Tottenham 'not a big club' says Postecoglou after Frank sacking

Ange Postecoglou has launched an extraordinary critique of his former employers, declaring that Tottenham Hotspur “are not a big club” in the wake of head coach Thomas Frank’s dismissal on Wednesday.

Frank, who succeeded the Australian in the dugout, paid with his job after Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle left Spurs only five points above the Premier League relegation zone. The Dane’s exit marks the second managerial change at the club in barely half a year, a churn Postecoglou knows only too well: “Having been in that position now twice in the last six months, it’s tough,” he told The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast.

The 60-year-old, who steered Tottenham to Europa League glory against Manchester United in 2005 but was still sacked after subsequent league struggles, argues that Frank’s removal merely scratches the surface of deeper institutional flaws. “You know that he can’t be the only issue at the club,” Postecoglou said. “It’s a curious club, Tottenham. It’s made a major pivot at the end of last year, not just with me but with Daniel [Levy] leaving as well, and you’ve created this whole sort of environment of uncertainty.”

Despite their self-styled status as a ‘Big Six’ outfit and the presence of one of England’s most technologically advanced stadiums, Spurs’ trophy haul tells a different story. The north Londoners have been crowned champions of England only twice—in 1950-51 and again in 1960-61 when Bill Nicholson’s celebrated side completed the league-and-FA Cup double—an achievement matched historically by second-tier Portsmouth.

Postecoglou, whose own reign ended amid poor domestic returns, insists the club’s problems are structural rather than managerial. “There’s no guarantee whichever manager you bring in—they’ve had world-class managers there and they haven’t had success,” he noted, referencing ill-fated spells for Terry Venables, George Graham, Harry Redknapp, José Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

The Australian points to a chronic lack of investment in playing personnel as the root cause. “They’ve built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities but, when you look at their expenditure and particularly their wages structure, they’re not a big club,” he said. “I saw that because, when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.”

Postecoglou also accused the club of betraying its own ethos. “When you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘To Dare Is To Do’, and yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that,” he added. “I think they didn’t realise that, to actually win, you’ve got to take some risks. I felt like Tottenham as a club were saying, ‘we’re one of the big boys’, and the reality is I don’t think they are.”

With Tottenham’s season teetering on the brink and another managerial search under way, Postecoglou’s blunt assessment raises uncomfortable questions about ambition, identity and whether the club’s self-image matches its on-pitch reality.