Inside Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham sacking as Daniel Levy reveals awkward chat after Europa League heroics

Daily Record

2 days ago

The ex-Celtic favourite was brutally binned by Spurs just weeks after ending the club's 17-year trophy drought
Daniel Levy had doubled down on Tottenham 's decision to sack Europa League-winning boss Ange Postecoglou.
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The Spurs supremo decided to pull the trigger just weeks after Postecoglou led the North London club to European glory.
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Ex- Celtic favourite Postecoglou boldly vowed to end Tottenham's 17-year wait for a trophy and was true to his word after beating Manchester United in May's final.
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But a catastrophic Premier League campaign ended with the Lilywhites finishing fourth bottom on just 38 points - and the Aussie paid the price with his job after two rollercoaster seasons at the helm.
Levy took some heat from supporters and pundits for wielding the axe and the chairman had to justify his decision in an awkward conversation with Postecoglou.
He told the Overlap with SkyBet: "Ultimately, the decision sits with me, but it's always a collective decision.
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"We have a board of directors, but under the board, we have a group of technical staff, and they advise.
"We had to explain the decision to part ways with Ange. Ange just won us a trophy – a European trophy – highly significant and he's always going to be in our history.
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'However, we couldn't lose sight of the fact that we finished 17th in the league, we lost 22 Premier League games, and it's impossible for Tottenham to be in that position, and so we had to take the emotion out of it and we had to give some data points as to why we decided to do what we did.
"Whichever level you do it, no one likes telling somebody, 'You're losing your job', but it is the nature of football.
"We're there to win and yes, we won a European trophy – and it was fantastic – but we also need to win on all fronts – and the Premier League says it all."
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Tottenham moved on quickly from Postecoglou by luring Thomas Frank from Brentford as their new head coach.
Levy added: "Whenever you appoint a coach, you always believe it's right and you need a lot of ingredients for it to be right. Thomas Frank is a highly intelligent individual; he's got a fantastic way about him in terms of communication.
"He will be great at developing both young players and older players – and making them better.
"He gets the style of football we want to play; he understands that Rome wasn't built in a day – we haven't set him: 'You've got to win the league this year'. We just want to compete at the highest level."
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