Ange Postecoglou managed to win the Europa League at the end of last season with Tottenham Hotspur.
A 17th place finish in the Premier League, however, wasn’t enough for the Australian to keep hold of his job and he was replaced by Thomas Frank.
Postecoglou wasn’t dealt a great hand to start with at Tottenham. He lost Harry Kane and despite that he managed to start well with the team and qualified for the Europa League during his first season in charge.
However, last season was a complete and utter disaster. He had to essentially sack the Premier League off to focus on Europe amidst an injury crisis that was largely brought on due to his high demands in training.
Postecoglou might feel hard done by with recruitment, however, and now a reputable journalist has claimed the former boss really wanted a Chelsea star added to his ranks.
Ange Postecoglou wanted Pedro Neto
Postecoglou tried to sign Gallagher on a number of occasions at Tottenham and he might now feel a bit annoyed that the deal will go over the line.
However, he wasn’t the only player he wanted from Chelsea, with Neto also on the manager’s radar along with Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke.
The only player that Postecoglou got over the line at Tottenham was Solanke and his time in North London has been riddled with a number of niggling injury problems that have hampered his progress.
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Barclay said on his YouTube channel: “He really wanted experience in that first summer. I’m told he wanted Pedro Neto and he wanted Conor Gallagher. Obviously, Tottenham only got Solanke out of that trio.”
Tottenham were right to get rid of Postecoglou
There is no way that Tottenham could have persisted with Postecoglou and although the Europa League was won, it proved a real basket case of a season.
Frank might not have showed his true colours just yet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but he does have the credentials in the Premier League to suggest he can revive the team’s fortunes.
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Postecoglou’s way of playing was all over the place at times. As he recently proved at Nottingham Forest, his ultra attacking football was hard to pull off and frankly it wasn’t sustainable.
Neto would have been a quality signing for Tottenham based on what he’s done for Chelsea and it must hurt Postecoglou to see Frank getting backed in January when he very rarely was during his time at the club.