Ange Postecoglou admits he is embarking upon a complete cultural reset at Tottenham Hotspur.
And he believes that starts by getting the right people in the door. The new Spurs manager has already signed James Maddison and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, with more to follow and a number of players certainly heading the other way.
Whether captain Harry Kane – a target for Bayern Munich and others – will be among them remains to be seen. Postecoglou will hold face-to-face talks with the club’s record goalscorer for the first time on Wednesday, and their conversation will follow Kane’s admission that he feels Tottenham have strayed from their core values in recent seasons.
The 29-year-old will find a new manager who is determined to change that. And Postecoglou believes he and Kane will be aligned on what must be done to make those changes happen.
“My philosophy - 'philosophy' - I hate using buzzwords… on culture, to me it's just people,” the Greek-Australian explained. “It's people who define an environment. It's very easy to come in and say this is what I want the culture to look like but I've got people who don't fit in it, who don't have the characteristics or behaviours.
“So that's the first thing you've got to understand is what kind of people we have. The values that I hold dear are reflected in a lot of the values this football club have in terms of the way you play football but my basis for culture and behaviour is that we're all very fortunate to do what we do.
“There isn't a person who comes through these gates shouldn't come through with a smile on their faces, particularly the footballers. It starts there. If you have an appreciation and respect of your environment and the people there, I think it gives you a good chance to create something. Sometimes people need direction with that.
“If there's no clear direction and clarity around what that is supposed to look like people can go off and do their own thing. I understand that. I have been and I will be pretty clear around my expectations around what I think we need to be like as a group of players, a group of staff and as a football club, and I don't think that's too far from the kind of things that Harry was talking about.”
Key to that, he says, will be Maddison. A £40m buy from Leicester City, Postecoglou sees him as a creative spark, a goalscorer and a leader. The manager feels Spurs have been overly reliant on their forward line for goals for too long, and is certain the former Aberdeen loanee can bring an added threat.
“Really excited to get him as part of the group,” Postecoglou said. “Any manager will tell you that part of the key to being a dominant team is having multiple attacking threats and having a midfielder who can score and create goals, they're not easy to come by. He's proven himself at that level in the last few years, as somebody who can do that.
“When you look at Tottenham the last few years, they've been really reliant on the front three to get their goals. I thought it was a really good fit for us to look for a player like James - even better if we could get James. So we ended up getting James.
“I was really pleased and the fact that we did it early was great because it allows him to have a break. He's had the birth of twins so I don't know what shape he'll be in when he gets here. But once we get him in, it means he can come on the tour with us and I know he's really excited about joining the group.
“He obviously knows a few of the lads. And I think he's in a stage of his career where it feels like he can be a leader, which is great as well because we need players who want to embrace that responsibility within this group, whether it's their first year in or they've been here for ages. We're going to need leadership on the field and he feels like he can be a player who does that."
