A theme of Ange Postecoglou’s first press conference as Tottenham head coach was the Australian’s mission to transform the club’s culture, as well as the team’s style of play.
In a 55-minute briefing at Hotspur Way on Monday, which was predictably dominated by the future of Harry Kane, Postecoglou promised to return Spurs to “aggressive” and “dominant” front-foot football but repeatedly referred to the need for a different approach off the pitch, too.
“The reason I’m here is because the club is seeking change,” he said. “A change of direction, a change in the way we do things.”
Last season, Kane claimed Spurs had lost some of the “values” and “standards” that made the club successful under Mauricio Pochettino, and a return to these ideals under Postecoglou will also be key to keeping the England captain onside.
For Postecoglou, this cultural reset starts with people, and he suggested he would be ruthless with players and staff who do not fully buy into his approach.
“My philosophy on culture is it’s just people,” he said. “It’s people who define an environment.
“It’s very easy to come in and say, ‘This is what I want the culture to look like’, but [if] I’ve got people who don’t fit in it, who don’t have the characteristics or behaviours [it won’t be successful].”
He added: “I have been and I will be clear around my expectations around what I think we need to be like as a group of players, a group of staff and as a football club, and I don’t think that’s too far from the kind of things that Harry was talking about.”
Postecoglou believes new signings James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario are the right kind of “characters”, and who stays and who goes this summer will be as much down to attitude as quality.
Asked about Tanguy Ndombele, for example, he acknowledged that the maverick midfielder is “very talented” but “may decide it is not for him”. Postecoglou added: “There isn’t a person who comes through these gates who shouldn’t come through with a smile on their faces, particularly the footballers. It starts there.
“If you have an appreciation and respect of your environment and the people there, I think it gives you a good chance to create something.”
The 58-year-old could leave senior players who do not want to be at the club off the flight to Perth for the first leg of the club’s tour on Friday evening, but says the trip will be a useful gauge of which players fit his ethos.
“I would really like as many of the group along as possible, because it is the best way to figure out how we set up our environment and sort of the culture around the group if everyone is there,” he said. Postecoglou’s upbeat rhetoric and refusal to dampen expectations should appeal to supporters after 17 months of Antonio Conte’s consistently playing down the club’s chances.
Postecoglou expects any future success to be underpinned by something more significant than simply desire.
“I love winning. I don’t do any job unless I think I can win,” he said. “That’s going to be my intent. I also have a real strong belief in the way that should happen — the way we play, the way we train, the way we behave.
“The really successful teams, [winning] underpinned by something stronger, something in that organisation that makes them winners beyond just wanting to win.”
