The Tottenham sporting director has opened up on the club's current predicament, sacking Thomas Frank, appointing Igor Tudor and the transfer window
Johan Lange has made it clear that the next Tottenham head coach must play attractive, attacking football and understands why his own position is under pressure.
The Dane is among those at the club trying to pick up the pieces after his and the board's decision to sack Ange Postecoglou and replace the Australian with Thomas Frank backfired with Spurs currently sitting 16th in the Premier League and only five points above the drop zone.
Frank was jettisoned just seven months into his tenure and now the club have parachuted in Igor Tudor, known for his ability to make quick impacts at clubs across Europe, in order to steer the Lilywhites away from the prospect of what would be a disastrous relegation.
In order to prevent the Croatian from having to answer questions galore in front of the cameras at his first press conference about matters that came before his arrival, Lange sat down first at Hotspur Way to face those questions himself from a group of journalists about his and the club's decisions over recent months.
The first topic of discussion was having to play his part in the sacking of Frank, someone he has known for decades, after the hiring of the former Brentford manager soon turned sour amid woeful results and the fanbase turning against the 52-year-old.
"We as the leaders constantly evaluate performances, evaluate results and after the Newcastle game, we made the decision," Lange told football.london. "Ultimately, it was a board decision but we made the decision and that was why we decided it was the right time to change."
Lange, CEO Vinai Venkatesham and then chairman Daniel Levy had gone through a detailed and rigorous selection process involving more than 30 candidates being whittled down to just four using 10 different criteria yet still ended up with the wrong man in Frank. So does that shake the foundations of that process and pour doubt upon using it again?
"No, I think when you make a decision, you're always making the decision that you're confident is the right one at the time," admitted Lange. "We evaluated, and we wanted to give Thomas every opportunity to succeed. But ultimately, it's also our responsibility to make the decisions and we came to that point where we saw the performances, the results, and then you come to that decision."
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Lange was left as Spurs' lone sporting director after Fabio Paratici quit just three months into the job to return to Italy and a role at Fiorentina.
The Dane has found himself in the firing line as the focus of plenty of fan disgruntlement and speculation over his position. The 46-year-old, who is on a standard workplace contract with no fixed end date, is fully aware that with Frank's failure, criticism over the transfer window and another manager without a squad able to compete in all competitions as well as the team's perilous position, his own position will be scrutinised.
"I, of course, accept my responsibility at all times, but every decision that I make and we have made has been in the best interests of the club," he said.
"I think when you work for a big club like Tottenham, then pressure, or whatever you want to call it, is part of it. I’m sitting here today because I want to take responsibility for the club, everything that comes into football.
"Part of being here is expectations. That is part of why it’s fantastic to be here because if you are working for a big club there are big expectations, but also big opportunities and big possibilities. If you work for a very small club, if you work for a club with less fans, then maybe there’s less pressure or expectation. I think we are a big club and we work with high expectations and that is why I personally, really, really love working here because of the expectations."
Postecoglou said last week in a podcast interview that Tottenham did not act like a big club during his tenure when it came to competing with other sides for new signings because of the restrictive wage structure but Lange reiterated Venkatesham's statement that players' salaries were being addressed.
"I’m not going to sit here and start commenting on an ex-club employee’s comments. I think Vinai in his notes earlier this year made it known in the match day programme that we, as a club, need to grow our wage bill to be competitive," he said. "We were also linked, I think Thomas commented on players in January, and it was definitely not because of a lack of ambition or effort from our side that those players are not here today."
Tottenham supporters though are tired of hearing who the club tried but failed to get in transfer windows, a running theme over the years. As Venkatesham himself said in his message to the fans, it's about actions rather than words and Lange understands the frustration.
"Yeah. One hundred per cent, that is the only thing. Of course, it’s actions, that is the only thing, but when you are in any transaction it does take three parties. It takes a player to agree and we are not in control if a player makes a career choice to join another club, then that is unfortunately outside our control," said the former Aston Villa man.
So what exactly happened in a transfer window that brought a net spend of just £13million after all the talk of ambition with the arrival of Conor Gallagher and Souza and the departure of Brennan Johnson as injury after injury weakened Frank's squad and left Tudor with just 13 players training in his first week in charge?
Lange launched into a lengthy explanation when asked whether the club could have signed more players as the long-term injuries piled up.
"It’s a good question. What is very important to say is that on the one hand we have a short squad and on the other we also had players who could not be registered for European competitions because we have too many players," he said. "It is without doubt, especially during January, that we had too many injuries. Every time we played we lost players. It’s something we are constantly reviewing with the greatest level of seriousness.
"I think if you are unpicking the injuries we had in January, a few of them were contact injuries. Odobert, the knee goes or Ben Davies or Lucas Bergvall or Kevin Danso. Four of the injuries are contact injuries but of course it has been across the league that all the teams in European competition are suffering from injuries and that is something we are taking very very seriously to make sure we optimise everything for less injuries. Our new performance director [Dan Lewindon] started last week and that is just one step in that direction."
He added: "Just 10% of all transfers happen in January and 90% in the summer. I personally believe the new European format changed the dynamic a little bit around the window because I remember my first year here before the new format, you had four teams in a group. A lot of teams would be out of the reckoning by October or something like that and then they would play their next competitive game around this time.
"Now we are playing a different format it means every point counts. You go into matchday eight, but almost every team in Europe had something to play for whether that was better seeding or top eight. You are playing through December and not in the beginning of January but the last part of January. You are playing two very competitive matches with the fact that not only us but a lot of teams have what they would say is too many injuries.
"That meant that in January very few players who could make a difference for us now or in the future were available. Then it’s back to the point even though the squad is too short we still have players we are unable to register for the last 16. So to bring in players that cannot help us now or we don’t believe have potential for the future, that unfortunately for me doesn’t make sense.
"If you analyse all the transfers in January everyone can see there were very few players available. That is reality and then looking towards the summer the message has been clear from the owners of the club, Vinai has been on record saying this. I have been saying this as well and very happy to repeat it that the sole focus of this club is to create on pitch success.
"It is to be competitive across different tournaments and, very importantly, an ingredient in doing that is if you have a squad capable of competing in multiple fronts and we are not there yet but that is the clear vision."
Now Tudor must find a way forward with Spurs' reduced numbers and the Croatian stood out in the managerial interviews that Lange and Venkatesham conducted in the week after Frank's dismissal. His experience at firefighting at various clubs like Juventus, Lazio and Udinese (twice), although he is not believed to be keen on his reputation as a short-term gains coach, meant the 47-year-old pushed himself to the front of the pack.
But what made the former Marseille boss a better bet for Tottenham than going for a manager with Premier League experience for the battle ahead?
"When you make the decision around Thomas, it’s very important to go into a shorter process than if you are changing a head coach over the summer," explained the sporting director. "We interviewed a few candidates. Igor impressed us very, very much in the interview.
"We also managed to take references of him and he comes in with very big experience at the highest level in football and as a player, playing for a very, very big club, one of the biggest clubs in the world in Juve, he was part of this very good generation of Croatia national team in the late 90s.
"He has shown the capabilities of coming into clubs around this time, February, March, and also big clubs, and made an immediate performance impact. That was a very big reason. There is a big difference, if you are a coach for example, who has only started a new job on July 1. You have six or seven weeks to prepare to get to know the club. I’m not saying that necessarily it's easy, but that’s a different challenge.
"If you come in here on the Monday and you are playing at the weekend, you need to build relationships with the players immediately and assess the style of the club immediately. He has shown that with great success, not only once but a few times, to come into that. That is one of the reasons why we believe he is the best candidate here now but also with his reputation and what he’s done in his career, of course, if things go well, he could be here for a long time."
Tudor is yet to be reunited with his go-to assistant coach Ivan Javorcic with his fellow Croatian's arrival part of an ongoing process but Bruno Saltor's presence will help in the meantime.
"When we made the appointment of Igor, we had conversations around bringing in an additional assistant coach so Bruno is a very, very highly thought of," said Lange. "We had conversations and me and Igor had conversations together with Bruno and he will come in and work as part of the staff.
"Bruno has been here as a player with Brighton, he worked at Brighton, Chelsea and West Ham for ten years or something like that. It’s not only about the head coach, it’s also about the staff. Andreas [Georgson] our assistant/set-piece coach also worked at three different clubs in Arsenal, Manchester United and Brentford and here as well.
"We have a lot of staff that you don’t know who have a wealth of experience working with different coaches and being in the league, so I understand your question but there’s more to it than one particular category."
There has been speculation that Paratici had provided one of the references when Spurs looked into Tudor's background and while Lange would not be drawn on the identities of those who helped in the process he appeared to distance the Italian from the operation.
"Who we spoke to I don’t think is relevant, but of course Fabio stopped working here at the beginning of February and it’s us who are working here who made the decision," he said. "Who we spoke to that Igor worked with in the past it, be it executives, be it players, etc, we like to keep confidential."
Tudor is currently only on a short-term contract until the end of the season but has the chance if he succeeds to put his name into the frame for the long-term job in the summer.
Lange repeatedly swerved talk of finding the club's next permanent manager, stating that all focus was on the current situation and getting Spurs back up the table, but he did admit that after Frank's playing style failed to impress the fans, the next head coach would have to bring the right style to the club.
"It is definitely something high up on the list. We are very ambitious to create a team that can play dominant football and control matches with the ball for a few reasons," said the Dane. "If you look across almost every league in the world, that is how the top teams normally are successful – able to dominate possession, create chances, be aggressive without the ball and that is of course the football.
"Then we are also a club with a rich history of having some of the best offensive players in the world and having a very particular style of play that resonates with the history, resonates with the fans and that combined with having a possession-dominant, aggressive style of play, those two things go hand in hand. Of course that is something that is important for us here at the club."
The Tottenham supporters have sung repeatedly for Mauricio Pochettino's return so will the Argentine be one of the name's on the club's shortlist come the summer after his duties with the USA at the World Cup are done, as it would be an easy win for the hierarchy?
Lange would only say: "Igor has been here for five days. That is our focus and I am not going to comment on any names that have been linked to the job."
The Tottenham sporting director speaks with Venkatesham frequently each day and was asked whether both men realise the gravity of the club's current situation and the unacceptable position it currently finds itself in?
"We have just changed the coach. We are very clear that we think we have a team that has the potential to do more, so the focus right now is to get higher up the table and then we are in the Champions League. We are in the last 16 of the Champions League, so I think the rest of the season is to get as high as possible in the Premier League table and be super competitive in the Champions League," he said.
"I am sure you have been to many great nights at the stadium in Europe over the last two seasons and it is our hope that we can create more magic moments in that tournament, but we also know that we need to get higher in the table.
"When you work in sport, across football or individual sports, it is about performances. It is about focusing on the performance. When you are among players or coaches, the focus is on the next training session, the next game. That is the reality, but of course we know where we want to go to as a club and we can come back to that, but the focus right now is in the moment. That is to be super competitive in all matches, get high up in the table and create fantastic moments in the Champions League."
Will Tottenham's future involve captain Cristian Romero beyond this summer with the Argentine believed to have grown weary of what he sees as a lack of ambition from the club?
"Romero is here, he is our captain. He is here on a long-term contract with the club," said Lange before adding on the World Cup winner's repeated social media outbursts aimed at the hierarchy: "We have been clear as a club that we have dealt with that internally and now it is about being together, all of us and finish the season here in the best possible way in the league and in Europe as well."
