Ange Postecoglou gives new verdict on current Spurs troubles

Martin Macdonald

• 12 Mar 2026 08:15 CDT
• 5 min read

News

Former Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou says the current squad look "lost" under current interim manager Igor Tudor.

Postecoglou led Spurs to their first European trophy since 1984 last season when they won the 2024/25 Europa League, though he was sacked not long after due to the club's 17th-place finish in the Premier League.

Brentford's Thomas Frank was brought in to take over, but although the club qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League, they were poor domestically and he was also eventually sacked.

Tudor was brought in as a firefighter as Spurs now find themselves in a very real relegation battle, but he has not catalysed anything within the dressing room and performances on the pitch have arguably been worse.

They have had a catastrophic week as in a Champions League tie on Tuesday they lost 5-2 against Atletico Madrid, with three of the goals coming from disastrous mistakes. Two of those mistakes came from goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky who was surprisingly thrust into the starting XI by Tudor.

He was substituted by Tudor 30 minutes into the game.

Postecoglou says it hurts to see his former players in this situation both domestically and now in Europe.

"It pains me to see it," the Australian told TNT Sports.

"It looks like the players are fairly lost at the moment. There's obvious pressure there and it's a real difficult time. It all manifested itself in what happened last night - kind of the worst case scenario playing against a side away from home in Atletico who never drop their performance level. It was a horror start for them.

"There is no way that anyone objectively would say these players are performing at the levels they're capable of. You've got to try and ease the pressure on them. Even last night, I thought it was tremendous opportunity for them because they've done well in the Champions League, they're on the good side of the draw. Atletico away's tough but you've still got to take them back to Tottenham.

"I'm sure they've trained on that pitch before but the amount of times they were slipping over, I think that's still pressure, a real desperation in everything you do. Mentally, you're desperate and that manifests in a physical way, rushing things. It's hard to comment from the outside but for me it's about instilling some belief: show them the players they are, not the players they can be."

Next up for Tottenham is a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool and Postecoglou has urged the players to find the grit and determination they used to win the Europa League to try and avoid making history as the first ever Spurs team to be relegated from the Premier League.

"If I was there now that's what I'd be saying to them: don't go into history for the wrong thing now," the former Celtic manager explained.

"There's a great motivation for you, don't be the group that takes a backwards step now, because they were the group that brought success after 17 years [by winning the UEFA Europa League].

"Let me tell you, for us to win the Europa League last year, if there wasn't character we wouldn't be able to do it. We were under pressure last year too but I saw a group of players absolutely focused on creating something special. It exists."

Tottenham 'not a big club'

Postecoglou previously caused a bit of controversy when he claimed that Tottenham were not a big club with how they conduct themselves in the transfer market.

Speaking on the Overlap, he said: “You know, when you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘To dare is to do’. It’s everywhere. And yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that. It’s really curious in terms of understanding what they’re trying to build. What are they?

“There’s obviously been huge investment – they’ve built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities. But when you look at the expenditure, particularly the wage structure, they’re not a big club. I saw that first-hand because when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.

“They’re not a big club in terms of the wages they pay. The transfer fees might not be the biggest in the league, but they’re always there or thereabouts. However, there’s a cap on wages that won’t be broken.”

Postecoglou claims he was not given the required backing from the board to sign players like Pedro Neto, Bryan Mbeumo, Antoine Semenyo or Marc Guehi.

He continued: “At the end of my first year, when we finished fifth, for me it was: OK, how do you go from fifth to really challenging? Well, we had to sign Premier League-ready players.

“But finishing fifth that year didn’t get us into the Champions League, so we didn’t have the money. We ended up signing Dom Solanke, who I was absolutely keen on – I really like him – and three teenagers.

“At the time, I was looking at Pedro Neto, Bryan Mbeumo and Antoine Semenyo, Marc Guehi as well, because I said if we’re going to go from fifth to there, that’s what the other big clubs would do in that moment.”

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