Ange Postecoglou has made it clear he doesn’t want new signings at Tottenham next season who are only driven by the chance to play Champions League football.
Spurs are involved in a tight battle with Aston Villa for fourth place, although fifth place could be enough to qualify if the Premier League gets offered another place under the Uefa coefficient, but that has yet to be finalised.
Tottenham are aiming to return to Europe’s premier club competition next season having failed to qualify for the tournament this season.
Postecoglou doesn’t want players who are only interested in Champions League football
If Tottenham qualify for next season’s Champions League it could be an important factor in helping players decide if they should come to the north London club or not.
Spurs were knocked out of the 2022/2023 Champions League by AC Milan in the last 16 and did make the final in the 2018/2019 season but lost 2-0 to Liverpool in Madrid.
Ahead of Sunday’s game with Nottingham Forest the Australian was asked in his pre match press conference if Champions League football would play an important role in convincing players to sign.
“I don’t want those players,” the Australian stated.
When asked why, the 58-year-old continued: “Because they don’t want to come to Tottenham, they want to go to a Champions League club. I signed Micky van de Ven this year, he’s not a bad player is he? And we were in the Champions League? No.”
“I don’t want those players. That’s a beautiful discussion for me to have. That’s one of the discussions I have: Why do you want to come to Tottenham? Because if you want Champions League football and that’s all you want, you don’t want to come to Tottenham; you just want to go to a Champions League club.
“I want people to come to Tottenham who know this club, know the challenge we’ve got and we do have a challenge, we’re different to other clubs in that we haven’t had success for a while, so I’m looking for a certain type of character.
“One that’s going to say: ‘You know what, they’re not in the Champions League but if I win something with them, that could mean something for my career and to me. So I’m up for that fight’.”
It looks like the race for the final Champions League spot will go down to the wire, but with Aston Villa dropping points against Brentford it gives Spurs the chance to put themselves in the driving seat for that fourth place.
Victory against Nottingham Forest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow would see Postecoglou’s men go level on points with Villa but with a game in hand.