'You have to learn from mistakes' - Tottenham's Daniel Levy reveals regret at hiring Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte
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Updated 20/09/2023 at 19:26 GMT+1
Speaking at a fan forum, Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy said it was a "mistake" to hire Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte. Spurs haven't won any silverware since 2008 and Levy admitted the pressure to return to winning ways forced him to lose sight of the club's DNA and chase "trophy managers". Ange Postecoglou took over in summer and has led the club to four wins from five league games.
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Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy has admitted he made “mistakes” in hiring Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in a bid to end the club’s trophy drought.
Not since the 2007/08 League Cup have Spurs lifted silverware and Levy said the “pressure” he felt to add to the club’s roll of honour caused him to change strategy and pursue a “trophy manager”.
“I want to win just as much as everybody else,” Levy said at a fan forum. "The frustration of not winning and the pressure from maybe some players and a large element of the fan base that we need to win, we need to spend money, we need to have a big manager, a big name. And it affected me.
“I had gone through a period where we’d almost won, with Mauricio [Pochettino] we went through some very, very good times. We didn’t quite get there but we came very close, and we had a change of strategy.
“The strategy was let’s bring in a trophy manager and we did it twice. You have to learn by the mistakes.”
Mourinho, who won the Premier League three times across two spells with Chelsea, took over from Pochettino in November 2019 with the club sitting 14th in the league after a dismal start to the campaign.
The Portuguese manager improved their fortunes and led them to a sixth-place finish in his first season at the helm but was sacked in April 2021 after just 17 months in charge with Spurs sitting seventh.
Conte, who had previously won Serie A with Juventus and the Premier League with Chelsea, arrived in November 2021 following Nuno Espirito Santo’s dismissal and enjoyed early success, securing a top-four finish at the end of his first season in charge.
However, the relationship between Conte and the club soured and he left in March of this year by mutual consent.
While Levy concedes those appointments didn't work out as he'd hoped, he is confident Ange Postecoglou is the "right" manager to restore Tottenham's identity, even if that means he has to wait a little longer for a trophy.
"They [Mourinho and Conte] are great managers, but maybe not for this club. For what we want, we want to play 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.
“And that’s why bringing Ange in was, from my viewpoint, exactly the right decision.”
Postecoglou took over in summer and has led the club to four wins from five league games.
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