Ange Postecoglou has dismissed suggestions that the Tottenham Hotspur job was an impossible one, remarking that the club has everything in place to be successful.

Tottenham have undoubtedly been the biggest underachievers in European football over the last two decades, having won only one League Cup since the turn of the millennium, which is a shocking record for a club of that size.

While the Lilywhites have undoubtedly improved during that time, as evidenced by their league positions over the last decade and a half, they have failed time and again at the final hurdle in their pursuit of silverware.

Daniel Levy has tried to change that by appointing the likes of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, who arrived at the club with glittering CVs, but neither were able to guide Spurs to trophies.

That has led to suggestions that the Tottenham job is a poisoned chalice but Postecoglou has dismissed those claims, insisting that the club have the infrastructure, resources and players to be successful.

Ange Postecoglou is ready for Spurs challenge

He responded to the question of whether the position at Spurs is insurmountable by saying, “The biggest draw for me to come here was the fact that it feels like a real challenging challenge. I wouldn’t use the word “impossible” because it can’t be that given the resources, resources this club has, and the footballers this club has, it can’t be that.

“Is it difficult? Yes. You can’t just then roll up and not change things and not be different and expect different outcomes. So my role within that is to say: ‘Okay, well, I’ve taken on this challenge. So I’m going to do it in a way that hasn’t been done before and take it down a different road now’.

“I genuinely don’t think it’s difficult, but that may wind up on the road again where we don’t get anywhere, and that’s on me. There are managers out there with organizations that face far greater difficulties than this football team. With the resources I have, the facilities we have, and the football we have, they would be staring at me and saying, “I wish I had his job.”

“So it’s all a matter of perspective. Do I believe it’s a difficult challenge? Yeah, because when a big football club doesn’t win something for a long period of time, there’s obviously things that need to be done differently, but I think it’s far from impossible and I enjoy the fact that the harder it is, I love being in that space.”

In his unique coaching career, Postecoglou said he has faced some extremely difficult circumstances, which helps him keep his perspective on the difficulties he encounters at Spurs.

“I took over South Melbourne, the first club I played for, in 1997, when I started my first job,” he continued. At the age of 30, I left my job at the bank. I worked in banking. Such a poor work. The only thing that has motivated me throughout my career and the one thing I’ve never wanted to return to is that, if you ever want some perspective.

It was our fifth game, and I recall knowing when I woke up that morning that if we had lost, we would have finished bottom on the ladder. The largest club at the time was the one I took over. That was a scrappy contest that we won 1-0.

There was allegedly meant to be a board meeting that evening, but our president, who is a fairly smart cookie, claimed to be sick. Apparently, there was also supposed to be a vote of confidence in me, but they didn’t have it. We continued and had a successful year’s end.

“Same here in Brisbane during my first year. We recently averted being demoted in my first season at Yokohama. Now, you might look at all these things and say, “geez, you’re a lucky bugger because people stuck by you,” but I’d like to believe that people didn’t stick by me because I was fortunate.

“They stuck with me because they saw something there that they didn’t want to miss out on, and every single club, including Celtic, will be rewarded for that act of faith,” said the man. Thus, all of the starts have been challenging. I haven’t had a smooth one, but when I think back on it, they are the tales I tell.

One thing that both Conte and Mourinho had in common was that they had experienced considerable success early in their coaching careers, which made it difficult for them to handle any setbacks.

Postecoglou, in contrast, has had to grind his way up to the top and has experienced ups and downs in his career. As a result, he is better equipped to handle adversity than Mauricio Pochettino was when he got the Spurs job.