Ange Postecoglou opinion: 24 hours of vindication for ex Tottenham and Forest boss
In his two and a half years in English football, Ange Postecoglou hasn’t been one to bury his thoughts and please people.
The infamous ‘I always win things in my second season’ amongst numerous rants in press conferences about his performance and capability at both Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest hasn’t always rubbed the public the right way.
However, Postecoglou can’t have had a more vindicating 24 hours in his career, as both his successors Thomas Frank and Sean Dyche lost their jobs with the teams firmly in a relegation battle.
The fact the Australian manager was set to appear on Gary Neville’s ‘Stick to Football’ podcast the very same day Frank lost his job created the perfect moment for Postecoglou to have the last laugh, as Sports News Blitz writer Oliver Powell reports.
Thomas Frank’s tormentous tenure
The decision to sack Postecoglou following Tottenham’s most successful moment in 17 years always made Thomas Frank’s job that little bit harder.
He was inheriting a team that, granted, finished 17th in the Premier League, yet the unity Postecoglou created in the run to the Europa League victory saw a group of players committed to run through brick walls for their charismatic leader.
The Tottenham squad flooded social media with messages for their boss who made them European champions, as fans were denied the opportunity to find out if season three really would be better than season two.
Frank’s subsequent appointment felt sensible, a manager proven at bringing stability and long-standing projects - yet he failed to ignite the same spark Postecoglou found in this group of players.
Incidents such as Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven ignoring Frank’s handshake and the ‘Arsenal cup-gate’ meant a bond was never built that could replicate the Postecoglou connection to the players and fans as their heroic leader.
Sitting 16th following a 2-1 home loss to Newcastle United, and just two wins in the previous 17 Premier League games, Frank was given his marching orders.
And the decision by Daniel Levy, Vinai Venkatesham, Johan Lange and the Lewis family to replace the bold Postecoglou with the down-to-earth Dane has aged sourly.
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Dyche makes it a hat-trick at Forest
Working with Evangelos Maranakis hasn’t proven to be the easiest task, as Sean Dyche joined Nuno Espirito Santo and Postecoglou in finding out on Tuesday night.
On the back of a stellar season where Nottingham Forest secured European football, Nuno fell out with Maranakis and sporting director Edu at the beginning of the 2025/26 campaign, before entering stage left was Postecoglou.
The Aussie returned to the Premier League in the blink of an eye, yet found himself back out of a job just 39 days later having barely scratched the surface in instilling his radical change of football on the Nuno team he inherited.
Forest reverted to a pragmatic manager, with Dyche asked to steady the ship - and now 111 days later Maranakis is searching for his fourth permanent manager of the season after a 0-0 draw with rockbottom Wolves at home.
Dyche felt a safe pair of hands, he ended up having the best win percentage of any manager in Forest’s Premier League history, and yet it is Vitor Pereira who will be tasked with moving the club away from a relegation scare.
Postecoglou failed to win any of his eight games at the City Ground, not exactly providing a sample size to justify any further time in the hot seat, but with Dyche now out the door there’s reason to suggest maybe backing Ange’s high-risk football could’ve reaped rewards in the long-term.
The interview that seemed too good to be true
As fate would have it, Postecoglou ended up in conversation with Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Jill Scott just minutes after Frank’s exit from Tottenham was announced.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Neville had pulled in the Aussie in the aftermath of the news, but incredibly he was due to appear on the podcast that day anyway.
Postecoglou strolled in with a broad smile on his face, declaring ‘some timing ay,’ knowing he was about to be afforded the opportunity to call out those who commissioned his Spurs departure in favour of Frank.
The headliner was “they are not a big club” but Postecoglou went on to reveal just how unambitious he believes the Spurs hierarchy are.
Postecoglou said: “When you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘to dare is to do’, yet their actions are the antithesis of that. To actually win, you have to take some risks.”
It’s hard to argue with the 60-year-old, and most Tottenham supporters will tell you Postecoglou is echoing the thoughts of the faithful who have had to put up with underwhelming performances and a failure to pursue glory.
Transfer policy was Postecoglou’s other key qualm, stating that he wanted proven Premier League quality but doesn’t believe the board were aligned in the same objective of success.
Postecoglou said: “We had to sign Premier League proven players, we ended up signing Dom Solanke and three teenagers.
“I was looking at Neto, Mbuemo, Semenyo, Guehi. That’s what other big clubs would do.
“When was the last time Tottenham signed somebody and you went ‘wow!’ It’s not the transfer fee, but the wages to attract.”
He also added he couldn’t ever see Spurs spending £100 million on Declan Rice as Arsenal did to build a title-winning squad.
The end of both Frank’s and Dyche’s tenures brought a moment of consideration for Postecoglou’s double firing in the past year, with both sides now scrambling for solutions to avoid incomprehensible relegations, and the unwavering ego of ‘Big Ange’ stands proudly justified with the grass not proving to be greener.
