A player who spent 10 years at Tottenham says he was forced out of the club by the then-manager
Aaron Lennon claimed that former Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and ex-manager Mauricio Pochettino disagreed over his 2015 transfer to Everton.
The retired winger insists Levy opposed his exit when Pochettino was reshaping the squad to his own preference. Lennon will be watching on as his two former sides, Spurs and Leeds United, meet in a pivotal Premier League fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday evening.
While his boyhood side Leeds, sitting in 16th, have already guaranteed their top-flight status next season with two matches remaining, 17th-placed Spurs need a win to increase the gap on West Ham and the relegation zone to four points, significantly boosting their survival prospects.
The 39-year-old joined Tottenham from Leeds in 2005 as a promising youngster, going on to become one of the north Londoners’ most important players during his time at the club. He featured 364 times for the Lilywhites across a 10-year spell, contributing 30 goals and 78 assists while clinching the League Cup in 2008.
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Yet, despite all his importance to Spurs for much of that period, Lennon fell out of favour once Pochettino arrived in 2014. The Argentine manager was determined to rebuild the squad with a completely new tactical approach, with Lennon being deemed surplus to requirements.
He made just nine appearances in the 2014/15 season and was sent out on loan to the Toffees in January 2015. Lennon returned to Spurs briefly that summer but was sent to join the under-21s and denied a squad number, effectively pushing him towards the exit door.
According to the winger, that call came from Pochettino, with the notoriously tough Levy actually keen for Lennon to stay put. In the end, the England international reluctantly completed a permanent £4.5million move to Everton in September 2015.
Discussing his exit, Lennon told Off The Shelf Podcast: “I was gutted. I knew it was coming because I wasn’t playing much and I was out of the squad, but it was tough because I felt I could play in that side.”
He added: “This club was like home then, I’d been at Leeds, but this became home… It was tough, I knew it was coming but until it happens you don’t realise how hard it hits you.
“I remember I sat with Daniel and I think he didn’t want me to leave also, but even then we both knew it was right, I wasn’t playing and needed to play.”
Beyond his club career, Lennon earned 21 caps for England. He retired from football in 2022 following a single season with Burnley in the Premier League, scoring twice in 28 appearances.
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