the big boys” but never acting like an ambitious club during his two years in charge.

Postecoglou, 60, said Tottenham are the “antithesis” of their “to dare is to do” club motto, citing a lack of ambition in the transfer market.

Spurs won the Europa League under Postecoglou but finished 17th in the Premier League last season, losing 22 matches, their most defeats in a league campaign since 1934-35.

Postecoglou was replaced by Thomas Frank, who was sacked as Spurs head coach on Wednesday. Postecoglou then took over at Nottingham Forest, where he lasted 39 days.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Postecoglou said: “Tottenham as a club were saying ‘we’re one of the big boys’ and the reality is I don’t think they are, in terms of my experience over the last two years. When Arsenal need players, they’ll spend £100million on Declan Rice. I don’t see Tottenham doing that ever.”

Daniel Levy left his role as Tottenham’s chairman last summer and the club’s new hierarchy, led by the chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, have indicated they want more focus on sporting success.

Yet fans were left frustrated at the end of the January transfer window, during which Spurs signed only Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid and Souza, a 19-year-old left back, from Santos.

“When you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘to dare is to do’. It’s everywhere. And yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that, right?” Postecoglou said. “You give credit to Daniel [Levy] because that path has got to a new stadium, new facilities — by taking a safe path. I think what they didn’t realise was that, to actually win, you’ve got to take some risks at some point.”

Tottenham finished fifth under Postecoglou in his first season and he said he wanted the club to push on that summer, when Spurs spent close to £150million on Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert.

“When you look at the expenditure, particularly in their wage structure, they’re not a big club,” Postecoglou said. “I saw that because when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.

“I mean at the end of my first year when we finished fifth, for me it was, ‘OK, how do you go from fifth to really challenging?’ We had to sign Premier League-ready players, but finishing fifth that year didn’t get us Champions League, we didn’t have the money, so we ended up signing Dom Solanke — who I was really keen on, I really liked him — and three teenagers.

“I was looking at Pedro Neto and [Bryan] Mbeumo and [Antoine] Semenyo at the time, Marc Guéhi, because I said, ‘If we’re going to go from fifth to there, that’s what the other big clubs would do in that moment.’ ”

Postecoglou said the “Spursy” tag is justified and there was a lack of belief about winning trophies. “I remember the day of the Europa final,” Postecoglou said. “Everyone in the hotel was really calm, and I remember it was one of the few times actually Daniel came in and we had a coffee in the morning and he said, ‘Everyone’s really relaxed.’ Even he was, and the only thing he said to me, which was bizarre as a motivational point, he said something like, ‘Oh, you know what? I’ve been in seven finals or semi-finals and we haven’t won one.’ ”

Postecoglou said Frank had come to a club full of “instability”, after Levy left last summer, and that the former Brentford head coach was a “fair departure” from himself in terms of style of play. Postecoglou believes people have been “too dismissive” of Harry Kane’s influence during Mauricio Pochettino’s five years in charge and that with the England captain, his team would have finished in the Champions League qualification positions.