Ange Postecoglou was thrust back into the Tottenham headlines earlier this week.
Postecoglou criticised the ownership for their lack of transfer spending in his final summer at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
He bemoaned the fact that he wanted Antoine Semenyo, Pedro Neto, Bryan Mbeumo and Marc Guehi and instead ended up with Dominic Solanke, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert.
Speaking on the Overlap podcast on 12 February, he said: “At the end of my first year, when we finished fifth, I felt we had to sign Premier League-ready players. But we weren’t in the Champions League, so we didn’t have the money, and ended up signing Dominic Solanke and three teenagers.
“I was looking at Pedro Neto, Bryan Mbeumo, Antoine Semenyo at the time and Marc Guehi, because if we’re going to go from fifth to there (Champions League), that’s what the other big clubs will do in that moment.”
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Postecoglou vindicated with Tottenham spending comments
John Wenham believes that Postecoglou was right to say what he did about Tottenham‘s board, especially the part about their ambition, with his quotes vindicated.
Speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, he said: “He didn’t say anything too controversial at all for me, he questioned the club and this ‘to dare is to do’, but not matching that in the transfer market, and he is completely bang on with that.
“Really pleased he brought that to attention, because Tottenham fans, other than Fulham, pay the highest season ticket prices in the Premier League and do not see that ambition reflected in the transfer market.”
What do the numbers say?
The numbers prove that Postecoglou was hamstrung in the market in his time in North London.
While Spurs were willing to fork out £151million on the players that he ended up with, they are understood to be on a combined £315,000-per-week in wages.
Meanwhile, the targets that he wanted to sign, were signed for a combined £201.5m and receive a combined figure of around £710,000-per-week from the clubs that they ended up signing for.
That is the difference between the top clubs, who are constantly fighting for the biggest trophies and clubs who are on the periphery hoping to somehow catch up.
The Lilywhites ranked ninth in Deloitte’s money league in January 2026, with a revenue of approximately £588m, which ranks closely behind Liverpool (£730m), Manchester City (£724m), Arsenal (£718m) and Manchester United (£693m).
That suggests that the money is there to compete, but they choose not to invest and bring the squad up to the standard that it needs to be.