Ange Postecoglou has revealed what officials at Tottenham were telling him when he decided to prioritise the Europa League in 2024-25, and his interaction with Daniel Levy at the end of the season.
Postecoglou managed to take Spurs to the Europa League title in 2025, thus bringing to an end the club’s 17-year trophy drought.
While Tottenham were favourites to win the competition at the start, with the Europa League going into a new format where Champions League teams no longer dropped into it, the Australian had to overcome many hurdles to get his hands on the piece of silverware.
Spurs were in the midst of a major injury crisis during the second half of the campaign, with Postecoglou deciding to rest many of his key players for Premier League matches, and prioritising the European fixtures.
Ange Postecoglou reveals what Tottenham top brass felt about prioritising Europa League
The 61-year-old has now revealed that his decision to prioritise the Europa League over Premier League matches was not popular across the club.
Ange Postecoglou shared that he even wanted to have a go at Tottenham officials in the dressing room after winning the trophy at Bilbao.
He said on The Howie Games podcast: “I felt like I was dodging the bullet all the way through that second year, the league form wasn’t great, but I make no apologies for that. I went all in on winning the Europa because I thought that was just too important for the football club.
“It wasn’t just about winning a trophy, which was the most important thing, but it gets you into the Champions League, which means Champions League money. That made a lot of people uncomfortable. It made a lot of people uncomfortable outside of the club; it certainly made a lot of people uncomfortable inside the club. I don’t think they agreed with that strategy; they made it clear they didn’t agree. Unfortunately for them, unless they removed me, that was going to be the strategy because I just felt it was the best way forward.
“I kind of knew ever when we won it, I told my wife ‘this will be the last game’, I was convinced they were going to get rid of me now. I didn’t get the sense from people around the club who were going to be part of the decision making process, a lot of them are still there, I never got the sense that they were sort of all in on me and what I was trying to do. It was bizarre, that night in Bilbao, they were all in that room, and there was a little part of me that was like ‘I should really go and have a crack at them now. I felt like ‘you’re enjoying this, but I know what you’re going to do next’.”
Postecoglou refused to meet Daniel Levy as he knew sacking was coming
The former Tottenham head coach revealed that he refused to cut short his holiday to have a meeting with Daniel Levy at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The Australian admitted that he knew he was going to get sacked, and confessed that he was disappointed with the outcome as he felt he could have built on the Europa League win the subsequent season.
Postecoglou added: “My agent Frank said Daniel Levy wants you to come back (from holiday) and have a meeting, he wants to have a chat with you.
I was in Greece and I said look I’ll get on a flight and come back and he said ‘Daniel wants to see you’ and I said ‘I don’t really want to see him, what’s he going to say to me? I know what he’s delivering, if it was good news, I would’ve just got on with my holiday.
“So I said don’t worry, just finish it off and we’re done, and that’s how it ended. It wasn’t a shock, it was disappointing because I felt like I’d done the hard yards, what they wanted and what everyone wanted, and I felt we could build from that.”