Ramon Vega does not believe that Ange Postecoglou has been given a chance to succeed at Tottenham Hotspur, insisting that the club’s poor recruitment over the last two years has made the Australian’s job impossible.
Spurs find themselves in a very strange situation at the moment. Even though they are just one game away from a European final, Postecoglou’s future as Tottenham manager is uncertain beyond this summer.
That is natural when one considers the team’s abject results domestically this season, but many Tottenham fans have directed their anger at the club’s owners rather than at Postecoglou.
That is a sentiment that Ramon Vega shares, with the former Spurs defender pointing out that too many top managers have failed at N17 for the finger to be pointed at the coaching.
The pundit believes that just like his predecessors, Postecoglou has been hung out to dry by the owners, given their lack of emphasis on adding the required quality to the squad over the last few transfer windows.
Ramon Vega says no manager in the world could succeed with current Tottenham squad
Vega believes that the issues at Spurs lie with their poor recruitment, insisting that no manager in the world can guide a squad full of teenagers to a top-four or top-five finish.
The 53-year-old remarked that despite all that Daniel Levy and the current owners have done to improve the infrastructure at N17, they are not going to get the supporters onside unless they deliver trophies.
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Interestingly though, Vega believes that Ange Postecoglou is the right man to take Tottenham Hotspur where they want to get to and called on the club to back the 59-year-old this summer rather than sacking him.
When asked his thoughts on how Tottenham are being run, Vega told Spurs Web in an exclusive interview: “Let’s start with the positives: Tottenham have a great infrastructure. They built up a fantastic stadium and some great training ground facilities. I wish I’d had something like that when I was there. If you saw our training ground at the time, you would laugh. Now, it’s like a 5-star luxury resort.
“All of that environment has been pretty much built all great, but the one major thing is the football is still the main dominating principle driver of any football club. If you’re not successful on the pitch, you can have the best luxurious stadium in the world. You still are not going to convince the fans, simple as that.
“You might make money through non-football orientated revenue streams, and that’s what Spurs have been doing, but the whole emphasis on winning something is not there for a lot of wrong reasons.”
“First of all, they didn’t put emphasis into recruitment for a long, long time, which I think is a crucial part. That’s where you have 4-5 to up to 10 years forecast, where you can build that success over a period of time and have a certain stability.
“That stability with so many coaches going through Spurs…we are talking now within the last 5 to 6 years, nearly 3-5 coaches, and we are talking the best coaches in the world have not won anything with the club. This shows it’s not the coach’s fault anymore.
“I think Ange is a great coach who did a fantastic job at Celtic. I told everybody when Ange joined Spurs that they should be grateful that he signed up, because who wants to come to Spurs?
“This environment or support for players… Ange Postecoglou had these issues this year at Tottenham from not having this support in the summer or January transfer market and on top of that, more than half of the squad is injured. No manager in the world can actually be successful. It’s impossible.
“You’ve got 7-8 teenagers on the pitch who have no experience…it’s impossible to finish in the top 4-5 positions. That’s where we are now, and I think this is what the board has to look into. In the future, they have to support Ange, but also look into recruitment, and that’s one of the key elements they have to invest in.”
Ramon Vega doubts whether things will change at Spurs
Vega believes that the priority of the Tottenham ownership should now be to do all they can to make the team successful on the pitch.
However, he doubts if that will be the prevailing thinking at Hotspur Way, suggesting that they might continue to prioritise the bottom line.
Vega added: “Now the infrastructure is done, let’s get the football done, but I have doubts, he is going to do it because they’re looking at any penny like a business, but football is not just about that as well.
“It has to have a balance behind that, and I think if the football pitch is successful, I think the outcome of earning more money will be much higher than what they’re earning now, and I think that should focus on that now.”