Daniel Levy faces £4m compensation bill to sack Ange Postecoglou

Telegraph

2 days ago

Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy will face a compensation bill in the region of £4 million if he decides to sack Europa League-winning head coach Ange Postecoglou.
And that would be on top of the £2 million bonus Postecoglou earned for ending Tottenham's trophy drought and guiding Tottenham into next season's Champions League.
Postecoglou still has two years remaining on his Tottenham contract and it is understood the terms of his exit before that date were agreed prior to his appointment two years ago.
It is understood that Postecoglou has now returned to England from holiday and will soon be provided with clarity over his future.
Telegraph Sport reported in April that Postecoglou had been heading towards the Spurs exit regardless of whether his team won the Europa League.
Tottenham's victory over Manchester United in the final and the resulting celebrations put Levy under huge pressure and left him with one of the toughest decisions of his long reign.
The price of replacing Postecoglou, should he decide to do so, could cost well over £10 million in total given that appointing his successor could also land Levy with a compensation bill. Brentford's Thomas Frank is among the leading candidates to replace Postecoglou, along with Fulham's Marco Silva.
Telegraph Sport this week reported that Tottenham are facing the biggest shake-up of the Enic era, with Levy's right-hand woman Donna Cullen and first-team coach Ryan Mason already confirming their exits.
It is anticipated that those departures will be two of many, with Postecoglou waiting to hear if he will be sacked, chief football officer Scott Munn's future in doubt and questions arising over Matthew Collecott's role as operations and finance director.
Vinai Venkatesham started work as chief executive officer this week and he has already advertised for a business operations lead to work under him.
Sources believe the shake-up, which is expected to be far reaching, could be the prelude to fresh funds being pumped into the club by Enic, who are keen to remain in control of Tottenham, or in the form of outside investment.
Enic provided £122.1 million in owner funding since their 2001 takeover to June 2024, the equivalent of just £5.3 million per season. The majority of that came from a £97.5 million share issue in May 2022, which had initially been announced as being worth up to £150 million.
Since Enic's £97.5 million share issue, a total of 13 English clubs received more owner funding, while the owners of Tottenham's rivals Aston Villa have poured over £600 million into the club since their takeover in 2018.
Enic did invest £35 million in the club in January, but Levy made it clear that Tottenham will not spend money they do not have with the club's net transfer debt standing at £279.3 million.
Even with Champions League qualification and £200 million-worth of profit and sustainability rules headroom, that would put Spurs in the position of needing to sell to buy this summer without investment from Enic or elsewhere.