Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy appears to have aimed a subtle dig at former managers Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in the first meeting with Spurs' new Fan Advisory Board (FAB). Alongside the main aim of the initiative, which is to improve fan engagement and thus allow representatives from the widest sections of the fanbase to have their say, ongoing situations at the club will also be discussed.
Given the recent appointment of Ange Postecoglou and the summer transfer window on the verge of opening, those two topics were also discussed. In the conference call, Levy made his thoughts surrounding the recent transfer decisions made by the club with a slight jibe at Mourinho and Conte.
"The notion that Tottenham haven’t backed certain managers is incorrect," he was quoted as saying by the club. "We're currently paying the price, perhaps, where some of the acquisitions have not turned out to be as we hoped."
Conte and Mourinho were each handed over £100million to spend on new signings across their respective spells at the club, but no marquee signing made in the last few years is yet to fully take off.
Rodrigo Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski and Cristian Romero have shown real glimpses of their quality, but are yet to do so for a prolonger period of time, mostly because of injuries to all three former Juventus stars.
Postecoglou will be hoping to get the very best out of the trio, and it's clear to see why Levy chose the attack-minded Australian when explaining the thought-process behind the appointment in what could be considered another slight dig at Conte and Mourinho, who have been criticised for their styles of football both before joining and while in charge at Tottenham.
Levy added: "We made a conscious decision that we wanted a coach who would understand what we really wanted as a club, which was to play attacking football, to enable everyone to enjoy coming to a match and be entertained, and also someone who understood the importance of the academy."
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Following the confirmation of his arrival as Spurs manager for the 2023/24 season, Postecoglou delivered his first words to the supporters on Friday. "Hi everyone, it's great to finally get started as manager of this great football club," he said in a video message on the club's social media channels.
"I'm really looking forward to our task ahead. I think it's an exciting opportunity for us to now sort of set off in a new direction, play football and create an environment that embodies the values and traditions of this fantastic football club.
"Hopefully a team that you can all be proud of and more importantly, get excited by. I can assure you that right through pre-season, we won't leave any stone unturned - myself, the staff and the players - to make sure that when the league comes around that you'll all be excited as I am about the season ahead.
"So I really look forward to seeing everyone at the stadium, in particular at our first home game, and look forward to the journey ahead."
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