Ange Postecoglou has now been told that he allowed one of the best to leave Tottenham.
The Australian has not even been at Spurs for 12 months yet, but has already – ruthlessly – cleared out a number of fringe players from his squad, including Harry Winks, Davinson Sanchez, Lucas Moura and Hugo Lloris.
Clearly, the man born in Greece had no room for sentiment after replacing Antonio Conte in N17 – as some of those names could be considered cult heroes at Spurs, such as Lucas and Lloris.
However, there is one player Ange Postecoglou offloaded at Tottenham who is now receiving strong praise from a national media outlet…
Ange Postecoglou told he let one of the best depart Tottenham in Eric Dier
Well, the 58-year-old allowed Eric Dier to join Bayern Munich in January.
Postecoglou clearly did not see the England international in his plans at Spurs, having given the defender just 198 minutes of Premier League football across four appearances.
However, German news outlet Illertisser Zeitung now view that decision as a mistake after Dier’s strong start to life at the Allianz Arena.
Illertisser Zeitung even write that the Bayern Munich No.15 was one of the best defenders in England just a few months before Postecoglou decided to offload him, and seem to still believe that after praising the 30-year-old for immediately breaking into Thomas Tuchel’s starting XI.
Dier has already become a key cog for the Bavarians, playing 90 minutes in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal, while also racking up 11 Bundesliga appearances.
The Cheltenham-born defender even set a new Bundesliga record.
Nonsense
In our view, it is a bit of a stretch from Illertisser Zeitung to say that the Englishman was one of the best defenders in the Premier League before Postecoglou got his hands on him.
Dier endured a tough 2022/23 campaign under Conte, Cristian Stellini and then Ryan Mason, starting 31 Premier League games for a Tottenham side who conceded a whopping 63 goals in England’s top-flight.
Only Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and the three relegated clubs – Leicester, Leeds and Southampton – shipped more goals across 38 Premier League games last season.
Five of those 63 concessions came after just 21 minutes of a humiliating 6-1 hammering at the hands of Newcastle in April 2023, which Dier started.
Therefore, it seems quite exaggerative of Illertisser Zeitung to heap so much praise on Dier – he has certainly impressed at Bayern Munich, but there is no need for such extreme revisionism from the German outlet.
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