Tottenham chief Daniel Levy admits Mourinho and Conte mistake as he says ‘pressure from some players and fans got to me’

DANIEL LEVY confessed he made mistakes by hiring Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

Mourinho was brought in 2019 as the replacement for Mauricio Pochettino – who had taken Spurs to the Champions League final – but lasted only 18 months.

While fellow Premier League winner Conte had a similarly short tenure before leaving in March this year, before current chief Ange Postecoglou took over in June.

Chairman Levy admitted he felt “pressure” to appoint a “big-name” boss to end the club’s long wait for a trophy – which neither Mourinho nor Conte managed to do.

Ironically, Tottenham look in a better place under lower-maintenance Postecoglou, though we are only a few games into the season.

Speaking at a fans’ forum at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Levy said: “The frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and from a large element of the fanbase, that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, we need to have a big name, it affected me.

“I had gone through a period where we’d almost won. With Mauricio we went through some very good times. We didn’t quite get there but we came very close and we had a change in strategy. The strategy was ‘let’s bring in a trophy manager’.

“We did it twice and look, you have to learn from your mistakes. They’re great managers but maybe not for this club.

“For what we want, we want to play in a certain way and if that means it has to take a little bit longer to win maybe it’s the right thing for us. That’s why bringing Ange in was from my point of view the right decision.”

Levy was speaking to 250 Spurs fans on a five-person panel that included Postecoglou and captain Son Heung-min, hosted by BBC broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake, on Tuesday night.

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One of the subjects in the hour-long Q&A, which was followed by open questions, was about Spurs’ controversial involvement in the doomed European Super League project.

Tottenham were one of a few clubs who caused uproar by holding conversations over it in 2021 – before the whole thing fell apart amid fan fury.

Yet Levy explained any involvement Spurs had was only “in the best interests of the club”.

He said: “Under the new rules with the Premier League we can’t consider leaving the Premier League without their consent and the FA’s consent.

“All I would say to you is that we always act in the best interests of this club and I stand by the decision that we made, that we were prepared to have a conversation regarding the European Super League.

“It was not leaving the Premier League, it was about forming a new European league that would have continued at the same time as the Premier League, but we felt that it was a disaster for a lot of reasons but I stand by my decision that I was acting in the best interests of the club.”

Levy was also quizzed about match-day ticket price increases, claiming there will be a “complete review of all of our ticket policies” and laid bare the financial impact of the pandemic on the club, amounting it to “£200million”.

He hailed the impact of Postecoglou who has reintroduced free-flowing, attacking football to Spurs after the pragmatic styles of the last three managers. Levy likened it to having “our Tottenham back”.

A key contributor to Postecoglou’s thrilling approach has been £45m summer capture James Maddison, viewed by many as the best signing in the Premier League this summer.

Yet Levy joked the England star must realise there is a certain colour of vehicle that is vetoed at the club – because of its association to arch-rivals Arsenal.

The supremo quipped: “James needs to learn that he can’t come to the training ground in a red car. I’ve told him. He’ll learn.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk