Ange Postecoglou narrows down hunt for mole leaking information inside Tottenham Hotspur

Ange Postecoglou has narrowed down his search for the mole leaking information from inside Tottenham Hotspur and has ruled out some potential suspects.

The Spurs head coach admitted on Friday in the wake of speculation about a mooted injury for Wilson Odobert getting out into the public domain that someone was working against the club from the inside in revealing information from behind closed doors. The club have been investigating the leaking of information for a while with Postecoglou explaining that what was getting out wasn't just injury news, but "a bit of everything" and he was asked how long it has been going on for.

"You tell me… I’m just testing everyone, trying to catch people out!" he said with a grin before admitting. "It’s been going on for a while. It started last year. We thought we had nipped it in the bud but it’s still consistently coming out at different times. You try to keep the circle of information pretty tight. I don’t understand why people would do it, especially if they’re, so-called, in our camp because I don’t know how it’s helpful to us. It certainly doesn’t seem to be helpful to us.

“Sometimes for us information is best kept in our closed doors because we have opposition trying to analyse us and trying to see if they can get some extra information on us. There are various ways you can find these things out. You hope that people come to their senses after a while, but it just continues to happen. We’ll get to the bottom of it."

So does the finger of suspicion fall upon agents or Postecoglou's players?

“It’s not agents. Definitely not agents. The stuff that is coming out is pretty specific. The language used is not used by agents, trust me," he said. "I’m not suspecting anybody. It’s definitely not the players because for me the information that is getting out is…Look, I’ve always said, especially with medical information, I’m really, really careful.

"Even though we’re in the world of football and I know everyone thinks these things should be carte blanche in terms of information flow, I’m still very respectful in terms of medical records and how much information we actually give on certain things. Sometimes players don’t want that information disclosed, it’s as simple as that.

"The fact that it is getting out is unacceptable, from a club perspective, because it doesn’t help us and from an individual’s perspective because it doesn’t help him. As a club, I just think, I’ve got enough challenges out there without adding more to ours."

The 59-year-old explained that when the mole is found, the whole issue will fixed in a far less public way.

"We’ll deal with it internally. Like you deal with anything. You do the right thing and deal with it," said Postecoglou. "It’s about trying to make us as a football club run as professionally as we possibly can in terms of information flow and how we conduct ourselves. I don’t think any organisation, if you have people giving out sensitive information, particularly on the medical front or the tactical front, then you need to address it.

"It’s always in football. In various ways, but certainly not as consistent as this. Usually when you address it the first time, key people understand, but this one seems to be consistent."

He added: "It's 100 per cent about culture. That’s the bit that we’re constantly, not just me, but the other people in the club are trying to change and trying to get the club to a place where there is a real strong mentality and identity of who we are and protect that

"And make sure that we have the right professional mindset in every aspect because to have success in football is very, very difficult. It’s often fine margins, we saw that last night between success and not having success. What you want to do is things you can control, try and do them to the best of your ability."

Postecoglou has not yet copied Colleen Rooney's famous 'Wagatha Christie' method of putting out false information to a select number of people to uncover the mole.

"No. It's a simple process. You just look where the information goes and it's pretty easy to figure out," he said. "There's always a bit of detective work in football management. I think it's a cultural thing. I'm big on creating a culture of success and I don't think successful organisations behave in that manner."

So if Postecoglou was a fictional detective, who would he be?

"Jack Reacher. Just get out the big bat and pummel people!" said the Australian with a smile.

On Friday, Spurs announced that former Arsenal chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham will be joining the club’s board this coming summer. The 44-year-old will arrive with a reputation for being a good communicator both at boardroom level and also with the media in explaining why decisions are made, something that Tottenham's hierarchy have often been criticised by the supporters for not doing over the years.

Before the news emerged about Venkatesham, Postecoglou had been asked about people behind the scenes adding their voice to his when talking about the club.

"It's hard to [talk about] the behind the scenes stuff because I'm not exposed to that at this club. My exposure to a lot of aspects of the club is fairly limited. The public piece is stuff I'm aware of and it can be helpful through tough times. I'm not talking about cheerleading but having people who understand the process the club is going through, the challenges it faces and how they try to navigate that," he said.

"At the moment there's a lot of groupthink happening. We're obviously not going well in the league so everything's seen through that prism and light, without taking a step back and seeing that we've actually made some decent inroads in certain areas. As I keep saying, my belief is we'll still get to where we want to even with the difficulties we've had this year. When I'm the only one saying it, it just sounds self-serving, like I'm trying to protect my own space, which I'm not. That's the furthest thing from my mind but I can understand why people would see it that way."

Postecoglou was asked whether he has spoken to chairman Daniel Levy, chief football officer Scott Munn or technical director Johan Lange about it all..

"Particularly with Scott and Johan, I have daily communication with them and they're of a similar mindset in terms of how we communicate. I'm sure even you guys have got tired of me talking this year -- don't shake your head now, your initial response was a nod! And I understand that," said the Spurs boss.

"Because I was up [for a press conference] last night, I'm up today, and a lot of managers, not just me, are spokesmen for everything that happens at a football club. And I'm okay with that but a lot of things I've got no exposure to so it's not right that I'm addressing them. But the way football's going, it's obviously becoming a massive industry and there's so many things within the mechanism of every football club, having just the one spokesman for it doesn't make sense to me. Whether that's internally or externally. But we have discussions about how we can communicate better moving forward."

He added: "I think in some areas it would be [useful], it paints a fuller picture of what we're doing as a football club. At the moment it's just seen through the prism of our results, which is fair enough - everyone would say that's all that matters. But there are times when it goes beyond the results and understanding where we're at as a football club, what we're trying to build and what our strategy is. And that maybe gives people an idea of why they're making the decisions they are right now."

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