Ange Postecoglou gives his two cents on the criticism levelled by Hugo Lloris at Daniel Levy and discusses his own dealings with the Tottenham chairman until now.
Hugo Lloris lifts lid on Daniel Levy’s bizarre gift
Excerpts from Hugo Lloris‘ upcoming autobiography were published in The Guardian this week, and the former captain revealed a shocking detail about a gift that the Tottenham players received four days before the 2019 Champions League final.
The Frenchman revealed that the players received watches which had their names and the words ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’ engraved on them and that the gift was not well received by the squad.
The goalkeeper said: “At first, we were excited to see the elegant boxes. Then we opened them and discovered that he’d had the back of each timepiece engraved with the player’s name and ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’.
“Who does such a thing at a moment like this? I still haven’t got over it, and I’m not alone. If we’d won, he wouldn’t have asked for the watches back to have ‘Winner’ engraved instead.
“I have considerable respect and esteem for the man and all he has done for the club as chairman – I got to know him – but there are things he is simply not sensitive to. As magnificent as the watch is, I have never worn it. I would have preferred there to be nothing on it. With an engraving like that, Levy couldn’t have been surprised if we had been 1–0 down after a couple of minutes: so it was written.”
Ange Postecoglou reacts to Lloris’ comments
Postecoglou has now pointed out that there are always two sides to every story, insisting that the Tottenham chairman’s version would have been a lot different to Lloris’
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He pointed out that there have been countless times in his own career when he perceived events very differently from others he was working with.
When asked about the former Spurs man’s comments, the Tottenham head coach responded (via Football.London): “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 they affect us.
“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.”
Ange Postecoglou on working with Daniel Levy
The Tottenham head coach refuted suggestions that Levy is not focused on helping Tottenham win on the pitch. The 59-year-old insisted that from the moment he joined the club, no one at N17 has curtailed his ambitions of wanting to make the club successful.
Postecoglou added: “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.”