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Ange Postecoglou has sunk the boot into lowly Tottenham, claiming his former team are 'not a big club'.
Spurs are in crisis having just sacked Postecoglou's replacement Thomas Frank and are sitting 16th in the Premier League having won only two of their last 17 league matches.
The Australian manager was dismissed as Tottenham boss at the end of last season, despite winning the Europa League - which was the first trophy in 17 years and first European silverware in 41 years.
Appearing on Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast moments after Frank was axed, Postecoglou was frank about his time with Spurs, claiming their spending suggested they were not in the same ball park as England's biggest clubs.
He also revealed several players we wanted to sign at Spurs, with all four now joining one of the big four clubs in England.
"It’s real curious in terms of - what are they trying to build?" Postecoglou said.
"They’ve built an unbelievable stadium, unbelievable training facilities. But when you look at the expenditure particularly you know in their wages structure, they’re not a big club. I saw that because when we were trying to sign players, we weren’t in the market for those players.
"They’re always there or there about (on transfer fees but there’s a cap on wages).
"At the end of my first year, when we finished fifth, how do you go from fifth to really challenging? Well, we had to sign Premier League-ready players.
"But finishing fifth that year didn’t get us Champions League. We didn’t have the money, so we ended up signing Dom Solanke — who I was really keen on — and three teenagers [Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert].
"I was looking at Pedro Neto, [Bryan] Mbeumo, [Antoine] Semenyo, and Marc Guehi, because I said, if we’re going to go from fifth to there [gestures higher], that’s what the other big clubs would do in that moment.
"And those three teenagers are outstanding young players, and I think they’ll be great players for Tottenham, but they’re not going to get you from fifth to fourth and third."
Postecoglou was sacked by Tottenham chief Daniel Levy days after the Europa League final, but the Australian claims he knew he would be axed around four months earlier.
"I knew I was gone probably around the end of January, early February," he said.
"I said to the coaches, ‘Look, we weren’t in a relegation [battle], we’re in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, I think we can win it’. And that means not just winning a trophy, but that also means Champions League football.
"I said, ‘But the reality is, get your helmets on because every week we’re going to be copping it. I’ll take that. Don’t worry, I’ll take the responsibility for that’. But also, if we get knocked out of any stage of the Europa League, I said, I’m pretty much sure it’s over.
"So I knew I was gone, because you get a sense of that with the conversations you have about people. No one was talking to me about the transfer window or pre-season next year, so you kind of know, and that was fine. I didn’t understand it."
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