Daniel Levy breaks silence on Ange Postecoglou sacking: ‘We want to win the Premier League'
Daniel Levy has broken his silence on sacking Ange Postecoglou and said that winning the Europa League was not good enough.
The Tottenham Hotspur chairman declared that 'failure is not an option' as he set Postecoglou's successor as head coach, Thomas Frank, the target of winning the Premier League. Tottenham last won the league in 1961.
'You saw the outpouring of emotion with the parade. It was just incredible. We've won a European trophy,' Levy said after Tottenham's triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao.
However he then added: 'But it's not enough. It's what we haven't done that is more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win.'
As expected Postecoglou was sacked – described as a 'unanimous decision' by the Spurs board – just 16 days after winning Spurs first trophy for 17 years and their first European trophy in 41 years which also qualified them for the Champions League.
However Spurs finished 17 th in the Premier League, their lowest ever placing, having lost 22 of their 38 games, and this prompted the club to dismiss Postecoglou and bring in Frank from Brentford.
There were no comments from Levy in the announcement to sack Postecoglou because – apparently – it was regarded as that collective board decision. He therefore talked for the first time about why it happened to Spurs' in-house media team where he sat alongside the newly appointed chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.
'You know I have got very broad shoulders. Failure is not an option,' Levy claimed. 'The desire to succeed - because it is so difficult I want to succeed even more.
'I'm very grateful to Ange. I don't regret appointing Ange. In his first season we finished fifth and in our second season we were over the moon to win the trophy.
'But we need to compete in all competitions and we felt that we needed a change. I've got an excellent relationship with him. I've told him he's always going to be part of our history.
'Himself and his family are always welcome back. It was a collective decision. It wasn't my decision. We do everything together. Emotionally it was difficult but we believe we've made the right decision for the club.
'Whenever you have a new coach it's always a fresh start. You always have different ideas. But we want to build on the success of winning a trophy last season.
'One of the things that stood out to me with Thomas is that he's clearly highly intelligent. Great communicator. Super human being. Plus all the other technical aspects that are obviously important.'
Venkatesham explained that Spurs 'defined 10 characteristics that we think are important to be a successful manager at Tottenham Hotspur' as they identified Frank as their first-choice.
'We analysed in real detail, through our technical staff led by Johan [Lange, technical director], more than 30 candidates. We had a shortlist. We spent a lot of time at the shortlist,' he said. 'And Thomas was absolutely the number one candidate.'
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