{"id":464274,"date":"2026-02-12T13:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464274\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:44:07","slug":"ange-postecoglou-claims-tottenham-are-not-a-big-club-in-damning-assessment-tottenham-hotspur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464274\/","title":{"rendered":"Ange Postecoglou claims Tottenham are \u2018not a big club\u2019 in damning assessment | Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham are \u201cnot a big club\u201d because of their refusal to pay the major wages for top-level signings. The manager who led them to Europa League glory<\/a> last season before being sacked also feels the dreaded \u201cSpursy\u201d tag is \u201c100%\u201d real and is another factor holding them back.<\/p>\n

Postecoglou finished fifth in his first campaign in charge in 2024 but missed out on Champions League qualification, the revenues from which he suggested are fundamental to Spurs in the transfer market. When he wanted to strengthen in the summer of 2024, the Australian was unable to land many of the players he targeted. Spurs added Dominic Solanke<\/a> and three teenage talents \u2013 Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities but when you look at the expenditure, particularly their wages structure, they\u2019re not a big club,\u201d Postecoglou told the Overlap\u2019s Stick to Football podcast. \u201cI saw that because when we were trying to sign players we weren\u2019t in the market for those players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought: \u2018How do you go from fifth to really challenging? Well, we had to sign Premier League-ready players. But finishing fifth that year didn\u2019t get us Champions League and we didn\u2019t have the money, so we ended up signing Dom Solanke, who I was absolutely really keen on, I really like him, and three teenagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking at Pedro Neto and [Bryan] Mbeumo and [Antoine] Semenyo, Marc Gu\u00e9hi. Because I said if we\u2019re going to go from fifth to up there \u2026 that\u2019s what the other big clubs would do. Those three teenagers are outstanding young players and they\u2019ll be great players for Tottenham, but they\u2019re not going to get you from fifth to third and fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is: \u2018To Dare Is To Do\u2019 [the club motto] and yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that. I think they didn\u2019t realise that, to actually win, you\u2019ve got to take some risks at some point. I felt like Tottenham as a club were saying: \u2018We\u2019re one of the big boys.\u2019 And the reality is I don\u2019t think they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Arsenal need players they will spend \u00a3100m on Declan Rice<\/a>. I don\u2019t see Tottenham doing that. But it\u2019s not the transfer fee. It\u2019s the wages to really attract \u2026 I mean, when was the last time that Tottenham really signed somebody who you go: Wow!\u201d<\/p>\n

Postecoglou tried to confront the issue of the collective mentality in the early weeks of last season with his famous \u201cI always win in my second season at a club<\/a>\u201d quote. He delivered in the Europa League final against Manchester United, despite the misery of a 17th-placed Premier League finish and the knowledge, as he put it, that he knew \u201cend of January, early February\u201d he was going to be dismissed.<\/p>\n

Fans arrive before a Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: \u2018There\u2019s no guarantee whichever manager you bring in. They\u2019ve had world-class managers and they haven\u2019t had success. And for what reason?\u2019 Photograph: Bradley Collyer\/PA<\/p>\n

It was put to Postecoglou that the problem was nobody actually believes Spurs will win trophies. \u201cIt is. Look, Spursy,\u201d he replied. \u201cOne hundred per cent there is. And that was the thing I was trying to break. My whole statement about winning things in the second year \u2026 I was doing that for the club because no one internally would dare say that because they were just scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI even remember on the morning of the Europa League final, Daniel [Levy, the then chairman] came in and we had a coffee. The only thing he said to me, which was bizarre as a motivational point, was something like: \u2018I\u2019ve been in seven semi-finals and finals and we haven\u2019t won one.\u2019 But I know why he said that. Because of that [mentality].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019ve got that and that does exist, absolutely. And then you break that by winning something and what do you do? You tear it all up and you go again. What are you trying to achieve? The biggest thing you had hanging over you is this Spursy tag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spurs sacked Postecoglou\u2019s successor<\/a>, Thomas Frank, on Wednesday after a run of two league wins in 17 games, with the club lagging 16th in the table. \u201cYou know that he can\u2019t be the only issue at the club,\u201d Postecoglou said. \u201cIt\u2019s a curious club, Tottenham.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made a major pivot at the end of last year, not just with me but with Daniel leaving as well, and you\u2019ve created this whole sort of environment of uncertainty. There\u2019s no guarantee whichever manager you bring in. They\u2019ve had world-class managers and they haven\u2019t had success. And for what reason?<\/p>\n

\u201cThomas is walking in and what\u2019s his objective, what\u2019s the club\u2019s objective? If you\u2019re going to do such a major pivot, you\u2019ve got to understand there\u2019s going to be some instability there. Did Thomas know he was walking into that? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham are \u201cnot a big club\u201d because of their refusal to pay the major wages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-464274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}