Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven has described the club’s decision to sack head coach Ange Postecoglou as “strange”.
Postecoglou was dismissed last week, 16 days after winning the Europa League — the club’s first trophy in 17 years — with a 1-0 win over Manchester United in Bilbao and on the second anniversary of his appointment.
The Athletic reported on Monday that Spurs had made contact with Brentford over appointing Thomas Frank as Postecoglou’s successor.
The Australian, 59, guided Spurs to a fifth-place finish in the Premier League during his first season in charge. But their form plummeted last term, and they lost 22 times on the way to 17th place in the top flight — their worst finish in the Premier League era.
Van de Ven was one of Postecoglou’s first signings and the centre-back questioned the decision to sack him after scoring for the Netherlands in an 8-0 victory over Malta on Tuesday evening.
“He is the first coach in a long time who has won a trophy and has had success at Spurs,” the 24-year-old told Voetbal Zone. “So if you look at it that way, it is of course a strange choice.
“It is a choice from the club about which we (the players) have little to say, so we will see what happens now. Of course, we see some rumours about the Brentford head coach (Frank), who it will probably be. So yes, a choice from the club about which we have little to say.
“I think many of the players got along with (Postecoglou) well. He is the first coach who has brought success to Spurs in a long time. That also shows that he has a certain quality. That also means that he has a winning mentality. 100 per cent.
“From that, you would of course say that it is strange that he was fired. What we have shown in the Premier League is, of course, unacceptable. That would, of course, have multiple factors, but that would not only have been the coach.”
Talks are ongoing between Spurs and Brentford around Frank about a £10million ($13.5m) compensation fee and which members of his backroom staff would join the Dane in moving across London.
(Photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
