Tottenham ‘are not a big club’ says Ange Postecoglou after Thomas Frank sacking

Ange Postecoglou has claimed Tottenham “are not a big club” in a scathing rebuke to his former employers after they sacked his successor as manager, Thomas Frank.

Frank was finally given his marching orders following Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Newcastle, which extended Spurs’ winless run in the Premier League to eight matches and left them languishing 16th in the table, just five points above the relegation zone.

Postecoglou was fired at the end of last season despite winning the Europa League, after finishing 17th in the league table, and then-Brentford boss Frank was earmarked to take the club forward.

And speaking to The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, Postecoglou didn’t hold back when assessing the north London club, claiming their approach means they cannot be counted among football’s big boys.

“They’ve built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities but, when you look at their expenditure and particularly their wages structure, they’re not a big club,” said Postecoglou. “I saw that because, when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.

“When you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘To Dare Is To Do’ [the club motto], and yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that. I think they didn’t realise that, to actually win, you’ve got to take some risks.

“I felt like Tottenham as a club were saying, ‘we’re one of the big boys’, and the reality is I don’t think they are.”

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Postecoglou – who became Nottingham Forest manager earlier this season before losing that job after just a brief spell in charge – also gave his opinion on the sacking of Frank.

And the Australian believes his Danish successor can have no complaints due to the poor results, although accepts Spurs are a “curious club” at the moment.

Postecoglou explained: “It’s always, having been in that position twice in the last six months, it’s tough, it’s tough [being sacked]. You know that he can’t be the only issue at the club and that’s probably every manager.

“But, ultimately that’s what we get judged on. But it goes back to me, it’s a curious club Tottenham. It’s made a major pivot at the end of last year, not just with me but with Daniel (Levy) leaving as well.

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“You’ve created a whole sort of environment of uncertainty because there’s no guarantees, no matter which managers you bring in because they’ve had world-class managers there and not had success and for what reason?

“What was the reason for such a major pivot? Thomas was walking in, what’s his objective? What’s the club’s objective? At the start of the year, obviously to compete on all fronts but the club hasn’t competed on all fronts for a long time.

“Also the most influential person at the club for the last 20 years is also going so if you’re going to do such a major pivot, you have to understand there is going to be some instability there. Did Thomas know he was walking into that? I don’t know.

“It’s a fair departure from me, anyone who studies the game, it wasn’t like it was a progression from me. I built that sort of squad for want of a better word to play a certain way for a number of years and he’s sort of coming in and like we said, it’s a curious club Tottenham.”

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Spurs are once again beginning a search for a new manager and Postecoglou thinks there is no consistency in the profile of boss they’re looking for.

He also suggests that the loss of talismanic captain Harry Kane to Bayern Munich has also been underplayed in explanations of their struggles.

He added: “If you look at the list of names (managers), there isn’t really a common theme there in what they are trying to do. I do think part of Tottenham’s DNA – for the lack of a better word – is that they do like their teams to play a certain way.

“It’s fair to say with Mauricio (Pochettino) they were going down that path, but at the same time, I think people have been too dismissive of Harry’s (Kane’s) influence through that period.

“If I had had Harry in that first year, I’m convinced we would have finished in that Champions League spot. Even him leaving, you cannot plug that hole. It’s impossible.”