Ange Postecoglou has insisted that Tottenham’s world-class infrastructure was not one of his main reasons for taking the job last summer, explaining that he was attracted by the challenge of bringing success to a club that had been devoid of it recently.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been a great money maker for the club in recent years, making it the envy of the Premier League and many others throughout Europe.
Furthermore, Spurs take great pride in having one of the top training facilities in the league, and new players are always left in awe the moment they set foot on Tottenham Way.
Postecoglou made it plain that he would have accepted the position even if the team had not boasted of its facilities, even if he agreed that the infrastructure is a significant advantage that helps Tottenham stay competitive with the greatest teams in Europe.
Postecoglou wants to turn Spurs into winners
When asked if the stadium was a major draw for him, the Spurs head coach told Football.London: “It’s a fantastic stadium and the facilities at the training ground are fantastic, so you factor that into it, but it wasn’t the reason I came to Tottenham.
“When you talk about trying to compete at the highest level, you see how important it has become to have other revenue streams. I think for where we are as a club at the moment, without that ability to generate revenue from outside just the football, we would have been in a more difficult position to continually have a team that can compete at the highest level against some of the other clubs.
“The main reason I joined this football club, more than anything else, and I get it, it’s the Premier League, I’m earning decent money, it’s high profile, it’s got a great stadium, great facilities, [but] it hasn’t won anything for a while.
“That’s why I came. That’s the biggest attraction. If they were playing out of the back of some other stadium, it wouldn’t have made a difference to me. I see a really big club which hasn’t had success for quite a while and it’s a great challenge for me.”
Postecoglou made it clear that he has no intention of hiding behind the guise of continuously building a project for the future, insisting that he wants to deliver success sooner rather than later.
He added: “Progress is not just an endless road, progress has an objective of being successful. When does that happen? I was hoping it would happen this year but it didn’t so the plan is for it to happen next year.
“At the same time you have got to understand that progress is really messy. It’s disheartening and dispiriting – and it can really knock your enthusiasm because it’s not linear. You are going to cop some blows along the way and I know that is still ahead of us.
“We have had to manage a few this year so you understand the progress I’m talking about leads to success. If not, the next time you’ll be asking questions, it won’t be me and you’ll be asking them to another guy. My purpose for being here is to help this football team succeed.
“My goal for this year was to become the goal for next year; the sooner this happens, the better for me and the football team.”
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’s main advantage isn’t that it makes the team a desirable destination for prospective newcomers. In Europe, there are many underperforming teams with fantastic venues.
The stadium was crucial because it was the only way we could compete in the long run with the top teams on the continent, and its potential for revenue production gave us a significant advantage in the
