Postecoglou turns to "radical" transfer plan having seen Brighton star up close

25 August 2023 , 21:30

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Postecoglou turns to "radical" transfer plan having seen Brighton star up close

Ange Postecoglou will turn to the Asian market in the final week of the window - after being turned on to bargains there years ago by a young Kaoro Mitoma.

The new Spurs boss - whose men go to Bournemouth on Saturday - has already earned brownie points with last week’s stunning home win over Manchester United. It came after more than £100million was spent this summer to revamp Tottenham’s first team.

But Postecoglu pointed to the impact of Mitoma, who cost Brighton £4.3million, as an example of bargains still out there in plain sight. The Spurs boss was managing Yokahama F. Marinos in Japan when a young Mitoma, playing for Kawasaki Frontali in 2020, impressed alongside another outstanding talent, Reo Hatate - yet to sign a new deal at Celtic.

Postecoglu, who took Hatate to the SPL, said: “You look at people raving about Mitoma at Brighton. I watched his debut in Japan. I was on the opposition bench.

“He’d come straight from Uni. In his first game he destroyed us. I knew nothing about him. I said to my opposition guys: ‘Who's this guy?’

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“They said: ‘He’s just come from uni, how good can he be?’ “He put his schoolbooks down and he blew us away - him and Hatate, that day. We played Kawasaki and we were champions. Kawasaki had finished second. We played the first game of the year and him and Hatate just blew us away.

Ange Postecoglou spearheaded an influx of Japanese talent at Celtic (Getty Images)

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“All of a sudden that changed my thinking. I'm thinking: ‘Who cares if he’s been at uni? Are there any other university players that are coming out that we can grab?’

“Then you take that sort of open-mindedness in your next role. So when I went to Scotland, I thought: ‘Yeah, I'm going to bring three or four Japanese players, they're gonna make it’ People said to me: ‘That’s a bit radical.’

“And I said: ‘Well no, it's not actually.' And I'm the same here. It's not just about Japan. When you're looking at players, just don't look at what everyone else is looking at because you'd be surprised to see a guy who comes out of university and within three years is, you know, an unbelievable talent and in the most difficult league in the world.

“There’s obviously a reason you pay that sort of premium for some players. You understand the talent is there. But I don't believe that the best talent is only in that £50m to £100million mark.

“There are very, very good footballers out there and if you're prepared to look beyond what everyone else is looking at, you'd be surprised what you find.”

Darren Lewis