Ange Postecoglou admits something strange about Tottenham sacking

Ange Postecoglou has said his sacking from Tottenham was "unusual" mainly because it has never happened to him before and he did think it would finish after winning a trophy.

The 60-year-old ended Spurs' 17-year trophy drought as he led the club to their Europa League triumph in Bilbao against Manchester United in May. However, Postecoglou was sacked just weeks later because of the club's 17th-placed finish in the Premier League as Postecoglou prioritised the European competition, a decision that did not go down well with some within the Tottenham hierarchy.

He was replaced by Thomas Frank in N17 and now Postecoglou has a new job after taking over from Nuno Espirito Santo as the head coach of Nottingham Forest and in his first press conference on Thursday he was asked about his departure from Spurs.

"It was unusual because it's never happened to me before. It's the first time I've been sacked. It's the first time I've had an off-season off. You wonder about the next opportunity. What I did know was I really keen to go to a club that would give me the platform to continue what I've been doing in my career," he said.

"If you asked me at the start of the year if a job with Nottingham Forest was a possibility then I'd have said no because of the job Nuno had done. The opportunity presented itself and I was here to take it."

On that exit from Spurs, he added: "It wasn't great, I knew it was coming before the final. It wasn't a surprise. We had the parade but I knew it was done. From my perspective you have a chance to process that. We put the Spurs supporters through some tough times but there isn’t a Spurs fan that I have come across that doesn’t hug me and want to take me out for dinner, so I must have done something right!"

Postecoglou is taking over from Espirito Santo, a former Tottenham manager himself, he said: "It's the nature of football. You don't really know what circumstances you'll take over. Until Steve Cooper took over the club, they weren't looking as though they were going to be in the Premier League. They've had two excellent managers who have done fantastic work.

"You certainly don't know when these things come to an end. I certainly didn't think I would finish up after winning a trophy."

The former Spurs boss has been mocked for his attacking football over the years and he was quick to knock that criticism down.

"If you look at my first year at Spurs we finished fifth. Fifth would've got you a Champions League spot any other year. And we were really aggressive with our football," he said. "People say it doesn't work. But finishing fifth after taking over a team, and we'd just lost a generational talent in Harry Kane.

"My last year was a different year for sure and we had to adjust the way we did things, and it bought us success. But I'm never going to go away from my principles. I want my team to play football and it's exciting, it gets people talking. From my perspective I'll always try and do things a little bit differently."

He added: "They're missing everything because they're not watching what I do. I do love my teams to attack and score goals, but the one constant in my career is everywhere I've gone I've won things. Sometimes that's done in a slightly different way. If you go back to the start of my career I've played every system there is. Three at the back, four at the back, five at the back.

"I've done 4-4-2 for a whole season. It's a challenging world. There used to be a melting pot of different ideas and opinions. It seems to be a melting pot of the same opinion these days. It'd be nice if everyone took a step back."

On winning trophies in his second year, the Australian said: "I have won things in my first year. I won the double at Celtic. So yeah [I do win trophies in my first year]. I may have to to have a second year here!"

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