Incoming Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has delivered a classy message to Ange Postecoglou, branding the departing Spurs boss a “legend” following his controversial axing.
Postecoglou was stood down at Spurs manager 16 days after leading Tottenham towards a 1-0 Europa League final triumph over Manchester United in Bilbao, ending the club’s 17-year trophy drought.
Despite helping Tottenham book their spot in next season’s Champions League campaign, the Spurs board came to a “unanimous decision” to sack the 59-year-old, who presided over a dreadful Premier League campaign where the club finished 17th with 22 defeats.
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Postecoglou was swiftly replaced by Frank, who speaking for the first time since his appointment praised the Australian for his contribution to the club and made it clear his goal was to win more silverware.
“Huge congratulations to the club, to the team … huge congratulations to Ange,” Frank told the club’s website.
“He will forever be a legend at Tottenham. It’s very important to understand that we all stand on the shoulders of others so I am going in on the foundations that Ange has built. I’m very humble about that and I’ll do my very best to continue the great work he put in.
“But the feeling and excitement, the joy and happiness you could see in the fans’ faces (after the Europa League win), the pictures you saw were … wow! Hopefully we can create more of those moments. That would be the ultimate dream to do that and build on that. Hey, no one can say they are not winners; the team and the players are winners.”
Frank, who had previously managed Brentford since 2018, declared that Tottenham would play “aggressive, front-footed football” under his guidance with the intent of turning Spurs into “serial winners”.
“I know the ethos and the history of the club is massive on attacking football and there is so much attacking talent in the squad,” Frank continued.
“I’m very, very big on principles … what we do in the final third in terms of creating chances, crosses, bring balls in the box, play (in) behind.
“I always say this one-liner — if you don’t take risks, you also take risks. So it’s important we take risks. Risk is you need to play forward. If you don’t risk the ball, you can’t create things. We need to be brave.
“For me, if they lose the ball by trying, it’s never a problem. But if they don’t work hard? I struggle more with that. That’s my non-negotiable. We need to take risks. If we don’t take risks, it’s impossible to achieve something big.”
He added: “There’ll be ups and downs - right now, it’s a fairytale. Everyone’s happy, the sun is shining, it’s fantastic.
“We haven’t played one game yet. Hopefully we’ll win a lot. We’ll work very hard every single day to make sure we create as many magic moments for the fans and put them together and at the end of the season we’ll have had a very good season.”