Speaking to British and Australian media at his first appearance in his new post, and his first full press conference since May, he was diplomatic about his sacking at Spurs and made no reflection on the man who oversaw his departure, former chairman Daniel Levy – who was removed from his job only last week.
“I guess he appointed me, so I’ve got to be thankful for that. Hopefully I repaid it by providing a trophy that they hadn’t had for a very long time.”
Spurs had last won the Europa League in 1984.
Of his removal, Postecoglou said: “It was unusual, because it’s never happened to me before. I mean, it’s the first time I’ve been sacked.”
Then he joked, without smiling: “And it’s the first time I’ve had an off season off: four or five weeks with the family, which has never happened before. And it’s fair to say it was as tough for them as it was for me.”
Postecoglou was celebrating his birthday at the end of August – “hangover style,” he joked – when moves were underway to bring him to Nottingham.
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“There was kind of an inkling that something may happen,” he said.
However, he played down his relationship with the club’s owner, Greek shipping tycoon Evangelos Marinakis, and said the key factor was that both of them were committed to winning.
While he is known for saying that he can win trophies within a second year of managing club, he scaled up the ambition to set his sights on silverware in his first year at Forest.
“I may have to, to get a second year,” he quipped. “I do like my teams to play exciting football – score goals, get fans excited. And I make no apologies for that, that’s just the way I am.
“We want to dominate the ball, we want to put pressure on the opposition, we want to score goals, but all of it with the end goal of winning football games, because that’s what excites me more than everything else.”
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