Former Aston Villa midfielder Henri Lansbury has revealed that he did not get along with Johan Lange and described Tottenham’s decision to appoint him as ‘crazy’.
Lange took over as Tottenham’s technical director last month, almost six months after Fabio Paratici resigned from his role as the club’s managing director of football.
The Dane had served previously as the technical director at FC Copenhagen from 2014 to 2020 and was appointed as Villa’s sporting director three years ago.
However, his role at the Midlands club was changed to global sports director after Monchi’s arrival at Villa Park in the summer.
Some reports have revealed that the 44-year-old was recommended very highly to the Tottenham hierarchy by the club’s assistant coach, Mile Jedinak, who worked with the Dane during his time at Villa (Football Insider).
The Standard reported last week that one of the main reasons Spurs appointed Lange was because of his expertise in working with data to identify transfer targets.
(Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
Lansbury does not seem to be a fan of Johan Lange
Lansbury has now spoken about his run-in with the Tottenham technical director at the Midlands Club, admitting that he was surprised by the appointment.
The 33-year-old, who hung up his boots in the summer, said on Filthy Fellas: “I went to Villa after I done well (at Forest). Then, probably my last year, they said ‘we aren’t putting you in the squad’, because I kept getting injured, So, I was like ‘fair enough’. It is what is.
“But when they start to say you can’t be in the first-team changing room. You can’t train with the first team. Go with U21s or U23s. You are like ‘I ain’t a d____head to the team’. I try to lift it if anything.
“When they were doing that, so they were like ‘we are trying to buy you out of your contract’. They offer you a certain amount. I am like ‘If you want me to go, there is my contract, pay my money and I will bounce’.
“Then every day I am going in. Training with the U23s. You can’t get me down. I am saying ‘good morning, how are you? How is the family?’ All staff. I will say hello to everyone. But there was this one guy (Lange), apparently, he was calling the shots.”
Lansbury is then told ‘apparently, he is at Tottenham now, Johan Lange’ to which he responded: “Yeah, crazy how they have taken him, in my personal opinion. Good luck to Tottenham.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I do not think we should be putting too much weight on the words of a former disgruntled Villa employee as his view of Lange is not going to be favourable, given the way things ended for him at the Midlands club. The next few transfer windows will be the acid test of the 44-year-old and his methods.
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