Ange Postecoglou makes Daniel Levy statement after Hugo Lloris' Tottenham criticism

Ange Postecoglou has had his say on Hugo Lloris' comments about Daniel Levy and the club's ambition and stated that he does not feel restricted in what he wants to achieve at Tottenham Hotspur.

In an extract from his upcoming autobiography, Lloris spoke about the Spurs squad all being given luxury watches by Levy, four days before the 2019 Champions League final, engraved with the words ' Champions League Finalist 2019'. The Frenchman felt that meant the club were happy simply to get to the final.

Then when Tottenham lost in Madrid to Liverpool, the former captain got the impression at the post-match reception at the team hotel that some people from the club were "not sufficiently despondent at having lost....when I returned to my room on the night of the final, I think I had the same feeling as Mauricio [Pochettino] and Harry [Kane]: does the club really want to win? Real Madrid would never have celebrated a lost final, and we shouldn’t have either".

Postecoglou was asked about Lloris' comments and the suggestion of Spurs not really wanting to win and then what his impression of Levy had been after 18 months of working with the chairman.

"In my own life, people will often talk about experiences they've shared with me and I've got a totally different view on it to what they have. Both of us are speaking the truth. We all have our own truths for these things and we look at things through the prism of how it affects us," he said.

"I think Hugo's - and again I haven't read it, so I don't want to take it out of context - but Hugo's talking about his own experience but is that the experience of everyone? I'm sure Daniel had a different view on it and if you asked him he'd have a different type of context to why it transpired that way.

"I think when something doesn't work, it's very easy in a post-mortem to look for reasons why. I never think it's just one. I think it's bigger than that. It would have been a very different story if it had have gone the other way, because it was a pretty tight final as well.

"My dealings with Daniel anyway at the club... I haven't changed from the moment I took on this task. I know what ambitions I have for this football club and there's been nothing here that I feel has curtailed me achieving what I want to for this football club. A lot of that is in my own power, I control a lot of that. The rest of it is trying to get people along for the ride and to believe in what we're trying to do."

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Spurs have won just a single trophy during Levy's tenure at the club - the 2008 League Cup - so would a piece of silverware for the long-awaiting fans change the impression of the club to the outside world?

"It depends what you’re talking about, in terms of I’ve always said I don’t see just a trophy as the panacea for sustained success. There’s plenty of evidence that is not the case. Not here, sport in general. Winning the league is a bit different but to sustain that is not easy," said the Australian.

"Sustained success is what I talk about a lot. It’s a lot deeper than just winning a trophy. When you're at a club of this size that hasn’t won, people think that’s the missing piece. But what I’ve been trying to rail against since I’ve been here is that it’s not just the missing piece. It’s about more than that, it’s about a clear idea of what you’re going to build, how you’re going to build and staying true to that.

"The biggest part of that is whatever sort of comes at you externally, it’s not important what people say about you, it’s how you respond to it. That’s much more important, both positive and negative - your response to it. Unless you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to do you’ll be jumping at shadows all the time.

"So I could be going, let’s just win a trophy this season and everything will be fine, but if we win a trophy, finish 10th and five games into next year I get sacked - not that it’s about me - but then the club has to change direction again. So have you really done anything? I don’t think so.

"That’s where I try to stay really clear on for us as a club we know what we want to achieve for sustained success. Does that include trophies? Absolutely. But it’s not going to be one simple thing that opens the floodgates. I don’t believe that."

Pochettino was battling against the Roman Abramovich-bankrolled Chelsea, Pep Guardiola's early Manchester City side and Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool. Now Postecoglou has a multiple-title winning City side to contend with, with Liverpool and Arsenal pushing them, if he is to push Tottenham up among the elite.

However, the Spurs boss does not believe that the gap to those at the top of the table makes it more difficult for him to realise his ambitions.

"Not necessarily. For the most part you’re competing against clubs who go through a period of sustained success, whether it’s City or Liverpool before or historically Manchester United and Arsenal. There's always clubs that have that," he explained. "What you want to do is try to become one of those clubs where you try to go through that period where for this next part we’re going to be one of those clubs.

"That’s where you’ve got to try and get to but there’s always going to be clubs who have dominant periods, most of them off the back of a clear and stable process with not a lot of change and a clear pathway forward. That’s where we are at the moment. Whether that comes to fruition, time will tell. But irrespective of what the competition is doing that’s got to be our aim and ambition - to be one of those clubs that are up there for a number of years."

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