June 18 – In ‘Ange we Trust’ sang Tottenham Hotspur fans, however, the chairman of the club, Daniel Levy didn’t feel the same way releasing Ange Postecoglou from his job 16 days after the Australian brought home the clubs first European trophy in more than 40 years.
Levy, who has a reputation as the most cold-blooded chairman in football claimed that the decision was “emotionally” difficult.
“I don’t regret appointing Ange, I’m very grateful to Ange. In his first season we finished fifth and in his second we were over the moon to win a trophy,” Levy told the club’s media team.
“But we need to compete in all competitions, and we felt that we needed a change.
“Emotionally it was difficult but we feel that we’ve made the right decision for the club.”
One would think that emotion is a strong word for Levy though as Postecoglou has now gone though 12 permanent managers in his 25 years at the club.
“I’ve got very broad shoulders,” Levy said.
“Failure is not an option, the desire [is] to succeed. And because it’s so difficult, I want to succeed even more.”
New Spurs coach, Thomas Frank has signed a deal that will supposedly keep him at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium until 2028. He won’t be the only new boy as he’ll be joined by chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, who along with Levy was instrumental in prying him away from Brentford.
“We ran a really, really thorough process – at speed,” Venkatesham said.
“We defined 10 characteristics that we think are important to be a successful manager at Tottenham Hotspur, we analysed in real detail, through our technical staff, more than 30 candidates.
“We had a lot of time with the shortlist and Thomas was absolutely the number one candidate.
“We could not be more excited to have him join the club.
“Personally, one of the things I’ve excited about is that he is an outstanding developer of young players so I really look forward to seeing what he can do with the squad we have here.”
Levy added: “Whenever you have a new coach, it’s always a fresh start. [There are] 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 was that he is clearly highly intelligent, a great communicator, super-human being plus all the technical aspects which are obviously important.”
If I had any advice for Frank, it would to keep a suitcase packed by the door.
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